Dallas Stars Suffer Moment of Uncertainty In World Cup of Hockey

Team Canada and Team U.S.A. duked it out in yesterday’s pre-tournament game, and the results were troubling for Dallas Stars fans.

Watching the Stars go off to play in the World Cup of Hockey is almost like sending your kids off to summer camp. Exciting, but also a little scary. The Dallas Stars have players representing the Czech Republic, Finland, and of course, Canada, who’s been slated as the favorite in the tournament.

The real action hasn’t even started, with games beginning September 27 and rolling through October 1. However, Canada and the U.S. opened with a pre-tournament game last night, and the results were pretty interesting.

Word was that team U.S.A. was struggling to make a choice between three goaltenders, knowing it needed to lead out strong against a team like Canada, which seemed already like the forgone winner.

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John Tortorella expressed some anxiety over the problem at hand, but started Jonathan Quick in goal, who made some key saves in the first seven minutes to keep the U.S. from falling behind Canada. Ben Bishop got a chance in goal, too, and in the end the U.S. lead with 4 goals to Canada’s 2.

But what was the real news for Dallas Stars fans here? A full 60 minute hockey game can be boiled down to this for Stars-lovers: it looked real bad for Tyler Seguin there for a moment.

One key to the U.S.’s win was their sheer grit. Their objective seemed to be to bulldoze their way to the goal, and steamroll anything in their path. This was the winning strategy, despite the U.S.A.’s shot count being extremely low.

Several players for team Canada fell victim to that warpath mentality. First, it was Logan Couture with a hit to the head along the boards, and then Ryan Kesler gave a textbook example of boarding using Shea Weber as his not-so-willing volunteer.

And that was bad enough when it came to tensions between the teams. But Stars fans, you know it gets worse. Tyler Seguin was also taken down, supposedly after stepping on Ryan Suter’s stick. When that incident sent him straight back to team Canada’s dressing room, we feared for the worst.

But thankfully, he returned to the game quickly and appeared to be alright. But seeing the sparks fly in last night’s pre-tournament game has got us wondering what else will unfold in this U.S. and Canada rivalry. And we’re all crossing our fingers that Tyler Seguin can keep from becoming collateral damage again.

After all, there is a lot riding on this upcoming season for the Stars, which Seguin – a healthy, uninjured Seguin – could play a substantial role. However, in seasons past, Seguin has suffered several injuries at key points in the year. Although he’s yet to start off a season with the Stars dealing with an injury, his end-of-season sideliners have hit the Stars pretty hard.

So as the pre-game exhibitions continue, we will all definitely be keeping an eye on Seguin and the other Stars competing in the tournament.

What do you think of last night’s U.S. v. Canada game? Does Canada need to worry about the U.S. upsetting their path to victory, or will the Canadians rise above the American grit and remain the hockey king?