Wake With Elias- Aug 17, 2022: Canada Takes On The Swiss At 2022 WJC

They’ve worked their way through Latvia, the Czechs and the Slovaks, and on Monday night did a fine job handling a previously undefeated Finnish squad. Their reward for going undefeated in the round robin is a favourable matchup in the first knockout round, as they’ll take on Switzerland tonight at Rogers Place in Edmonton,

So far, Canada’s been pretty much as advertised. They’ve been led by Mason MacTavish, Owen Zellweger and Riley Greig, and Connor Bedard has been outstanding to say the least, and they’ve defensively sound, along with a solid stretch of games from Kamloops Blazers netminder Dylan Garand,

There’s three other games today, starting with Finland, who will look to rebound from that disappointing loss to Canada as they take on Germany, Next up are the Cinderella story of the tournament: Team Latvia. After getting their first ever round robin victory against Czechia. They’ll be facing an even tougher test as they look to upset Team Sweden and 2022 Vancouver Canucks first rounder Jonathan Lekkerimaki. The evening will wrap up with the Czechs looking for an upset of their own against the undefeated Americans.

They seem to be on a collision course with the Americans for gold again, but with the likely matchups having the Finns meeting the Americans and Canada having to deal with Sweden, it’s hardly a guarantee of the marquee matchup.

Meanwhile, the NHL and NHLPA released their COVID-19 Protocols for the upcoming season, and there doesn’t appear to be anything new here. Not much will change unless there’s a significant alteration of the rules involving border crossings by unvaccinated players in either country.