The Montreal Canadiens defenseman is benefitting from World Championship experience.
The 2024 IIHF World Championships kicked off a new week with four games on the schedule, including one game featuring a representative of the Montreal Canadiens.
Oliver Kapanen was blanked in Finland's 3-1 victory over Denmark. It was a scoreless affair through 40 minutes when the Finns put two on the board in a span of 1:37 in the third to grab the lead. Denmark cut the lead to one goal later in the period, but Finland sealed the win with an empty net goal in the final minute.
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The centre drafted 64th overall in 2021 took one shot on goal and won six of 12 faceoffs in 12:25 of ice time. He's in a three-way tie with Dylan Couzens and Brady Tkachuk for most goals in the competition with six.
The preliminary concludes on Tuesday with all five Canadiens representatives in uniform. At 6:20 am. ET., Austria with Vinzenz Rohrer square off against Great Britain. At 10:20 am. ET., Kaiden Guhle and Canada face Czechia, while Cole Caufield's United States take on Latvia. To finish off the day, Finland with Oliver Kapanen will try to defeat Switzerland while Juraj Slafkovsky's Slovakia play against Sweden at 2:20 pm. ET.
Learning from Experience
Canadiens defenseman Kaiden Guhle has had a good tournament at the blue line, obtaining five points and plus-3 rating in six contests.
"It's fun to play [in international competitions], play with different players, meet new people, different coaches. You get so much experience playing in big stages, getting to wear the maple leaf is always so special. It was a pretty quick yes when I got asked to be here," Guhle said in an interview with RDS.
"He's a real warrior. He plays really well," described coach Andre Tourigny "He's a real hockey player. He's attentive to details, he competes, plays with emotion."
Tourigny and Guhle have previously worked together when they both represented Canada at the World Junior Championships in 2021.
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