“I believe this is the strongest tournament in the history of hockey without a doubt, without a second, if you just look at the pure level of games”.
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But that’s not what this column is about. Some big names include forward Jack Eichel from the Buffalo Sabres, forward Connor McDavid of the Edmonton Oilers and goaltender Matt Murray of the 2016 Stanley Cup winning team Pittsburgh Penguins.
Team Canada is the chalk pick on the World Cup of Hockey futures board, but the field has been shuffled ahead of the tournament’s first games in Toronto on Saturday.
“They want to go out and prove people wrong”, Czech assistant coach Vinny Prospal said of his team’s motivation.
All except “Team Europe” and “Team North America” – it would be a disaster for the NHL’s World Cup of Hockey if one of those phony teams won this thing.
Listed as a 33-1 longshot to hoist the trophy, only Team Europe (50-1) offers steeper odds. It’s a fine line much like the FIFA World Cup and global football clubs must walk.
North America: By far the fastest team in this tournament and maybe even the most skilled, they’re going to threaten to make it out of the group. They have too much talent to do poorly in the tournament.
Catching the newest Detroit Red Wings is just one of the reasons to tune into the World Cup of Hockey.
But that’s about it for the tournament as the National Football League reigns supreme again on Thursday night with Houston-New England.
Crosby flew to the Czech Republic for the 2015 world championships where he helped Canada snap an eight-year gold-medal drought.
Next weekend you’ll have Chicago-Dallas on Sunday Night Football, as well as LSU-Auburn, Stanford-UCLA and Texas A&M-Arkansas on Saturday night. When your oldest defence men on the roster is 25 in a tournament like this you’re likely going to spend a pretty fair amount of time in your own end, and going to face a lot of shots and because of that Rinne is going to have to do his absolute best to keep them all out.
Putting Canada ahead of the United States as CBS did in their ranking September 1 fails to factor in percentages.
The struggle to get viewers won’t be because the product is poor, but because of the fact that the tournament is in direct competition with college football and the NFL.
“It’s a different tournament because it’s at the start of the season so I think a lot of thought goes into what you can and can’t play through – a lot more team involvement where you owe a lot to your team that’s paying you a lot of money to play for their team and I think part of that goes into the decisions that are made”, said Getzlaf, who is entering the fourth season of an eight-year, $66 million contract.
Hockey is a fantastic sport that often gets overlooked in this country. The tournament was set up to give United States of America and Canada the best chance to advance and, frankly, they should easily.
“So it seems about the right time for something special to happen again”.
Prediction: Canada wins gold, US wins silver and Sweden wins bronze. When challenged in the pre-tournament exhibitions, the players rose to the occasion.
Great question! The top two teams from each group advance to the semis. “He’s going to be a great player in this game for a long time”. That’s not as much competition as Major League Baseball, college football and the NFL.
Canada is seeking its second straight World Cup title, albeit 12 years after the last one in 2004.
Marian Hossa knows how to put the puck in the back of the net, and early indications are that Thomas Vanek has remembered how to do that, as well.
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Team USA is counting on two-way players such as Ryan Kesler to dominate possession and shut down opponents. But I wouldn’t hold my breath on any of those things happening.
