While his teammates were busy sweeping the University of Massachusets, over the past 2 weeks Wisconsin sophomore defenseman John Ramage has been in Buffalo representing his country as the captain of the United States World Junior team.While Ramage and team USA didn't win the ultimate prize of a gold medal, they didn't leave New York without hardware. After a devastating loss against Canada in the semi-finals, Team USA bounced back and beat a good Sweden team for the Bronze.
Chris Peters, a fantastic writer who used to work exclusively for USA hockey has a great blog called "The United States of Hockey." Today Mr. Peters evaluates the play of all the defenseman for team USA during the WJC. Here is what he had to say about John Ramage.
"John Ramage — 6 GP, 0-0–0, 4 PIM, +2 — I think for most of this tournament, John Ramage was everything you wanted him to be and more. He was, by all accounts, a good captain. You can never, ever fault John Ramage for a lack of effort. I’ve never seen him get outworked and I didn’t see it during this tournament. He plays hard, smart hockey. I think he and Merrill struggled as a pair against Canada, but when the going got tough in that game, Ramage kept playing hard. I didn’t see any let down from him, despite the utter shock of how thoroughly outplayed the U.S. was. Ramage made some brilliant defensive plays throughout the tournament, especially that sliding break up of a 2-on-1 against Finland. He doesn’t have great foot speed, but he’s smart, he’s physical and he’s steady. I’m sure Ramage was crushed after the Canada game, but he and his team showed no signs of let down against Sweden. In games like that, you have to give some credit to the captain. He’ll have a few more years to sharpen at Wisconsin. I think he has a bright future."
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