The Montreal Canadiens are not playing in the postseason this year like they did a year ago when they took out three elite teams on their way to the Stanley Cup Final.
With no postseason hockey to play, a handful of their players and prospects headed to Helsinki, Finland to suit up for their country. The annual World Hockey Championships is taking place this month, as it always does, and a few Habs players will be taking part in win-or-go-home games tomorrow.
Josh Anderson has carved out a top six role for Team Canada. Though they haven’t put together a superstar lineup, Anderson has been playing with Matthew Barzal and Cole Sillinger, a couple of pretty skilled forwards.
Canada finished third in their pool, surprisingly behind Switzerland and Germany. Anderson chipped in offensively with one goal and five assists for six points in seven preliminary round games. He will need to be good for Canada as they take on Sweden in the quarters on Thursday morning.
Sean Farrell was invited to play for the United States at this event. After leading their Olympic team with six points in four games. The 20 year old had a great first college season for Harvard, scoring ten goals and 28 points in 24 games.
He has not been able to carry over quite that same production to the World Championships. After seven games, he has one goal and four points for USA. They will face Switzerland in the quarterfinals at the same time Canada is playing Sweden, which is 9:30 AM EST.
Jordan Harris was also supposed to be playing at this event but is yet to suit up. His absence from the ice is a bit of a mystery. He traveled to Finland and was in the team picture, but he hasn’t been registered to play. This became more odd when a Jon Merrill injury left USA with just five other defenders and they played the next game with 13 forwards and five defensemen while Harris was scratched.
Joel Armia is playing in his home country for this event as well. Finland had a great round robin, winning six of seven games and their only loss came in overtime. This included games against USA, Sweden and Czechia.
Armia didn’t have a great NHL season, but he has scored three goals and five points for Finland. They will face Slovakie on Thursday afternoon at 1:20 PM EST.
Habs prospect goaltender Frederik Dichow was playing goal for Denmark at this event but he didn’t see much action. He allowed five goals in two periods against Switzerland and didn’t get back in goal.
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