Have you heard of Bucci's Overtime Challenge? Well, this is Bucci's Hat Trick Challenge. What's the challenge part? Regularly coming up with three hits about the World Cup of Hockey. Tuesday's games are Team Finland versus Team Sweden (3 p.m., ESPN) and Team Canada versus Team USA (8 p.m., ESPN).
1. A must-win for Team USA against Canada: Lose, and the Americans' 2016 World Cup of Hockey trophy hopes are over. The desperation will make for an absolute mosh pit on ice. This will be the hardest-hitting game of the World Cup, and I think there is a pretty good chance that gloves will drop. Offense will be the challenge for the U.S., as it tries to deal with the speed of the Canadian back checkers and with International Goaltender of Mystery Carey Price, who has supernatural powers while playing for Team Canada. USA Hockey has been researching and studying how the United States can produce more offensive talent, considering its large population. Now, if there was no U23 team, Johnny Gaudreau, Auston Matthews, Shayne Gostisbehere, Jack Eichel, Brandon Saad, etc., would be available and on the USA team here in Toronto, rather than playing to Team North America. So, the future of USA Hockey appears to be more potent. This year's Team USA went old school. Will it work? It can. Yes, Canada has a little more skill and speed --and that will usually win and probably will win Tuesday. But, when there is a goalie and lots of will, that deficit can be shrunk enough to win.
2. Here's the situation: I spent some time in The Situation Room during my time in Toronto. "The Surveillance Room" might be a better term for it. Every night during the NHL regular season (and during this World Cup), every game is monitored for possible video-review resolutions. Cameras along the bluelines, inside the net and drilled inside the crossbars, assist in the resolution of puck-over-the-line, offside and goalie-interference calls. Missed penalties and other data is also accumulated for referee reports. The atmosphere inside the room is a flatline, almost military-like (outside of the Uber Eats) in its dispassionate watching of the game. One change you might notice outside of the room is a larger monitor (it's now laptop-sized) for NHL referees to look at when they analyze a reviewable situation.
3. Hockey talent continues to improve exponentially. The speed and skill, yes, but also how these young players don't shrink. Team North America rose to the occasion late versus Russia. Yes, the North Americans lost, but that last 60 seconds was filled with fast and furious skill. Gostisbehere had that same look in his eye that he had in the 2014 NCAA Frozen Four, when he dominated the ice during his epic +7 performance for Union College. Those 360-degree, tape-to-tape backhand passes, and that slap shot -- like a purred Dustin Johnson drive -- that hit the post like a sledgehammer on steel? You want your kid's play to resemble that one day? Then think skill, skill, skill -- not win, win, win. More fun practices and fewer long-distance games.