The World Cup of Hockey offers a unique twist on global play as Team North America features the very best skaters from Canada and the United States who are under the age of 23 and while some of these players could very well crack the roster of their respective senior teams they are instead compiled together here to offer another competitive team to the field. The team is loaded with speed and skill, but it’s questionable whether it will defend enough to win tight games and whether the young guns will respond to physical play.
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Team North America, with defenseman Colton Parayko, will play Team FInland and Jori Lehtera. Finland’s Pekka Rinne did a great job stopping Matthews’ initial shot on goal, but he couldn’t coral it before Eichel put it in. McDavid is joined by the likes of Buffalo Sabres’ Jack Eichel, Florida Panthers’ Aaron Ekblad, Calgary Flames’ Johnny Gaudreau, Colorado Avalanche’s Nathan MacKinnon, and 2016 first overall pick Auston Matthews of the Toronto Maple Leafs.
The tournament presents a unique opportunity for McDavid and his North America teammates. Team Finland displayed some real nice puck movement, but Matt Murray stood real tall. On three occasions in the first 12 minutes, I noticed a forward recognizing a Finnish defender was closing in, bracing for the impact of the hit, and passing the puck at the exact moment the defender connected with his check. Plus, Sharks fans get a chance to see Donskoi early. The second line wasn’t seeing as much as I would like.
Every time the USA born player has represented his country in Canada, the reaction is more or less the same.
The lead didn’t stay at three for long.
You’ve most probably read this bit somewhere, or probably everywhere that you’ve read about Team North America, but their Achilles ‘ heel could be their lack of experience. Rinne made a total of 55 saves on 59 shots against, with Rask putting up 23 stops on 28 shots his way.
In the final 10 minutes, Team Finland started to play more structured and create chances in Team NA’s zone.
The usually structured Finns couldn’t keep up with North America and rarely had the puck.
It was all Team North America to open up the second period. Even with the defence-first approach, it was tough to contain the speed. Have I mentioned how fun Team North America is?
“I’m excited about it”, he said.
The comeback attempt was limited to that one goal, as North America claimed an impressive 4-1 victory. Because they represent the anti-old school thinking of veteran leadership, not to mention speed and skill. The Americans clearly are a gong-show of a team this time, and in hockey, if you get good goaltending, as Jaroslav Halek provided yesterday, you can win any game.
While Team NA’s defence is young and inexperienced, that doesn’t mean it isn’t good. “Maybe last season I didn’t know what to expect from the small ice, because I was used to playing on the large ice”. Now when I went to my hometown teams practice, it was on the large ice and it was like so hard to play. I mentioned when the National Hockey League first incorporated it into their broadcasts coming out of the lockout how nice it was to be able to see what the officials see.
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Team North America gets right back at it on Monday night versus Russian Federation. “He can do a lot of things at a pace that not many people can do”.
