Team North America is the wild card of the World Cup of Hockey. It features the NHL's brightest young stars, led by Connor McDavid, Jack Eichel and Nathan MacKinnon, and plays with a breathtaking speed that gives us a glimpse of where the game is headed.
This will be the fastest team in the tournament. It's not a stretch to say that there has never been a faster hockey team assembled, from top to bottom.
But Team North America is also short on experience, light on physicality and still working on its chemistry. In short, it could win it all or get bounced early. Either way, this has become a must-watch team.
How North America could win
It blows past everybody and teams can't keep up. There is so much speed in this lineup that the reigning All-Star Game fastest skater champion, Dylan Larkin, couldn't crack the lineup for its opening pretournament game.
Team North America's players are so quick in transition that they should have consistent odd-man rushes throughout the course of the game, and with guys such as Johnny Gaudreau and Brandon Saad around to complement the high-end centers, they'll know how to finish.
This team has already shown a propensity to absorb the teachings of coach Todd McLellan. Its strong puck support has led to a controlled game both when it's leaving the defensive zone and entering the offensive zone. This young team could become more dangerous as the tournament progresses and its young players jell and gain confidence. After beating Team Europe by a combined score of 11-4 in two pretournament games, North America's players truly believed they were just scratching the surface.
The biggest concern six months ago for this group was goaltending -- and then Matt Murray went out and won a Stanley Cup with the Pittsburgh Penguins, negating that issue.
The defense doesn't have the depth of some of the other teams, but it has strong skaters throughout and a bona fide No. 1 in Aaron Ekblad, who will see a ton of playing time.
How North America could lose
It hasn't been forced to defend for long stretches in the early going, and there are concerns that the kids don't play a mature, 200-foot game. Privately, the coaching staff was just fine with Team Europe pushing back in the second game because it provides an opportunity to show where the players need to improve defensively.
This team could be susceptible to a bigger, stronger team cycling down low and maintaining puck possession, while wearing down the smaller, faster North Americans.
The North American players also tended to pass too much in the pretournament games rather than take the shot and score on second and third efforts. That's a byproduct of having so much skill and all kinds of confidence.
We still don't know how this team will look against a bigger, physical team. As Gaudreau pointed out, you can't hit what you can't catch -- but a veteran team with an edge, like Team Finland, could pose problems for the kids.
Like Team Canada's, the forward group is composed mostly of centers and there are still some questions about which of the centers are best suited to play on the wing. They're undergoing a learning process here -- but don't have a lot of time to figure it out, one of the disadvantages of being a new creation and a team that has never played together before.
What to watch for: For McDavid & Co., the future is now
The hockey world was robbed of a full rookie season from McDavid because of his injury. Now, on a best-on-best stage, we get to see just how good he really is. McLellan has shown a willingness to play McDavid and Eichel together, which is a cool byproduct of this team and this tournament. We might never get to see that combination again.
McDavid, according to teammate Mark Scheifele, is even faster than he was his rookie season. That's scary. The expectation is that he's going to be one of the two or three best players in the game down the road. When this tournament finishes, we might just conclude he already is.
