Canada’s second game of the World Juniors is against Slovakia, who were supposed to be weak after injuries to two of their top players before the tournament started. Slovakia doesn’t have the necessary depth at this level to remain competitive after those kinds of injuries, but their performance against Russia shows that they shouldn’t be underestimated.
Boone Jenner will serve the second game of his 3 game suspension today, so Canada will again be short a player. Because of this, Mark McNeill will have a bigger role. He’ll be looking at improving after being one of the only Canadians without a point last game, and causing a goal against with a bad giveaway.
Canadian coach Steve Spott has made it clear that Malcolm Subban is the guy in net, and Malcolm will continue to try to settle into that starting role today.
While the top line of Jonathan Huberdeau, Ryan Nugent-Hopkins, and Mark Scheifele dominated on the scoreboard, the coaching staff will be looking for a bit of improvement from them on the powerplay, as they seemed to be a bit too fancy on Boxing Day.
Game time is 4:30AM EST, so wake up or stay up.
Go Canada Go!!
