The three keys of the game are:
1. Binnington’s Chance
Canada’s goaltending is one of the biggest stories to appear in tournaments, and the two questions are who starts and who is enough?
The storyline will not disappear unless Binnington has a big performance against Sweden.
Binnington has a pedigree in the big game. He won the Stanley Cup alongside the St. Louis Blues when he won 32 saves for the Boston Bruins in Game 7 of the 2019 Stanley Cup final. He played eight games at the 2024 IIHF World Championships, averaging 2.81 goals and 0.885 save percentage for fourth place Canada, making it 6-2.
Earlier this season, he made 28 saves with a 6-2 blues victory against the Chicago Blackhawks at the Discover NHL Winter Classic held at Wrigley Field on December 31.
“He’s a confident kid and I want to be there,” Cooper said. “Jordan was our man. The child lit his belly. He was a competitor and we are really confident in him.”
2. Chemistry is the king
Cooper and Haram have put together the line and defensive pairs to fit the system, but now they want them to work. They have to give Gel time, but in short tournaments time is limited. So, if the coach doesn’t see what he wants to see from his line in the first period, there may be changes before the second start.
“We hope we’ve made it right. We don’t need to change it on its own, but we don’t expect it to probably not,” Cooper said. “Even your NHL teams may change the line just because they need to swing the momentum of the game or are telling them to do this in their gut.
“In short tournaments, you need to connect to the string. You can’t cut two shifts at the knee, so you can get the balance here to see how the game is going.”
3. Start fast and play fast
Both teams said they hope the game will be faster from the drop of the puck, fearing what will happen when they try to advance to the tournament.
“I don’t think I’m waiting,” Zibanejad said. “I don’t think we have time. I don’t think they have time. I expect high tempo from the start.”
Cooper said that during the 2020 Stanley Cup playoffs, the past few days felt like a bubble.
But, like what happened there, he hopes that competition here will soon increase.
“I totally hope that it will be as competitive as any other international tournament,” Cooper said. “The difference is that we are all together now. Our teams share hotels, so we are encountering a variety of situations like that.
“That’s exactly how the bubble turned out. Everyone was there, everyone was together. Everyone was having fun talking, but when those games started it was war. It was crazy, there were no fans. That was how competitive it is on ice.
