How did we get here? Canada vs Russia is the historic matchup in international hockey. Nothing gets more people talking. These two teams are supposed to be the best there is, yet here they are battling for third.
Russia, on home soil, has been outplayed in basically every game they’ve played, but have escaped with victory more often than not due to stellar goaltending and some lucky goals. Andrei Vasilevski is the likely starter for Russia, as he held them in the game against Sweden when they had no right to be in it.
After sticking with Malcolm Subban all tournament, Steve Spott is going with Jordan Binnington in net today. Binnington doesn’t have the high end talent that Subban has, but his technique is slightly better, which could help Canada a bit.
Neither team really wants to be here today, but both are looking to save a little face by taking the bronze medal. There’s a very real possibility that this one could be a better game than the gold medal matchup later in the day.
Game time is 4:00AM EST on TSN.
