[sureLoss]

http://www.calgarysun.com/2016/01/07...ors-experience

Treliving pointed to the opener against Team USA as the type of outing that McDonald — a second-round selection of the Flames in the 2014 NHL Draft and a workhorse for the QMJHL’s Charlottetown Islanders — can learn from.

“Not making excuses for him, but there wasn’t a clean shot that went in. They were either tips or hitting their own guys or hitting legs or hitting sticks,” Treliving said. “The tournament, the games over there, mirrored a lot of how the game is being played in North America. As a goalie now, you’ve gotta battle through traffic. You’ve gotta find the puck. There’s going to be people in front. I think that’s one area for his game is learning that. The days of just seeing shots with nobody in front, those have gone the way of the dodo bird.”

Treliving also returned from Helsinki with updated notes on two other Flames picks from the 2014 NHL Draft — defencemen Brandon Hickey and Adam Ollas-Mattsson.

On Team Canada’s Hickey, a sophomore at Boston University: “That’s his first taste of the big stage like that, and I think he played well.” Treliving said. “I thought he was poised. He played against the other teams’ top lines. His puck game, I thought, was simple but effective. I thought he showed very well.”

And what about Sweden’s Ollas-Mattsson, the towering sixth-rounder who suffered a fractured fibula in a semifinal victory over Slovakia?

“I was really impressed with his game,” Treliving said. “He’s a big, strong, hostile defenceman. He plays a heavy, hard defending game. The area with Adam that we knew when we drafted him, it’s his feet. He’s a knock-kneed skater. If you watch him, he’s an interesting guy in that it’s not pretty — it’s not a Picasso — but he didn’t lose races. He gets to places.

“And I thought his puck game ... He made real good plays with the puck. He’s not taking it and going end to end. He’s a defensive guy. But he made really nice, smart, poised plays with the puck. I was really impressed. I thought, even talking to the Swedes, that they missed him moving forward.”