CBJ players, prospects off to impressive start at World Championships

We're now six days into the annual IIHF World Championships, and the contingent of Blue Jackets players to make the trip to the international tournament in Riga, Latvia, has already had some big moments as the round-robin phase of the event hits its halfway point.
2019-20 Blue Jackets Eric Robinson and Adam Clendening (United States), Vladislav Gavrikov and Mikhail Grigorenko (Russia), Liam Foudy (Canada) and Matiss Kivlenieks (Latvia); prospects Samuel Knazko (Slovakia), Dmitri Voronkov (Russia) and Ole Bjorgvik-Holm (Norway); and overseas standouts Gregory Hofmann (Switzerland) and Justin Danforth (Canada) are all taking part, and some are making people around the world take notice.

A few notes from the early days of the tournament follow.
Kivlenieks shines:Imagine being the CBJ goaltender and having the hopes of your nation on your shoulders -- all in your first high-level international tournament.
That's what Kivlenieks had to be feeling, as the netminder who played two games for the Jackets this year and added eight more standout performances in Cleveland went to his home country as the Latvians' No. 1 goalie for the tournament being staged in his hometown, no less.
And all Kivlenieks did in his opening game was shut out powerful Canada with a 38-save performance, backstopping a 2-0 win that pushed Latvians out into the street to celebrate. Sadly, with the arena devoid of fans because of Covid protocols, none of the home crowd was able to be there in the arena, but that didn't stop the proud home country from enjoying the historic win.

Kivlenieks was in net a night later for a shootout loss against upstart Kazakhstan but he still boasts a GAA of 0.96 and a save percentage of .971 in the tournament. After getting the last game off, Kivlenieks will likely get another big opportunity today as the Latvians take on Team USA with a chance to move into first place in Group B on the line.
Voronkov gets a goal:There's no shortage of talent on the Russian team, which is playing under the Russian Olympic Committee banner thanks to doping-related sanctions. But that hasn't stopped Voronkov from earning top-six minutes throughout the tournament for a team that's won three of its four games so far, and he opened his goal-scoring account Wednesday in a 3-0 blanking of Denmark.
While the massive Voronkov is known for his physical play and ability to play at the netfront, this goal was pure skill, as he took the puck after a faceoff and quickly laced a wrister that got by the Danish goaltender before he even had a chance to react.

Add in his three assists and Voronkov has four points in four games so far, and it's continuing a trend in which the fourth-round pick in 2019 has been impressing at the highest level. For example, there was the World Juniors in 2019-20 when he was a point-per-game player. There's also the fact the 20-year-old notched six goals and 10 points in 15 KHL playoff games this year for Ak Bars Kazan, including a 4-3-7 line in a seven-game conference finals loss to Avangard Omsk.
Voronkov has been showing more skill than scouts might have expected out of someone who forecasts to be a physical presence when he makes it to the NHL -- he's signed with Ak Bars through the next two seasons -- and he's been upping his game at the right times. That's a good sign for a CBJ team that might have gotten a steal more than 100 picks into the 2019 draft.
Some notes:
- Two players who spent this past year with the Jackets but don't have contracts for next year -- Grigorenko and Clendening -- have had impressive starts. Both have two goals thus far, with Clendening showing off his offensive skill from the blue line for Team USA, while Grigorenko notched a game-winning goal in the opening game for Russia. He's been out for the last two because of a presumed injury, but he seems to have quite a scoring touch for his native country. - One thing that is cool about this tournament is that players who might not normally play for their national teams are getting a chance to shine. Robinson's call-up to the national team is his first-ever, and he nearly notched a shorthanded goal in the most recent Team USA win Tuesday vs. Kazakhstan. Danforth and Foudy, meanwhile, are two players who are getting a chance with the senior national team -- Danforth is in the same boat as Robinson, making his Team Canada debut after three impressive seasons overseas -- while Clendening is wearing the national team colors for the first time since played in the World Juniors in 2011-12. - Swiss forward Hoffman is no stranger to the world stage -- this is his fourth time at the World Championships, and he also played in the 2018 Olympics -- but he's continuing to impress with two goals thus far in three games. He just finished off a season in which he won a title with EV Zug in his native country, and the 28-year-old the Jackets acquired this year from Carolina for a seventh-round pick is checking off some boxes to show he can produce against top-level competition. - Two of the nine youngest players in the tournament were CBJ picks in the 2020 draft -- third-rounder Knazko and fifth-rounder Bjorgvik-Holm. The two 18-year-old defensemen have made their senior national team debuts this tournament and have earned some valuable experience. Knazko has a plus-1 rating in three games and has averaged 10:34 of ice time per game for a Slovakia team that leads Group A, while Bjorgvik-Holm is minus-1 while playing an average of 11:04 over four games.