A devastating high hit against the Americans has sidelined Canada’s top puck-mover. Now, the blue line must pivot as they face Finland without their power-play anchor.
Team Canada will have to chase a gold medal without Evan Bouchard.
Bouchard has been ruled out for the remainder of the World Hockey Championship in Switzerland after the hit he took in Canada’s 4-0 quarterfinal win over Team United States on Thursday.
It happened about six minutes into the first period. Bouchard was crossing the blue line when United States defenseman Ryan Lindgren stepped up and caught him high near the head area. He went down right away and stayed down for a couple minutes before trainers helped him off the ice. Lindgren was given a five-minute major and a game misconduct.
Edmonton Oilers general manager Stan Bowman later said Bouchard was doing okay and texting after the game.
Still, his tournament is over.
Bouchard finishes with one goal and six points in eight games, playing close to 23 minutes a night. A lot of Canada’s puck movement ran through him on the back end, especially on the power play.
Now Canada moves into a semifinal against Finland on Saturday, and Morgan Rielly is going to see more minutes. The rest of the blue line too. There’s not really a clean replacement for what Bouchard was doing, so it’ll have to be spread out.
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