In today’s matinee, a humbled Team North America (TNA) takes on a seemingly unstoppable Team Sweden.
While TNA and Team Russia both sit with a 1-1 record, Team Russia currently holds the tiebreaker thanks to their 4-3 win over the young guns squad. The loss was a lesson in not taking one’s foot off the pedal, as Russia exploded with four goals in the second period. If the kids win today, the pressure moves to Russia and their match tomorrow against Finland.
With Aaron Ekblad having left the team for evaluations, Jacob Trouba will stay in the lineup. It’s unknown if goaltender Matt Murray will play after suffering a minor thumb injury, but John Gibson is hardly an undesirable Plan B in net. Todd McLellan’s squad has also reportedly tweaked the forward lines, as you’ll see in the projected lineup below.
In the other corner, Sweden has the opportunity to go 3-0 in the round-robin, having downed Team Finland just yesterday. Returning from illness, Henrik Lundqvist was brilliant in the 2-0 shutout, with a total of 36 saves. King Henrik has said he’s ready to go today, but it remains to be seen if he’ll actually play the back-to-back.
The Swedes don’t possess the same dynamic forward corps as the Russian team which downed TNA. What they do have is balance across the lines, perhaps the best blueline in the tournament and seemingly unflappable goaltending. Easy peasy for the Under 23 squad.
When/Where:
Wednesday, Sept. 21, 2:00 p.m. CT, Air Canada Centre
TV Broadcast: ESPN, SN, TVA Sports
Live Stream: WatchESPN, NHL Live
| Left Wing | Centre | Right Wing |
| Daniel Sedin | Henrik Sedin | Loui Eriksson |
| Filip Forsberg | Nicklas Backstrom | Patric Hornqvist |
| Carl Hagelin | Marcus Kruger | Jakob Silfverberg |
| Gabriel Landeskog | Mikael Backlund | Carl Soderberg |
| Left Defence |
Right Defence |
| Anton Stralman | Victor Hedman |
| Mattias Ekholm | Erik Karlsson |
| Niklas Hjalmarsson | Oliver Ekman-Larsson |
| Goaltenders |
| Henrik Lundqvist |
| Jacob Markstrom |
| Left Wing | Centre | Right Wing |
| Auston Matthews | Connor McDavid | Mark Scheifele |
| Johnny Gaudreau | Ryan Nugent-Hopkins | Nathan MacKinnon |
| Dylan Larkin | Sean Couturier | Vincent Trocheck |
| Brandon Saad | Jack Eichel | J.T. Miller |
| Left Defence |
Right Defence |
| Morgan Rielly | Colton Parayko |
| Ryan Murray | Seth Jones |
| Shayne Gostisbehere | Jacob Trouba |
| Goaltenders |
| Matt Murray |
| John Gibson |
Tweets of the Day:
Team North America still has plenty of room on the bandwagon America!
— Craig Custance (@CraigCustance) September 21, 2016
when north america uses its seventh-best D, it’s jacob trouba. when the US uses its seventh-best defenseman, it’s jack johnson.
— lil (@twolinepass) September 20, 2016
Who are you cheering for this afternoon? Do you think Team North America will bounce back from their Monday performance? Has Jacob Trouba looked like a $5+ million dollar defenceman? And what will it take to solve Sweden’s goaltending? Turn the comments section below into your stream of consciousness, and as always, thanks for reading!
