UWSaint wrote: ↑Thu Dec 31, 2020 5:31 am
Canada-Finland; USA-Sweden. These should be great games. Both games are to win the group, but the USA-Sweden game is way more important — really for all four teams. I’m not sure the tiebreak rules if they draw in regulation and USA wins in overtime and Russia, Sweden, and USA end up with 8 points, but if there’s a regulation win, it means the winner takes the group and it means the two losers of these two contests will have the misfortune of drawing one another in the quarterfinals.
I’m thinking USA has the edge. This USA team seems deeper than most years, and this is a group with a lot of tourney experience. As for Canada-Finland, this is the first game where either is going to feel stressed and it will be interesting to see how the players respond. If Canada is committed to dictating the play and putting Finland in reaction mode, they should win. But if they get a little conservative, Finland can hang with them fine and has plenty of ability to counter or win a game coming down to special teams.
Happy new year!
First tiebreaker is how they fared against eachother, second is goal differential but will not be needed.
If Sweden wins, regardless of how and when, they win the group, Russia comes second and USA third.
If they lose, regardless of how and when, they finish third.
If the US wins in regulation, they win the group.
If the US wins in ot or on penalties they come second after Russia, as Russia beat them 5-3, and both they and Russia beat Sweden.
The winner of group B gets Slovakia in the QF.
The team in second place gets Germany.
The team finishing third gets the loser in the Finland vs Canada game
And the winner of group A geys to play the Czechs, who lost big against Sweden and the US but beat Russia. A moody lot. Good at defending a lead, but if they start to lose, they tend to lose big.