Team Canada Tweaks Lineup Ahead of a Massive Clash Against Team USA

When Team Canada jumped to a 1-0 lead in the first minute of their game against Sweden, many felt like a blowout was in the cards. When the Canadians jumped to a quick 2-0 lead and limited Sweden to just 3 shots in the first period, it was just adding fuel to the fire.

As we now know, Team Sweden found their legs and forced overtime after a brilliant performance in the final 40 minutes of regulation. Canada had just 13 shots on goal and weren't given a lot of room or space to make anything happen.

The fourth line of Travis Konecny, Anthony Cirelli, and Brandon Hagel were minus-2 on the night and while the latter two received some ice-time in the third and a shift in overtime, Konecny was seemingly benched.

With the feisty forward recording the lowest ice-time on the team, it wasn't all too surprising to see him out of the rotation in today's practice, being replaced by Florida's Sam Bennett.

Bennett was centering Seth Jarvis and Brad Marchand on Friday, while Jon Cooper formed a Tampa Bay Lightning trio in Cirell, Hagel, and Brayden Point to round out he bottom six. That slightly differs from Point centering Marchand and Jarvis in Game 1.

On the back-end, Travis Sanheim entered as Shea Theodore's replacement after the latter was ruled out of the tournament with an injury. Sanheim was skating with Drew Doughty while Josh Morrissey remained with Colton Parayko.

Konecny was a placeholder for Cale Makar on the top-pairing with the stud defenseman absent due to an illness. With the Canadians already one defenseman down in Theodore, they can't afford to lose another one, especially of Makar's status.

Thomas Harley was chosen as the next-man up due to Theodore's injury and he is currently practicing in Boston as he is not allowed play unless another defenseman misses time. There is word, though, that Harley is on his way to Montreal in case Makar cannot play.

Their clash against the Americans will be one to watch on Saturday as two of the tournament's odds-on favourites clash in a highly anticipated bout.

It will be interesting to see if Team USA makes any changes to their lineup after a monstrous third period propelled them past Team Finland.