The Canadians looked good yesterday in a tough test against hideously deformed freak show Zdeno Chara and the Slovakians, and face another tough test against the Americans. While the US team has some of their best either passing on the tournament (like Vancouver's own Ryan Kesler) or still playing in the playoffs (David Backes, Jonathan Quick and Dustin Brown, for example), this will still be a very game USA team coming off a big 7-2 win over France yesterday, looking to send a message against their biggest rival. Team Canada will be without Alexandre Burrows while he continues to be evaluated after suffering what may be a concussion. Burrows fell awkwardly, hitting his head on the ice in the 2nd period and left the game, and it didn't look good for the Canucks winger. The team has added Detroit D Kyle Quincy, who will join the team Sunday in Helsinki. More after the jump...
A pretty decent game yesterday as Team Canada got scoring from 3 different lines. Jamie Benn, Andrew Ladd and Jordan Eberle provided the goals. Carolina's Cam Ward will once again get the nod in goal, with Devan Dubnyk of the Oilers scheduled to start against France. This tournament usually kicks off with Canada playing one of the not-so-strong countries and laying a hellacious beating on them. I think the fact that they won a hard fought, close game against a tough opponent will serve them well, getting them more emotionally and physically involved right from the get go.
Team USA got 2 goals from Kyle Okposo in their romp over the French, and Max Pacioretty had a goal and 2 assists. There's a potential upset in the making as the Russians are losing to Latvia 1-0 in the 2nd period. It will be interesting to see how the Russians respond and if this comes back to bite them on the ass in terms of seeding when it comes to the later rounds. Yesterday Denmark lost 2-0 to the Czech Republic, Vancouver's Jannik Hansen was Denmark's player of the game in that one. The other game of note yesterday saw Sweden hang on to beat Norway 3-1. Hardly a convincing win from the other favorite for gold in this tournament.