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After the Europe team "shocked" the Americans yesterday, the Finnish team will look to avoid the same fate today when they take on the North American team and Connor McDavid.
I don't think people should be shocked, however, if the made-up teams have success. The Americans clearly are a gong-show of a team this time, and in hockey, if you get good goaltending, as Jaroslav Halek provided yesterday, you can win any game.
Of course America should beat the European team, but in a game where all the players (or at least most of them) are professionals, anything can happen.
I think, on paper, the USA is quite a bit better than the Euro team. I don't know if I can say the same thing about Finland vs Team North America. The Finns have experience.......the NA's have Connor McDavid, Jack Eichel, Auston Matthews and Aaron Ekblad.
No one on their team is as bad as Jyrki Jokipakka, let alone Sami Lepisto.
If Finland is favored in this game, it can't be much, and I honestly don't know why that would be.
The North American team is crazy talented and fun to watch. For Finland to have any chance, they will have to neutralize their speed and focus on playing the solid defensive game they are known for.
The game is at 8 O'Clock tonight and in a weird way, even though it's the first game of the tournament for Finaland, it's a must win. Assuming a loss to Group B favorite Sweden, the Finns have to beat the North Americans or their best case scenario then becomes a three-way tie of teams that are 1-2. (if Sweden went 3-0, Russia beat the NA's and Finland won vs Russia, they could advance on a tie-breaker, but it's a longshot at that point).
The fun part of these tournaments is that every game matters, but the flipside of that is you can be pretty screwed if you lose the first game to a team that isn't the best team in your group.
Finland will look to avoid the fate of the USA tonight against Team North America.
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