PowerPlay Magazine

Canada vs Sweden: Tale of the Tape

In a fitting final game of the 2014 Olympic hockey tournament, the world's two best hockey nations will collide in the gold medal match, and it promises to be a beauty.   The 2006 Olympic Champions, Team Sweden, will face off against the 2010 Olympic Champions, Team Canada, in a battle for hockey supremecy.  Even though there was a lot of talk about Team USA and Team Russia heading into the Olympics, this is the matchup that was supposed to happen.  These are without a doubt, the two best teams on the planet.  Both nations will be missing some of their best offensive threats, as John Tavares, Steven Stamkos, Henrik Zetterberg, Henrik Sedin, and Johan Franzen are all injured and will be watching the games from the sidelines.  Combine this, with the fact Team Canada and Team Sweden have shown they have the two stingiest defenses in the tournament, as well as the best goalies thus far, and all signs point toward this game being a defensive war.

Projected Starting Lineups:

Team Canada


Forwards

• Chris Kunitz—Sidney Crosby—Patrice Bergeron

• Jamie Benn—Ryan Getzlaf—Corey Perry

• Patrick Marleau—Jonathan Toews—Jeff Carter

• Patrick Sharp—Matt Duchene—Rick Nash

Extra: Martin St. Louis

Defensemen

• Duncan Keith—Shea Weber

• Jay Bouwmeester—Alex Pietrangelo

• Marc-Edouard Vlasic—Drew Doughty

Extra: Dan Hamhuis

Goaltenders

• Carey Price

• Roberto Luongo

Scratches: PK Subban, Mike Smith

Team Sweden:

Forwards

• Daniel Sedin—Nicklas Backstrom—Loui Eriksson

• Alexander Steen—Patrik Berglund—Daniel Alfredsson

• Gabriel Landeskog—Marcus Johansson—Jakob Silfverberg

• Jimmie Ericsson—Marcus Kruger—Carl Hagelin/Gustav Nyquist

Defensemen

• Alexander Edler—Erik Karlsson

• Jonathan Ericsson—Niklas Kronwall

• Niklas Hjalmarsson—Johnny Oduya

Extra: Oliver Ekman-Larsson

 
Goaltenders

• Henrik Lundqvist

• Jhonas Enroth

 Scratches: Henrik Tallinder, Jonas Gustavsson

My Prediction: Canada wins a tight game, 2-1.

Use the comments section to tell us who you think will win!