This is it, folks! After a long couple of weeks of action over at the Olympics, the matchup for all of the marbles is upon us. We’re up bright and early, and ready to see the next installment of this storied rivalry between the US and Canada. The gold medal is on the line, and the Americans are hoping to come away with their first win of this tournament since 1980. We’ll see how they fare.
Puck drop: 8:10 a.m.
How to watch:
📺: NBC, Peacock
Pregame reading
- In case you missed it, Finland came away with the bronze medal yesterday, and Rasmus Ristolainen played so well that we’re wondering if he might have just played himself back onto the trade block. [BSH]
- Elsewhere, it was a really good weekend for Porter Martone, and a decent weekend for Cole Knuble. [BSH]
- Also, it was a really good — if not a little too exciting — weekend for the Phantoms. [BSH]
The matchup
This morning will see two teams facing off with certainly no love lost between the two of them, and it will also be a meeting of two decidedly hot hands. Both the Canadians and Americans have really cleaned up throughout these Olympics, and while they’re coming off of slightly different semifinal games in terms of output — the Americans came away with a lopsided win over the Slovaks, while the Canadians had to come from behind to pull off that win (though, of course, they did it in style by coming up with the game-winner on the power play with just six seconds remaining in regulation) — they’re both loaded teams ready to bring their A-games as the lights are the brightest.
But, without further ado, let’s get into the lineups. These are still a little bit up in the air, with both teams being a little bit secretive about their mix heading into this final matchup. But they do both also have each a big question mark on their rosters — Tage Thompson left Friday’s game with an apparent (though the official word was that his removal was more of a precaution), while Sidney Crosby took an injury in Canada’s quarterfinal game, and wasn’t able to go for the semifinal, but he might still be an option for this morning’s game. We’ll find out for sure before long.
Team Canada
Macklin Celebrini – Connor McDavid – Tom Wilson
Bo Horvat – Nathan MacKinnon – Seth Jarvis
Mitch Marner – Nick Suzuki – Mark Stone
Brad Marchand – Sam Bennett – Brandon Hagel
Sam Reinhart
Devon Toews – Cale Makar
Thomas Harley – Colton Parayko
Travis Sanheim – Drew Doughty
Shea Theodore
Jordan Binnington
(Logan Thompson)
Team USA
Jake Guentzel – Auston Matthews – Matt Boldy
Brady Tkachuk – Jack Eichel – Matthew Tkachuk
Jack Hughes – Dylan Larkin – Tage Thompson*
J.T. Miller – Brock Nelson – Vincent Trocheck
Clayton Keller
Quinn Hughes – Charlie McAvoy
Jaccob Slavin – Brock Faber
Jake Sanderson – Zach Werenski
Noah Hanifin
Connor Hellebuyck
(Jake Oettinger)