Team Canada’s Sidney Crosby (87) celebrates his goal against Team Russia with teammate Shea Weber (6) and Steven Stamkos (91) during first period World Cup of Hockey semifinal action in Toronto on Saturday, September 24, 2016. Their game times have been scheduled to make sure the spotlight shines brightest upon them and televised to millions of homes across the country. Frankly, so have many of us.
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“I’ve really enjoyed so many things about playing in NY and playing for the national team, too”.
But not against Canada. In my opinion, the best player in Canada, the best player in the world, is Wayne Gretzky and he should be a huge part of this program. He wants to win so badly.
As much personal success as Ovechkin has enjoyed, the same can’t be said regarding his fate the majority of the time he’s gone up against Crosby.
Sidney Crosby, Jonathan Toews and Patrice Bergeron have consistently looked to be among the best forwards in this tournament. In terms of hardware won, however, it’s no contest.
In 1998, Canada failed to win a medal at the Winter Olympics in Nagano, Japan.
At the 2010 Games in Vancouver, Crosby and Team Canada not only eliminated Ovechkin’s Russians, they humiliated them by a 7-3 score. NHL and NHL team marks are the property of the NHL and its teams. But you have to wonder how much damage they could do together with the Penguins. Indeed, they were just red-white-and-blue road kill on Sid the Kid’s trail to another National Hockey League championship. This is to take nothing away from the hybrid teams; just the opposite.
Ovechkin and the Russians already are being viewed as the villains of this tournament.
In this edition we discuss whether the Team North America 23-and-under team should be a one and done situation or if they should stick around moving forward. Alas, leave it to Ovie and his teammates to spoil the party – again. Nearly everyone expects Canada to win Saturday. The crowd at the ACC will be bonkers. The made up teams are as good as anyone but canada and sweden, so why replace them with punching bags like Switzerland? They were ready to do battle, but their opponents were caught off guard. Add all of these facts up, and the logical conclusion is a Canada victory on Saturday.
Asked to compare the experience of Olympic qualifying with his World Cup experience with Team Europe, Kopitar acknowledged that playing for Slovenia held a special place in his heart. They’re now the old guys who young stars Erik Karlsson, Filip Forsberg and Victor Hedman want to win for, especially because the Stanley Cup has evaded Tre Kronor’s three oldest players. “It’s going to be tough, it’s going to be hard playing here in Canada but it is also going to be fun”.
“We’re the champs, obviously”, Daley said with a laugh.
But even Bob was no match for Crosby and his linemates on this night. “Saturday night in Toronto; Canada versus Russian Federation”. It isn’t two players.
“That is why I think it is the greatest game in the world”, Lombardi said.
Evgeny Kuznetsov managed to bang in a rebound during a scramble in front of Price, and just like that the Russians had the lead despite being outshot 30-12. They’ll also be battling a rabid throng at the ACC and an entire country. “Everybody going to be insane”. “The atmosphere’s gonna be unbelievable”.
All players participated in the unveiling ceremony in the Esso Great Hall, home of the Stanley Cup®.
“[Tonight] is the big one”.
That team won just one game in the tournament, against Belarus, was beaten 4-1 by the Czechs in the quarterfinal, then trashed their rooms in the Nagano athletes’ village.
Like us, most Canadians have forgotten about that.
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Pierre McGuire joined Naylor & Landsberg with guest host Steve Simmons to discuss what went wrong with Team USA at the World Cup, how Team Canada dominated them and why Phil Kessel wasn’t on the team.
