Tkachuk brothers, Matthews, McAvoy hope to return Thursday after injury-riddled loss to Sweden
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BOSTON – The list of players ruled out before the game between the United States and Sweden on Monday was a who’s who of the U.S. roster: Auston Matthews, Matthew Tkachuk, Charlie McAvoy, each of the members of the team’s leadership group.
It added another name, Brady Tkachuk, not long into the night when the forward went crashing into Sweden’s net at 5:12 of the first period, seeming to make contact with his left side. A team that had started the game with only 11 forwards – and six defensemen – was down to 10 not even midway through the first period.
It was not optimal, with the U.S. falling to Sweden 2-1 on Monday at TD Garden.
But with two days off before the U.S. faces Canada in the championship game of the 4 Nations Face-Off on Thursday (8 p.m. ET; ESPN+, ESPN, SN, TVAS), the hope is that they will be a little less banged up by that time.
“We’ll be good,” forward Jack Eichel said. “We’ll be good to go. We get two days here. We’ll take advantage of our time and get guys healthy and we’ll be ready to go on Thursday.”
There is, however, no guarantee.
“Brady obviously had a lower-body injury,” coach Mike Sullivan said after Tkachuk played only 1:55 in the game, skating for a 14-second shift after the collision but deciding he couldn’t continue. “We held him out more for precautionary reasons at that point. I haven’t got an update to this point after the game yet, so we’ll see how he responds, but I don’t anticipate it being an issue.”
And although Brady himself had assured reporters earlier Monday morning that Matthew Tkachuk would be available by the time they face Canada, saying “he’ll be good to go for Thursday,” others assured that Brady will be back.
“He’s been the heartbeat of this team, pretty much,” said goalie Jake Oettinger, who made 21 saves Monday in his first appearance of the tournament. “I know he’ll be good to go for Thursday. He’s such a big piece of this whole thing, but he’ll be back.”
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The news was less clear on Matthews and, especially, on McAvoy.
“Nothing that I can give you right now,” Sullivan said after the game. “Charlie, right now he’s out with an upper-body injury. … Auston [upper-body soreness] was more banged up, or nicked up I should say. We’ll probably have more information tomorrow with those guys.”
McAvoy missed seven games with an upper-body injury from Jan. 11-30, returning for the Boston Bruins’ final five games before the break for the 4 Nations Face-Off.
Asked if they had begun the process toward an injury replacement for any of their players, as Canada was able to do with defenseman Thomas Harley, who was added to the roster in the wake of Cale Makar’s illness for the game against the U.S. on Saturday, Sullivan demurred.
“Not really,” he said. “We’re hopeful we’re going to get some of these guys back. I would anticipate we would. We’ll have to wait and see how things play out here over the next day or so. Obviously there will be contingency planning in the event we need people.”
It was not the game they had anticipated against Sweden. After Boxford, Massachusetts, native Chris Kreider scored 35 seconds into the game, the U.S. could get nothing else past goalie Samuel Ersson, while taxing their forwards more than they wanted.
“It’s not easy,” Sullivan said. “We lose a guy that early in the game. We’re already down one. We tried to spread the minutes around a little bit so nobody got an extensive workload, but when you’re down two guys that early in the game, it is what it is. I thought the guys competed hard.”
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Jake Guentzel led the forward group with 23:36 of ice time; Eichel was second at 22:11.
“Obviously, it’s tough,” Eichel said. “We start the game with 11 forwards, then you lose another guy, and a key player on our team. It’s never easy. You don’t want to see anyone go out. But I give the guys credit, we put a lot on them, 10 forwards.
“’Sully’s’ trying to find combinations. We had chances, we just weren’t able to bury.”
With Canada ahead on Thursday, even with the injuries, the U.S. remains confident. They have beaten Canada already, 3-1 on Saturday at Bell Centre in Montreal, and they believe they can do it again.
“Everyone’s special here,” forward Dylan Larkin said. “I do feel comfortable with whoever plays.”
