Tuesday, September 27, 2016

World Cup Finals Pool Preview (Sep 27)

The marquee of the preseason is one step closer to its conclusion, as the World Cup of Hockey has reached the finals, the best-of-three series between Team Europe and Team Canada.

There is no surprise, when it comes to the goaltending match-up, as Jaroslav Halak will get the call for the Europeans, continuing his run as the keeper of this Cinderella journey.  At the other end, we'll see Carey Price back in the net for Canada, tasked with guarding the scoreline for the deep offense that will be playing in front of him tonight.

Well, with Price in net, it is going to be tough for anyone to catch Dale in the standings, as he opens up the finals with a 12-point lead over Scott and a 14-point lead over Clayton and the only way that either challenger has a chance at the money is complete domination from the Europeans.  Scott only has Anze Kopitar and Nino Niederreiter, while Clayton has Leon Draisaitl and Mats Zuccarello, which isn't nearly going to be enough.

There was one injury note, as Marian Gaborik comes out of the European lineup, Mikkel Boedker comes back in, giving Marcie one more body in her lineup.  Marcie will open up the finals in 7th place, 20 points back of 1st place, but 4 points ahead of Benson, who sits in last.

Other expected scratches are Luca Sbisa and Thomas Greiss for Europe, neither were taken in the pool, while Canada is going with the same group that played all but the third game, which will see Claude Giroux, Jake Muzzin and Braden Holtby in the press box.  Clayton and Benson will miss out on player games with that news.

Should I just send Dale the money transfer now?

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