| 18 February 2010
vs 
Preliminary Game 8: Canada vs. Switzerland - February 18, 2010 4:30pm PST - Canada Hockey Place
In the last Olympics in Turin, Team Canada were defeated 2-0 by Team Switzerland. Back then their goaltender was Martin Gerber, who was able to hold off the Canadians. That game could be said to have been the start of Team Canada's unravelling in 2006. Team Canada wants to win this one, "No question," said Dany Heatley on Wednesday to media "You don't forget things like that and it would be nice to beat them pretty good."
Full game preview and team analysis after the jump...
Team Switzerland
The Swiss put up a good defense against Team USA on Tuesday, losing only 3-1 to the American team. They played a defensive style game that frustrated the Americans.
On their roster they have only two NHL players, the first being their captain defenseman Mark Streit of the NY Islanders and the other being their goalie Jonas Hiller. The Swiss carry 8 defencemen and 12 fowards, giving them four pairings of defencemen. Former NHLer Hnat Domenichelli is also on the team as well as young Anaheim prospect Luca Sbisa. Domenichelli is actually Canadian by birth (born in Edmonton, AB) and has played for Team Canada in the Spengler Cup in 2006 (non-IIHF tournament) but this past summer he received his Swiss passport which allows him to play in his adopted country. He was the only player to scored on Ryan Miller in the game on Tuesday.
Hiller gave the Swiss team a chance to win in the game against the USA, making 21 saves. Looking to be like Gerber against the Canadians back in 2006, he will need to be the team's best player tonight if they want a chance at winning. The Swiss will need to play a tight checking responsible game that looks to capitalize on mistakes made by Canada.
Team Canada
The Canadians came out quiet in the first period, and yes we were all shocked that it was tied at 0-0 after 20 minutes of play. But once the first goal was scored by Iginla the floodgates of goals just started coming. After some line juggling towards the end of the game, Iginla was moved up to play with Crosby and Nash where he scored his hat trick goal. In practice on Wednesday that line played together. The other two lines were kept the same, with Bergeron dropping to the fourth line and Morrow and Richards alternating on the fourth line as left wing.
Brodeur is going to get the first of his starts tonight against the Swiss team with Luongo as backup. The Canadian team is looking to keep rolling after their 8-0 win over Norway. They need to bring the offense early and need Brodeur to have a normal Brodeur night.
Both teams have similar jersey colours with the red and white, expect this to look like a Team Canada red vs. white game until one colour starts running up the score. If Jonas Hiller plays a mistake free game, expect the score to be 4-1 for Canada.
Team Switzerland Projected Lineup
Team Canada Projected Lineup:
Canadian Defence Pairings:
Vancity Canuck writes about the Vancouver Canucks at Benched Whale and the Tampa Bay Lightning at The Hockey Bay Blog in addition to her work on Bloguin's Olympic Hockey Blog.
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