When the eight-team tournament begins Saturday – it runs through October 1 in Toronto and will be televised by ESPN – Canada will be the heavy favorite. The NHL and NHLPA jointly announced they would play both the Canadian and US national anthems before each Team North America contest and have decided there will be no anthem for Team Europe.
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Other projections: Toews centering Logan Couture and Tyler Seguin, and Giroux centering Matt Duchene and Thornton.
Despite the final result, U.S coach John Tortorella was OK with his team’s performance. And criticism that they aren’t “skilled” enough, it’s enough to up-end Team Canada on September 20 when the teams face off next isn’t totally impossible.
Goaltender Corey Crawford, who took over for the final 30 minutes, made the saves when needed for Canada. “He’s got a lot of experience for a guy at his age and could really become a star of that Czech team”.
If there was any concern this series wasn’t going to produce strong hockey, that was erased by the Americans in Columbus.
Aaron Ekblad, Morgan Rielly, Seth Jones, Jacob Trouba and Ryan Murray all came into the National Hockey League as teenagers and have piled up big minutes, but how will they handle matchups with Sidney Crosby or Patrick Kane in a single elimination game or best-of-three final?
Giroux noted the pain wasn’t related to the off-season surgery he had and played almost 15 minutes in the club’s 5-2 win over the U.S.in Ottawa, but Team Canada GM Doug Armstrong and his staff must be keeping an eye on the situation because the roster has to be declared Friday afternoon.
Nationwide Arena hosted an exhibition on Friday night, only it didn’t feel like an exhibition. Some great players on the ice. After Sunday’s game, it heads to Washington to play Sweden on Wednesday.
John Tavares wanted some retribution against the United States, even if it was only an exhibition game.
“I would guess that from an owners’ standpoint, if the International Olympic Committee and the IIHF aren’t going to pay what they’ve paid for the past five Olympics – which is most but not all of the out-of-pocket expenses, it still costs us money to go – that nearly becomes an easy show-stopper and you don’t even need to get into the other discussion”, Bettman said.
Duchene restored a two-goal lead when he fired it by Cory Schneider at 12:11 of the second.
Jonathan Quick, who started Friday, didn’t play Saturday. In the end though it was Team USA pulling off the improbable win 4-2 despite being outshot by a country mile 43-25.
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The tournament, being held for the third time – and the first time in 12 years – feels like a made-up event with a pair of Frankenstein teams wrapped in a odd tournament structure. On Friday, U.S. forward Ryan Kesler got a boarding major and game misconduct for an illegal hit on Canadian defenseman Shea Weber. Players like Jack Eichel and Connor McDavid, who have always been marketed as bitter rivals, are now forced to play together on the world stage. Meanwhile, the American offense woke up in the third period, or more specifically, woke up with four goals in the last four minutes of regulation to erase a 2-1 deficit and win. Pavelski and Kane scored in the first game, but they never got going in the second one and it exposed a weakness for the U.S. “Obviously when you play hockey you’re going to get a couple bruises here and there. So for them to get hockey back, even if it’s just for a short window, there will be some casual fans that may get caught up in this”. Canada will complete its pre-tournament schedule against Russian Federation on Wednesday night in Pittsburgh. The Summit Series between Canada and the Soviet Union created an appetite for more best-on-best global hockey.
