After a nail biter against the feisty team from Finland, Canada earned a bye to the Quarterfinal round and theoretically, a slightly easier route to the Gold medal game.
But standing in their way is Kaspars Daugavins and the surprising team from Latvia. Fresh off a huge upset over Switzerland, Latvia is all that stands between Canada and a spot in the semi-finals in Sochi.
Canada will shuffle the deck up front one last time, or so you would hope. Matt Duchene ends up being the odd man out up front while PK Subban has been identified as the defenceman that will sit. With the amount of offence Canada seems to be generating from the backend in this tournament, you could make a strong case for including Subban but that won’t be the case against Latvia.
The one certainty for this team right now seems to be in goal. And it was actually one of the more hotly debated positions leading up to the Olympics. Carey Price is the guy and Mike Babcock has made sure there is no doubt about that. Despite a strong shutout performance from Luongo in his lone start against Austria, Babcock went back to Price and seems intent on sticking with him the rest of the way.
Here is how Team Canada is expected to line up
Kunitz-Crosby-Bergeron
Marleau-Toews-Carter
Benn-Getzlaf-Perry
Sharp-Tavares-Nash
St. Louis
Keith-Weber
Vlasic-Doughty
Bouwmeester-Pietrangelo
Hamuis
The winner of this game will play the winner of Czech Republic/United States, which also starts at noon today. Sweden cruised to an easy win over Slovenia earlier this morning while Finland is on the verge of a huge upset over Russia. That game is entering the third period in Sochi. Finland leads 3-1.
