Sunday, September 18, 2016

Afternoon World Cup Player Notes (Sep 18)



Well, the game between Russia and Sweden got very interesting as warm-ups began, as Henrik Lundqvist was not dressed for Sweden, like he was expected to.  The Swedish number one was felled by the flu, so the game was left to Jacob Markstrom, much to the chagrin of Cam, who had Lundqvist pegged as a solid pick in the draft, while no one had Markstrom.

Well, Sweden didn't really miss a beat in this one, Lundqvist or not.  They kept to the game plan, kept faith in Markstrom and it paid off for them.  Gabriel Landeskog and Victor Hedman scored 2:11 apart in the middle of the 2nd period, they managed to hold off a push from Alex Ovechkin, which included one goal and a disallowed goal late in the 3rd, Markstrom made 27 saves and Sweden came away as 2-1 victors.

Lundqvist wasn't the only pool worthy scratch for Sweden, as Patrik Berglund, the injury replacement for Rickard Rakell, didn't figure into today's lineup for the Swedes, making Tony a man down for the game.  On the Russian side, Vladislav Namestnikov was the only pool scratch in the game, taking a man away from Benson's pool team.  Russia also scratched Nikita Nesterov and Andrei Vasilevskiy for this one.

ImplicationsWith Hedman being the only notable player in the pool in this game, it was good news for Marcie, who saw her team jump into 2nd place with the Swedish win, now 2 points back of Dale, who didn't figure into the scoring in this one. Dale's 10 points still lead, but with one big game to go in the evening, we're still a long ways from figuring anything out in this tournament.

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