Panthers star forward Matthew Tkachuk will miss Florida’s game against the Seattle Kraken on Saturday because of a lower-body injury.
The second half of the NHL season begins Saturday with 14 games coming out of the break for the 4 Nations Face-Off.
“Oh captain, my captain, right?” said Panthers center Anton Lundell, who is one of four Panthers players on Team Finland along with Barkov, forward Eetu Luostarinen and defenseman Niko Mikkola. “He’s a leader. It wasn’t a surprise. He should be the captain.”
Finland beat Sweden in an emotional match. Patrik Laine was very solid in his team’s victory… and he even took the opportunity to taunt Sweden after the match. It was an intense game, and above all, it was an important victory for Finland,
Barkov probably won’t be needed on defense – though he took one shift on defense in NHL games each of the past two seasons when the Florida Panthers were short-handed – but his willingness to do so demonstrates Finland’s attitude with an injury-depleted roster heading into the best-on-best tournament against Canada, Sweden and the United States.
At Bet365, as of Thursday afternoon, USA is a gaudy -380 with a total of 6 goals and the under favored at -120. The puck line has USA at -1.5 goals and -140.
There is a total lack of consensus amongst players about whether or not to institute such a change for the 82-game regular season, where the overtime format has long been a talking point.
The NHL returns with a solid Saturday night slate. Our NHL props expert has whipped up three beauties for tonight, including the Barkov blitz.
Those are the biggest memories that I have of watching as a young kid — international hockey, Olympic events, best-on-best.’
MONTREAL -- Aleksander Barkov got a taste of the atmosphere at the 4 Nations Face-off when he was on the ice as Finland’s captain for the opening ceremony prior to Canada’s 4-3 overtime victory against Sweden on Wednesday.
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