It's the final day of round robin action in the 2016 World Cup of Hockey and the marquee game of the day... is the early one. Boooooo!
Yes, the game that has the most meaning or any meaning at all, is the Russia/Finland game, which gets started at 1pm. Russia needs a win of any fashion to make it through to the semi-finals and face Canada. If Finland were to somehow defeat Russia, either in regulation or overtime, North America would get the push through to face the big boys. Huge game, right?
I don't think it is any surprise that the Russians are going back to Sergei Bobrovsky, who has been solid in this tournament, to date. Even in the team's one loss, he was still pretty good, so Bob gets the call for the big game. On the Finnish side, they could play spoilers today, which is a fun position to be in and they will go with Tuukka Rask, who was the better of the two starters in this tournament and gets the task of spoiling the Russian party.
Bobrovsky means that Dale gets another start in this pool, while Rask means nothing, as he wasn't taken at all. Dale's lead could get padded with a win, but if Rask was to win, even the pool stays very, very interesting.
In the late game, there isn't nearly as much on the line and here's hoping that the two sides shoot out the lights in an effort to boost the pool numbers. The USA and Czech game sees the two eliminated teams from Group A go head-to-head for nothing, except for saving whatever pride they have left. I believe it is fair to say that Ben Bishop should be getting the call for the Americans, as he has yet to see any action in this tournament, while it is a toss up who gets the call for the Czechs, but if I had to guess, I would surmise that Petr Mrazek is getting the nod in the end. This is unconfirmed and somewhat hoped for.
Neil would see his first action from the crease, with Bishop getting the start, while Clayton is getting a third start, looking for his first win with Mrazek at the other end.
Let's just hope for a bunch of points in this one. We really want this pool to get exciting!
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