Canada using Tom Wilson’s size for an elite F1
The return of NHL participation to the Winter Olympics is mere hours away, and there’s plenty to analyze from each team’s practices and the lineups they’ve used as they prepare for the start of the group stage.
Team Canada head coach Jon Cooper caused a stir when the first line in practice consisted of Connor McDavid centering Macklin Celebrini and Tom Wilson.
🇨🇦 lines at first practice of Milan Olympics Celebrini - McDavid - Wilson Marchand - MacKinnon - Suzuki Stone - Crosby - Marner Hagel - Horvat - Reinhart Jarvis, Bennett Toews - Makar Morrissey - Parayko Harley - Doughty Theodore - Sanheim @TSN_Sports
Wilson’s inclusion on the roster was widely seen as a bid to add physicality to the bottom six to counter what Team USA has in that department, but it seems Cooper has other ideas.
On Tuesday’s episode of Daily Faceoff LIVE, host Tyler Yaremchuk and co-host and former NHL goaltender Carter Hutton discussed why Cooper’s first line works in theory, and how Wilson might be best utilized as a forechecker and space-creator for McDavid.
Tyler Yaremchuk: Beginning with the Canadian side of things, Canada bringing back a roster with 19 players who are returning from the 4 Nations Face-Off, but two of the fresh faces in Macklin Celebrini and Tom Wilson find themselves on the top line with Connor McDavid. What was your first reaction when you saw this? And we’ve gone through a number of practices now for Canada, this wasn’t like an ‘Oh, let’s see how they look in a practice and go back to something maybe a little bit safer,’ it really seems like Jon Cooper’s going to run with this heading into the tournament.
Carter Hutton: I like this. This was a factor in the Milan games preview I did with Jeff Marek, which is out now. This is something we talked about, the fact that they lost Brayden Point and replaced him with Seth Jarvis. They didn’t go with another top six player that was available, because I think they had these intentions on having these guys in that position. They wanted Jarvis for his penalty kill, his speed… On the other side of it, Tom Wilson, Jon Cooper talked about it, is there a better F1 to be in this situation? He can go in and he can be a heavy body on the forecheck. He can get McDavid the puck; he can go to those tough areas… You have to go to those tough areas, and [McDavid] will make it easy for you… I love it.
You can watch the full segment and the rest of the episode here…