Vancouver Canucks Face off in World Cup Semifinal, Training Camp Begins (daniel sedin)

daniel sedin

Vancouver Canucks Face off in World Cup Semifinal, Training Camp Begins

By Carol Schram

Sep 22, 2016 • 2:58 pm

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First, some good news: all six Vancouver Canucks participating in the World Cup of Hockey have advanced to the tournament's semifinal.

Team Sweden and Team Europe will face each other in a one-game knockout to determine who gets to face the winner of Canada vs. North America or Russia for the coveted (?) World Cup of Hockey trophy. That means, no matter who wins, the Canucks are guaranteed at least two players in the best-of-three final.

It doesn't exactly carry the noble history of the Stanley Cup, but the players seem committed to trying to add it to their list of achievements. I don't imagine there's enough time for everyone on the winning team to get their "Day with the World Cup" before the real NHL season kicks off.

If you missed it on Wednesday, Team North America's 4-3 overtime win over Team Sweden was a barnburner, especially the first minute of the game and the 3-on-3 overtime. The kids had their jets turned up to 11, but the Swedes did an impressive job of getting their skates back under them and asserting enough of their will on the game to guarantee the single point that they needed to finish first in Group B.

No points for any of the Canucks on Wednesday. The twins were on the ice against North America's ferocious first shift, which resulted in Auston Matthews' goal 30 seconds into the game.

Daniel had a chance to end it in overtime, but breakaways just aren't his thing.

Seconds later, the play went the other way, and the Sedins got caught blowing the zone after a big backcheck from Johnny Gaudreau that set up Nathan MacKinnon.

A wildly entertaining game ended with perhaps the best 3-on-3 I've seen to date.

Or, to put it another way...

On the other side, Luca Sbisa was back in the lineup and Jaro Halak laid down another strong performance, but Team Europe lost 4-1 to Team Canada in the "afterthought" game on Wednesday.

The only goal for Team Europe came when Marian Hossa undressed his Chicago Blackhawks teammate, Corey Crawford.

Europe and Sweden will play in Sunday's semifinal, which goes at 10 a.m. PT. Canada's game will run in the Hockey Night in Canada timeslot, Saturday at 4 p.m., but their opponent has yet to be determined.

The North Americans thought they'd played their way into the next round when MacKinnon scored on Wednesday.

If Russia beats Finland today, they go through and the kids go home to training camp. Second place is determined based on head-to-head matchups, and the Russians beat the North Americans.

Russia/Finland runs at noon PT today, then the meaningless game between the Americans and the Czechs wraps up the round robin at 5 p.m.

Meanwhile, back in Vancouver, this is my favourite image from Wednesday's Jake Milford Charity Invitational:

Tryamkin will be one of the players to watch as training camp opens tomorrow. His contract basically guarantees that he won't be sent down to Utica.

I'm hoping he can surprise and push his way into the top six...but I'm also hoping that Sbisa can come in strong and that Stecher can surprise and that Philip Larsen turns out to be a hidden gem and that Andrey Pedan can realize his potential. So I think I have about six players pencilled in for the third pairing alone?

If you haven't seen the veteran roster for training camp, click here for that list.

And click here for the on-ice schedule at the Meadow Park Sports Centre in Whistler. Sessions kick off Friday morning at 8:30 a.m. and the highlight, as usual, will be the intrasquad game, which is scheduled for Sunday at 11:15 a.m.

Vancouver's first preseason game will be at home against Calgary next Wednesday.

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