Canada won 1-0 in one of the most exciting, tense, fun games I have seen this year.

My prediction of a Sidney Crosby explosion did not come to fruition, but perhaps while the whole country was looking at reasons why the team wasn't scoring, they actually turned out to be one of the greatest defensive international teams ever assembled.

The Canadians have a relentless forecheck and it apparently is too much for anyone to handle. I look forward to the Gold Medal game at the ungodly hour of 7am Sunday, but it will be hard pressed to match the intensity of this one.

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The Swedish national team has defeated Finland in the first of the semi-final games.

While its nice that the Swedes have knocked off the trap-playing Fins, the biggest story of the game - at least from a Coyotes perspective - is that Oliver Ekman-Larsson dressed and did not play.

There is no word that I can find - although I will update as soon as I learn - on whether he was injured or sick. One has to imagine that its one of those, and there were at least two players today who missed or are going to miss games because of the flu and sitting OEL makes absolutely no sense.

If OEL was healthy today, then its probably the weirdest roster move by any team in this tournament to not play him. Canada is not playing PK Subban, but at least there is an argument to be made that the guys ahead of him are better overall, or add something specific he is incapable of providing. This is not the case on Sweden where OEL has been paired with Erik Karlsson in what has probably been the best pair of any defenseman at the Olympics. This is a top 7 defenseman in the world, let alone top on team Sweden.

Using logic, I can't fathom a situation where he would be relegated to watching the game if healthy. Its not quite Canada sitting a healthy Crosby, but its as dumb of an idea. Ottawa blogger and esteemed colleague Travis Yost speculates that OEL and the Swedish coach are not on good terms, but it is not logical to me that a guy could rise to coaching the national team if he was immature and petty enough to hold out one of his best players in an important game due to personal animosity.

As I Coyotes fan and supporter, I hope that we are not about to face what the Islanders are facing with John Tavares going down in the Olympics and being out for the season.

If OEL were to miss any more than a game or two, it would be a crushing blow to the Coyotes playoff hopes, as he is by far their best and most important player.


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The Coyotes have called up Chris Summers, a defenseman from the 2006 draft who was selected 29th overall. Summers is a shutdown style dman who has played in the NHL briefly but has yet to get a real shot. He will get a chance to replace/pair up with Dave Schlemko on the bottom pairing when the NHL resumes.

The Coyotes top 4 has been solid all year, but the bottom pairings - using different combos of Stone, Murphy, Rundblad, Klesla and Schlemko has not been consistent. In part because Klesla is old and slow, Rundblad is not made to be a shutdown guy, Stone and Murphy are rookies and Schlemko is Schlemko - a steady if underwhelming player.

Also getting a chance to play on the bottom pairing is fellow call-up and Coyotes top prospect Brandon Gormley. Gormley is the prize of a stable of highly regarded and high end defensive prospects and will get hopefully get a chance to make his NHL debut after the break.

More on OEL if and when it becomes available.

Thanks for reading.

Tweets:@coyotes1234

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