As the 2018 World Hockey Championships come to an end, there is one Montreal Canadiens player left in Jacob de La Rose who is competing for a gold medal.
Yesterday at the 2018 World Hockey Championships had both an expected, and unexpected outcome. Jacob de La Rose and Team Sweden did away with Team USA defeating them 6-0 to move on to the gold medal game. It wasn’t surprising to see Sweden get the win and the goal differential was a testament to how strong of a team they were. After that, Montreal Canadiens fans were guaranteed to see at least one of its players in the final.
What took many off-guard was the result of the Canada-Switzerland game. The Swiss scored some timely goals and had stellar goaltending. Leonardo Genoni stood on his head for his team stopping 43 of 45 shots. It was frustrating for Canada who went into this game as the favourite despite the success of Switzerland in the Round Robin.
Sweden should take a lesson from Canada though; they can’t take the Swiss lightly. It’s been a mix of raw offensive power and quality defence that had them as the tournament’s top team. The team has proven they can score at all strengths, including shorthanded, making them a dangerous group.
Habs centre de La Rose has continued to improve his play for Sweden defensively. The young centre looks confident and free to play his type of game which has brought out the best in him.
He walked out of yesterday’s win with an assist on Sweden’s opening goal. It was some nice passing between de La Rose and Filip Forsberg who sent a long shot at Keith Kinkaid. The American goalie had trouble settling it down, and a couple of poke checks from de La Rose saw the puck trickle behind him. Victor Arvidsson was free to tap it in past the goal line to give Sweden a 1-0 lead.
Some pretty passing and some luck gives Arvidsson and @Trekronorse the first goal of the game! #SWEvsUSA #IIHFWorlds pic.twitter.com/d0JOQH8lqh
— IIHF (@IIHFHockey) May 19, 2018
The Gold Medal game is set for Sunday at 2:15 PM ET. Sweden has a good chance of winning the top prize for the second year in a row, and it makes it better to have de La Rose as part of the solution.