Nathan MacKinnon scored on a third-period penalty shot for his second goal of the game, and Penguins goaltender Matt Murray made 24 saves in Team North America’s 4-0 victory over Team Europe on Thursday night in a World Cup of Hockey exhibition game.
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Canada also capitalized on three of its eight power play chances, and that was without Sidney Crosby, who was scratched for tonight’s contest in a back-to-back pre-tournament situation. As expected, Canada will be the favorite going into any worldwide hockey tournament. “Whereas when you look at [Pierre-Edouard] Bellemare, and Kopitar and [Thomas Vanek], you see individual nations and [Mats] Zuccarello, they are all alone”. “We have a strong leadership group and a good staff”. “That’s one way to do that, but at the same time, it’s feeling them out as well and just knowing what their strengths are and kind of getting a glimpse of what they might bring to the table at tournament time”.
Back-to-back worries: Both Team USA and Team Canada are not impressed by the fact they had to open the pretournament with back-to-back games after the players were off all summer.
Canada beat Sweden 3-2 in double-overtime in the first semifinal, and the US beat Russian Federation 5-2 in the second semifinal. “It’s always important to play with objective and try to win and play good solid hockey”. Although it must be said, John Tortorella has not been impressed by his performance so far, dropping him from the first line after game one and limiting his minutes in game two.
“Once I chipped that puck (outside the Canadian blueline), I knew where he was”, Seguin said.
A series of other National Hockey League players have also been selected on the USA leadership team for the competition, including David Backes of the Boston Bruins, the Anaheim Ducks’ Ryan Kesler, Ryan McDonagh, who plies his trade for the New York Rangers, and Minnesota Wild alternate captain Zach Parisé.
As little learners grow up, they need more specific supplies to get them through the school year. “We’ll try to be as fair and objective as can”. “We can expect him to play at his absolute best, because that is what Carey does when the spotlight is on him, as it has been”. “We’ve just to get a bit more out of him”.
“At times, it was real good and at times it needed some work”, Tortorella said.
(James) Van Riemsdyk came in (Saturday), didnt play (Friday) and I thought he took some of the minutes, Tortorella said. Thats just the lay of the land of this tournament: I cant wait.
You still think of your kids as your babies, but they’re getting set to grow into young adults!.
The effort is only going to have to improve because before the Canadians know it this tournament will be under way and you can be guaranteed even if the exhibition games are intense theyll get even more hard. The 23-and-under squad of US and Canadian players handily won, 4-0, on Thursday. Also in addition to the countries more well-known for being good at hockey (Sweden, Finland, Czech Republic) there will be a Team Europe, which is a team from the remaining countries in Europe that don’t have enough players to compile their own roster.
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“To be great”, Babcock said.
