World Cup
Going into this thing I was picking Canada and the Czechs to be the last two standing. Yesterday in Helsinki the Finns soundly beat the Czech Republic 4-0 while only allowing Kiprusoff to face 15 shots.
I thought to myself that maybe the Czech's will rebound like Canada did after their opening 5-2 loss at the Olympics to Sweden. Interestingly, I read this soon after:
As for Canada, tonight's game against the US in Montreal will be interesting. Firstly, will the fans boo the American anthem - of course not. Secondly, who will be scratched - Marleau, Morrow, Gagne, Bowmeester I would guess.
From watching the two Team Canada games at the Corel Centre I'm also interested in seeing how Thornton plays. He wasn't the same player in the game against Slovakia as he was on Wednesday against the US. He skated hard both ways, led the game off with a solid check, and played with much more passion than what I saw several days earlier. He had a couple of shifts with Iginla that were awesome. Those two, with Lecavalier and Heatley will definitely be the core of Team Canada for the next decade.
The US will need great efforts from Modano and Weight up front and workhorse nights out of Leetch, Chelios, and Aaron Miller - and for Esche, Dipietro, or Conklin to play above their heads - if they want to make the final rounds of this tournament.
The goal of the US, Slovakia, and Russia is to not end up 4th in the pool and have to play Canada in the first round of the elimination.
UPDATE: Well, the Globe says that Hannan, Bouwmeester, Marleau, Draper and Kirk Maltby will be sitting. I still think Draper should be in and Morrow out.
I thought to myself that maybe the Czech's will rebound like Canada did after their opening 5-2 loss at the Olympics to Sweden. Interestingly, I read this soon after:
"We just need to fix some things and we'll get better," Jagr said. "In fact,The question is - who will rally them? Do they have a Gretzky to rant like he did after a 3-3 tie with the Czechs in Canada's second game of the Olympics?
Team Canada also lost their first game in Salt Lake City and then they won the
entire Olympics."
As for Canada, tonight's game against the US in Montreal will be interesting. Firstly, will the fans boo the American anthem - of course not. Secondly, who will be scratched - Marleau, Morrow, Gagne, Bowmeester I would guess.
From watching the two Team Canada games at the Corel Centre I'm also interested in seeing how Thornton plays. He wasn't the same player in the game against Slovakia as he was on Wednesday against the US. He skated hard both ways, led the game off with a solid check, and played with much more passion than what I saw several days earlier. He had a couple of shifts with Iginla that were awesome. Those two, with Lecavalier and Heatley will definitely be the core of Team Canada for the next decade.
The US will need great efforts from Modano and Weight up front and workhorse nights out of Leetch, Chelios, and Aaron Miller - and for Esche, Dipietro, or Conklin to play above their heads - if they want to make the final rounds of this tournament.
The goal of the US, Slovakia, and Russia is to not end up 4th in the pool and have to play Canada in the first round of the elimination.
UPDATE: Well, the Globe says that Hannan, Bouwmeester, Marleau, Draper and Kirk Maltby will be sitting. I still think Draper should be in and Morrow out.
