This is it, the final, the gold medal game, this is what Montreal Canadiens captain Nick Suzuki has been dreaming of since he was a little boy, and the dream is now within reach. Can Canada handle Team USA? Can injured captain Sidney Crosby handle the physicality?
While the Montreal Canadiens’ players will be getting ready to compete in the team’s skills competition on Sunday, captain Nick Suzuki will be playing for gold with Team Canada. Suzuki ended up playing a much bigger role than expected for the country after Sidney Crosby was injured in the quarterfinal against Czechia.
On Saturday, Jon Cooper had his men practice behind closed doors, and speaking to the press afterwards, he confirmed that defenseman Josh Morrissey wouldn’t be able to play in the gold medal game, but that there was no final word on captain Crosby, who did skate. Meanwhile, Suzuki had this to say about the Pittsburgh Penguins superstar:
He looked really good out there on the ice today, so hopefully he's in.
There’s no doubt that Crosby’s presence or absence will have a big impact on Team Canada’s game and on Suzuki himself. If he were at 100%, he probably would take his spot back between Mitch Marner and Mark Stone, but in the end, it was decided not to dress him.
It’s a tough decision to play or not when a player is not physically at his best. There’s a balance to be struck between the impact they can have in their current form and the impact a healthier player would have. In the Women’s gold medal game, we saw Marie-Philip Poulin play through a knee injury, and she really wasn’t at her best. In overtime at three-on-three, she didn’t have her usual speed and pace, which made her a lot less effective out there.
Given how physical the gold medal game against Team USA is likely to be, that could be a further concern for Canada if they decided to play an already hurt Sidney Crosby. The Pens’ GM, Kyle Dubas, is also the director of player personnel for Canada and will no doubt have his say in the decision.
Much was made of Team USA Bill Guerin basing his roster choice on whether or not a player could hit, and as we’ve seen at the end of the Americans’ semifinal against Slovakia, they’re not afraid to create some chaos. Given how the last two games between the two nations went, this could be a hard-hitting and intense affair.
The puck drops on Sunday at 8:10 AM, and it will be interesting to see how big a role Suzuki ends up playing in the ultimate game. There’s no denying that he’s been more efficient in these games when he played at center rather than on the wing, where he was struggling to adapt.
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