The Matchup: Team USA vs. Team Sweden (Knockout Round)
The Time: 3:10 PM EST (local time 21:10)
The Broadcasts: TV — Peacock, USA Network
As expected, Team USA cruised through their group unscathed 3-0-0-0 and got a bye yesterday awaiting the result of Sweden and Latvia. Surprisingly, Sweden has struggled in this tournament so far finishing as the 7th seed, and the coach has made some questionable lineup choices to say the least.
Earlier this morning Slovakia took down Germany to advance to the semi-finals 6-2, with old pal and Slovak captain Tomas Tatar icing the game with an Empty Netter. Juraj Slafkovsky added another point and continues to be very impressive in Olympic play as does Simon Nemec who led all defenseman in the entire tournament in scoring chance creation:
Canada takes on Czechia at 10:40 EST this morning and has looked like an absolute wagon so far, and Finland Takes on Nico, Timo and Siegs at 12:10 EST this afternoon. Timo sits at 3rd in the entire tournament in scoring with 7 points in 4 games and Nico had a big game against Italy with 1g and 2a.
An interesting sub plot going in to this game is the status of Jesper Bratt. He has been healthy scratched for the past two games, and the general consensus is that it is a head scratching decision by a non-NHL coach. He sits 42nd amongst all forwards in offensive creation, even though he has only played one game. Weird, but I have not seen any lineup decisions as of this writing – nor have I seen whether Markstrom gets the back to back start. (speaking of questionable choices).
As you will also notice, Jack Hughes has been very effective in the US’s group stage games ranking 17th overall in a 4th line role, getting around 12-13 minutes a night and no real PP time. Team USA has looked deep and their defense has been stifling, which was widely thought to be their strength coming into the Olympics:
Play Free Bird! Nobody likes the metric system!
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