Who replaces Anthony Cirelli on the Canadian Olympic team amidst potential injury?
Sunday’s Stadium Series game between the Tampa Bay Lightning and Boston Bruins was a rousing success for the NHL, as a furious rally by the Bolts culminated in a 6-5 shootout win.
It came at a potential cost to Tampa Bay, as center Anthony Cirelli exited the game with an injury after taking a hit from Mark Kastelic, throwing his availability for Team Canada at the Winter Olympics into question.
Anthony Cirelli has left the game and will not return after taking this hit from Mark Kestelic 🤕
Cirelli, who has 35 points in 48 games this year, was expected to play a depth center and penalty killing role for Team Canada, reprising his performance from the 4 Nations Face-Off a year ago.
On Monday’s episode of Daily Faceoff LIVE, host Tyler Yaremchuk and co-host and former NHL goaltender Carter Hutton discussed Cirelli’s injury and which Canadian forward could replace him on the Olympic roster if he’s unable to compete in Milano-Cortina.
Tyler Yaremchuk: “One more story to hit on really quick… Anthony Cirelli left that game for the Tampa Bay Lightning. He took a really, really awkward hit. He was on the bench kind of grabbing and massaging his shoulder. He left in the middle of the second period, didn’t play another shift. Jon Cooper said after the game that he’s not quite sure the extent of the injury, and Cooper kind of said this is a guy who has some pretty big hockey games coming up in a few weeks here. We’re under a week away from players getting on a plane and going to Milan.”
Carter Hutton: “Now who replaces him, right? That’s the tricky part… You talk about certain injuries. You talk about guys being hurt. Cirelli’s a unique guy, right? He’s there as your face-off man, your penalty killer. He’s going to play in a certain role in a box, and he’s played for Jon Cooper. So, talent on talent, there’s so many different names available. You talk about [Mark] Scheifele, [Zach] Hyman, Wyatt Johnston, [Connor] Bedard, but who fits that role is Cirelli, so they’re going to have some tough decisions if Cirelli is out.”
Tyler Yaremchuk: “What will be interesting about it is, do they look at Cirelli and him missing, like you just said, he plays a unique role… Do they try to replace Cirelli and go with someone like a Mark Scheifele, or do they sit there and… go, ‘You know what, this is maybe our chance to get a do-over for not taking someone like a Zach Hyman.’ Do you maybe just trust that okay, you have Nick Suzuki on this team. He can maybe slide in to that fourth-line center role.”
You can watch the full segment and the rest of the episode here…