After a short summer hiatus, the Buckeye State Hockey Roundtable is back for the season. Over the next month or so the roundtable will be about the World Cup of Hockey, the most interesting experiment from the NHL since the Winter Classic. Who the heck is going to win it though? We take a look.
Canada
The NHL has done a good job making a solid pick for this tournament a difficult choice. Canada is still the strongest team in my very humble opinion, with scoring juggernauts like Seguin, Crosby, Carter, Giroux, Stamkos, Tavares, and Toews. It’s a murderer’s row on the front line. No matter who Team Canada puts behind the 3 forwards, it will have a chance to wreck opposing teams like a merciless samurai; striking without warning and striking often. Now you put a spectacular defensive corps and a trinity of netminders like Crawford, Price and Holtby into the mix and there’s no way Canada can lose. (Even with some of their best young stars in the heel-turned North American team.)
I have to agree with Bert that this is Canada’s tournament to lose. The team with the best shot at unseating them has to be Sweden though. While Team North America is certainly going to be the most fun to watch, Sweden might be the toughest to score on. They are the only team that can rival Canada in defensive talent, and Henrik Lundqvist is pretty good. They don’t have the scorers that Canada can trot out though. Unfortunately for the CBJ contingent, I don’t see Russia (weak defense), USA (weak offense), or North America (weak goaltending) as being strong contenders without someone surprising. Canada can roll out a third line and third defense pairing that rivals the top unit any other team can put on the ice. If the best goalie alive (Carey Price) is too rusty, they can just roll out the reigning Vezina Winner (Braden Holtby). That team is a juggernaut.
North America
It’s safe to say Canada enters the tournament as the favourite, but I am going to go with Team North America. Not only are they going to be the most fun team they have some serious talent. They have the previous four first overall picks, and over half of the team was selected in the top 10 of the draft. Everyone on the team is skilled and they can come at you in waves with four lines of speed skill. Their defencemen can all skate and move the puck. Anyone of the five guys on the ice at a time are a threat to score. The goalies are a weaker spot but even then, Matt Murray just won the Cup and John Gibson had a .920 SV% in 40 games with the Ducks, they have talent in net. The key though will be Sean Couturier. He’s an extremely good shutdown player and if he can find a way to keep guys like Crosby and Ovechkin and check, the Young Guns can upset and have a chance to win.
Sweden
As Derek mentioned above, the Swedish team has an absolutely stellar back line for the World Cup of Hockey. One of their few weak spots was Niklas Kronwall and he dropped out just recently. Filling in with Hampus Lindholm, the Swedes have the best defense in the entire tournament. The offense may not be stellar, though they do have some brand name players like the Sedins and Backstrom on the roster. I think they’ll be able to score some goals when it is needed especially since they will have the brick wall known as Henrik Lundqvist covering their collective butts. At the very least I think they’ll make it to the final and how boring is it to pick Canada all the time. It is the Swedes turn to be the world’s best.
Add The Sports Daily to your Google News Feed!
