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Ek/Flyers: A tale of Two Travi: Konecny in,Sanheim…kind of getting screwed |
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It’s the tale of two Travi today….
Travis Konecny is feeling better and is replacing Saam Bennett on Canada’s fourth line for tonight‘s match against Sweden. Really happy for Travis K as I think he brings a really strong, no-nonsense, work-your-tail-off grit to this team. Also a great penalty, killer and solid defensively. This kind of reminds me of when Simone Gagne was on team Canada, all those years ago for the same reasons. Not really the physical reasons, but the defense and penalty killing… and of course speed.
Two thoughts on this.
#1 I truly think team Canada would be wise to move him up in the lineup because while there is tons of talent, there aren’t a lot of players who love to go into the corners and get the puck on this team like TK specializes in. Right now, the line seems to be set up in the order of how good John Cooper thinks these players are…. Which might be shortsighted. Canada has made this mistake before and they should learn from it.
#2. There is no way in the world I wouldn’t have Sam Bennett in the lineup. Has John Cooper watched any of the playoff games over the last couple of years? Bennett is annoying as hell and money when it comes to scoring big goals. The Panthers wouldn’t have a Stanley Cup without him. I would replace Cirelli or Hagel… especially tonight against team Sweden. The Swedes have a tough and amazing defense. Of the top six right now, only Reinhardt, Crosby, and MacKinnon are willing to get dirty and in the corners… but Crosby is suffering from an upper body injury, so do you really want him to do that??
Onto Travis Sanheim…kind of getting screwed…
I’m enjoying reading Sanheim’s blogs on NHL.com, but I don’t think when they asked him to do this, they thought for a minute he wouldn’t be in the lineup…. But tonight…he isn’t. I have always been a big Colton Parayko fan, even though for the past couple of years, he’s been really subpar, and the Blues have tried to figure out ways of getting rid of him… he has had a resurgence for sure. He was really good when he played for team North America in the World Cup. I’ve talked to several insiders who have been covering the practices, and none of them thought that Sanheim wouldn’t be the sixth defenseman with Morrissey… and everyone believes he will play in the tournament. Honestly, it would be wrong to invite a player to this tournament not at least play him one game. If youre 12/13th forward and your 6/7 defensman are the reason you’ve lost you’ve got bigger problems. All these guys are talented and everybody’s close… it really should be a matchup thing versus certain teams.
I definitely hope that Travis is in that spot for the USA on Saturday …. Maybe that’s the plan, but I don’t know for sure.
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