This is only the third World Cup of Hockey.
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For an older generation of fans, those with memories of 1972 and/or 1989, playing Russian Federation often brings out the bigger emotional response.
Team Canada wraps up pre-tournament play Wednesday night against Russian Federation in Pittsburgh.
Canada will play its final exhibition game Wednesday against Team Russia in Pittsburgh, while the US will host Team Finland Tuesday night in Washington.
It will be the final tuneup game for both, before the games start for real on the weekend.
“We’ve got some work to do”, Tortorella said after practice Monday.
Team Canada will obviously still get those fans who see this contrived tournament as a struggle among countries for hockey supremacy, but a great many Canadian fans of the game – as opposed to fans of flags – will be cheering for speed, skill and good hockey … and may well end up rooting for the kids over the “official” team from Canada.
When the World Cup starts Saturday with the USA playing Team Europe (3:30 p.m. ET, ESPN), it will boast a field that is more competitive top-to-bottom than we saw at the 2014 Olympic Games in Sochi, Russia.
The “real” games start in Toronto on September 17, but Islanders star John Tavares echoed similar sentiments in that a back-to-back opener against Team USA should help players get right back in the flow of things.
With Crosby out, Patrice Bergeron moved to centre with Brad Marchand on the left, while Tyler Seguin saw time early but didn’t stay there.
Team USA hockey coach John Tortorella made headlines this week when he told ESPN’s Linda Cohn, “If any of my players sit on the bench for the national anthem, they will sit there the rest of the game”.
As little learners grow up, they need more specific supplies to get them through the school year. They assembled it to be a tightly knit team with (Torts’ words) “renegade” Dustin Byfulgien, “patriot” Jack Johnson, “miserable” Kesler and whatever you want to call Justin Abdelkader, not to mention Brandon Dubinsky. He’s thankful he has another tuneup opportunity. Healthy scratches for the USA were Cory Schneider, defenseman Erik Johnson and forward James van Riemsdyk.
The United States opted to place players on their roster that filled specific needs, which didn’t necessarily mean putting its best talent on the ice. “To me, those were generated by the players, but the referees can clean them up in two seconds”.
Tavares had two goals to lead Team Canada over Team USA 5-2 Saturday night in World Cup of Hockey pre-tournament play in Ottawa. He acknowledged being nervous while seeing his first action in a major global tournament against the Americans. Also represented are Switzerland (4), Denmark (3) and one player each from Austria, France, Norway and Slovenia.
“(Russia) is still a big rival”, Crawford said. The Canadians defeated U.S.in the gold medal game at the 2002 and 2010 Olympic Games.
“What happens is to us. when Wayne (Gretzky) and Mario Lemieux and Bobby Orr leave, you think who’s going to be the next one?” The team may be the tournament’s fastest.
Talk about a dilemma for patriotic Pittsburgh Penguins patrons.
The field is rounded out by Team USA and prohibitive favorite Team Canada, a deep group with home-ice advantage throughout the Toronto-based tournament.
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On top of that, from an American perspective, both Crosby and Malkin will be wearing enemy colours. “Hopefully fans will have a good time with it”. It will be fun. McDavid, Eichel, Gaudreau, Saad, Drouin and Matthews up front, plus Ekblad and Jones on defense and Murray in net, that’s a pretty damn good looking roster, too.
