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The only World Cup of Hockey exhibition game is tonight at 7:00 Central on ESPN U.
Ok, let’s pause here for a second to note that ESPN paid large amounts of money for the broadcast rights to this tournament and their chance to hype the biggest rivalry (to the North American audience, at least) is being broadcast on a channel that has, in the past, aired collegiate bowling tournaments. Also, coverage of the tournament is non-existent on ESPN.com. No, really. Scroll down and two thirds of the way you’ll see this article posted about Carey Price. Good job, good effort.
Anyway, tonight’s matchup between Team USA and Team Canada should be a decent one in which Canada probably wins, because Team USA’s roster is poorly assembled and, political whatever aside, they’re being coached by John Tortorella.
Seriously. Look at Team USA’s roster. Now, go look at Team Canada’s.
Here are team USA’s coaches:
- John Tortorella, Head Coach
- Mike Sullivan, Assistant Coach
- John Hynes, Assistant Coach
- Phil Housley, Assistant Coach
- Jack Capuano, Assistant Coach
- Scott Gordon, Assistant Coach
Here are Team Canada’s:
- Mike Babcock, Head Coach
- Claude Julien, Assistant Coach
- Bill Peters, Assistant Coach
- Joel Quenneville, Assistant Coach
- Barry Trotz, Assistant Coach
Notable to Blues fans, former Blues David Backes, T.J. Oshie, and Ben Bishop will be suiting up for Team USA. Jay Bouwmeester and new Blues captain Alex Pietrangelo will probably be paired up on defense for the Doug Armstrong constructed Team Canada tonight.
It’s an exhibition game to an exhibition tournament, so don’t worry too much about the outcome. Just relax, catch some hockey on an ESPN network no one watches that awful much, and have a nice Friday evening.