How will Canada deploy their centers if Sidney Crosby is out?
Team Canada earned a hard-fought quarterfinal win over Team Czechia in come-from-behind fashion on Wednesday, but it came at a major cost.
Captain Sidney Crosby had to leave the game with a lower-body injury, and he did not return. With just one day of rest between the quarterfinal and semifinal rounds, Crosby’s status is up in the air for the semifinal against Team Finland, though head coach Jon Cooper did not rule him out.
With Connor McDavid centering the first line and Nathan MacKinnon anchoring another unit, who would move to the middle if Crosby is unable to play? Canada has plenty of natural centers on its roster in Sam Bennett, Bo Horvat, Nick Suzuki and Macklin Celebrini, but there is little margin for error in making the right call.
On Thursday’s episode of Daily Faceoff LIVE, host Tyler Yaremchuk and co-host and former NHL goaltender Carter Hutton discussed what Cooper can do to shuffle the lines and stay strong at the center position if Crosby can’t go.
Tyler Yaremchuk: One more thing here just on the injury notes for Canada because we touched on it earlier… Josh Yohe from Pittsburgh, covers the Penguins. He had a tweet that I thought was interesting because obviously he’d be connected to this Crosby situation. He said, very much in line with what Jon Cooper said today, ‘A source of mine says that it’s iffy that Crosby will play tomorrow or Sunday, but that he very much desires to play.’ So that is obviously a situation to monitor, and there’s a trickle down effect through the lineup here, Hutts, because if Crosby is hurt, I don’t think it’s feasible for this Canadian team to run McDavid, Celebrini and MacKinnon all on one line. I think you need to spread it out a little bit more. But then you tie in what you talked about, MacKinnon gingerly skating off the ice after overtime. If MacKinnon’s not 100%, maybe you can’t have him as a centerman, and maybe the best spot for him is up with Celebrini and McDavid on the top line where he can just be a little bit more of a perimeter complimentary player. So there are a lot of tough decisions that Jon Cooper’s got to make here in the next 25 hours till puck drop.
Carter Hutton: Yeah, I think my concern would be who is going to add speed to lineups, right? Because when I watch that Suzuki, Marner, Stone line, yes, they’re skilled, where’s the speed though? So maybe you add in a Jarvis or a Bennett, someone that can go and crash and bang and be a little more offensive on the forecheck. I think Bo Horvat has done a great job, too. The perk of this for Canada is the players you are subbing in are all-stars, right? Like, it’s not like you’re going to be overwhelming them in the moment. They have the depth. It’s just the fact that they have to have a little more situational awareness. Someone’s going to have to step up, because when we look at these matchups, you know, McDavid is going to draw the toughest matchup. So, I think there’s potential for other guys to play in here very well.
You can watch the full segment and the rest of the episode here…