Montreal Canadiens: Gold medal is the perfect present for Jacob de La Rose
By Omar L
A dominating performance for Sweden at the 2018 World Hockey Championships ended with the perfect present for Montreal Canadiens forward Jacob de La Rose.
It took seven preliminary and three playoff games for Sweden to get to the top. They were the team to beat though going into the elimination rounds as the tournament’s best team (20 points). Sweden had so much talent in its ranks, and it was nice for the Montreal Canadiens to have Jacob de La Rose be a part of the nation’s second consecutive gold medal.
Switzerland did not make it easy though. They got the game’s first lead before Gustav Nyquist tied it up a little over a minute later. The two teams exchanged goals again in the second period leaving the third bare of any offence.
That’s not to say that no one tried. Sweden had eight shots and two power play opportunities, but nothing got past Leonardo Genoni. The play of the Swiss goaltender was one of the surprises of this year’s Worlds. His performance against Canada was incredible, and it was no different in this game.
Overtime solved nothing meaning the game had to go to the shootout. It took five rounds for a winner to be crowned and after Filip Forsberg scored, a save from Anders Nilsson sealed the deal.
Related Story: A Trade Correction Resulted in de La Rose
Talk about the ultimate birthday present for de La Rose who turned 23 that day. The Habs centre played in all 10 of Sweden’s games putting up a goal and an assist. However, what stood out the most was his ability to keep up with the other offensive players on the roster as well as his shutdown game taking another step in the right direction.
It was further growth from what fans saw of him after the Trade Deadline. Tomas Plekanec being moved to the Toronto Maple Leafs created room for de La Rose to be the team’s third-line centre on a more consistent basis. He improved in small bits as the season went on and watching him on Sweden proved that it wasn’t a fluke.
The next step for 2013 second-round pick is to rest and quickly get back to training. The Montreal Canadiens will be looking to have a bounce-back season after the disappointing one they had this year. If that’s to occur, de La Rose will want to be part of it.
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