The World Cup of Hockey final begins tonight and we have a David and Goliath situation. Canada has been the favorite throughout this tournament and nothing about their play suggests that they shouldn't be. They have been great. Team Europe was not given much of a chance this tournament and they have managed to not only exit Group A but to knock off hockey super power Sweden to make the final.
All signs point to a mismatch
It is what it is. Team Europe is probably going to have to PDO their way to victory. The good news for them is that they have Jaro Halak who is more than capable of stealing a game. The problem is that Carey Price doesn't need to steal a game but is also capable of doing so.
Here are some concerns I have for Team Europe heading into this game.
Marian Gaborik is out of the lineup. In fact, he is going to be out of LA's lineup as well for the next 8 weeks. At even-strength Team Europe had one of the lowest CF/60 in the tournament (48.43). They really didn't have the wiggle room to lose one of their better generators of offense. A team that was struggling to generate shot volume can ill afford to lose a great shooter. In the round robin Canada outshot Europe 46-20 and that was with Gaborik.
Anze Kopitar is awesome, but he's only one guy. If I'm Mike Babcock I would shadow the Kopitar line with Sidney Crosby and Patrice Bergeron. When you have Canada's depth it makes sense to fight best on best and then let the depth beat up on the other team's weaker players.
Roman Josi and Dennis Seidenberg have been logging the big minutes for Europe. I think that is a lot to ask of Seidenberg against Canada who will have a significant advantage no matter what forward line is on the ice.
Team Europe has made a point to prove the doubters wrong in this tournament so far. They'll need to keep that theme going.
My prediction is a 2-0 Canada sweep in the final. We'll see.
Thanks for reading!
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