Canada vs. Russia Odds: World Cup of Hockey Semifinals

Team Russia earned a spot in the semifinals against Canada tomorrow with a shut out win against Finland last night. When these two powerhouse teams met during the preliminary exhibition games, Canada edged out the Russians with a 3-2 win in overtime. The Canadian team is currently the -385 favorite to advance past the Russians to take on the winner of the Sweden vs. Europe semifinal game.

Team Canada

Team Canada is the only team in this tournament that has yet to be beaten, which shouldn’t be a surprise, considering they have been the odds favorite to win it all since the rosters were announced. They’ll be facing an offence-heavy battle against the Russians on Saturday night, but should be able to control the game with a far more balanced team.

Leading in tournament points are Sidney Crosby, Jonathan Toewsand Matt Duchene with four each in three games. John Tavares, Brad Marchand, Logan Couture have each notched three points so far. Goaltender Carey Price sat out during this week’s win against Team Europe, but he is expected back between the pipes for the semifinal game this weekend.

A big part of Canada’s success so far in this tournament are the coaching abilities of Mike Babcock. After every win, Babcock insists that his team is capable of more, and in every game, we see improvements. “What I’ve found over time is if you just do your job, your simple job and everyone else does theirs, you have a lot of success together,” Babcock said. “That’s what we’re going to try and do.”

Team Russia

This tournament didn’t start out strong for the Russians, falling to Sweden in their first game of the round robin, and only narrowly eking out a win against the young Team America. They seemed to find their groove eventually, and looked solid in their last game against Finland, with Vladimir Tarasenko, Ivan Telegin and Evgeni Malkin all getting on the board for their team.

When they met Canada in the pre-tournament, they were beaten in overtime. Team captain Alex Ovechkin is looking forward to meeting them again on Saturday. “I play in Olympic Games in Canada and everybody is gonna be crazy,” he said. “The atmosphere’s gonna be unbelievable. It’s gonna be a great match to play, to be involved in, to be in the stands and be able to watch.”

Vladimir Tarasenko is also excited about this weekend’s game. “I think this is one of the greatest rivalries ever: Canada against Russia,” he said. “We know how they play because we play in Pittsburgh before. They have a really good team, good players, best players in the world so we need to be good.”

They will need to be better than good, since they are currently listed as the +300 underdog to beat the heavily favored Canadians.

Canada vs. Russia Prediction

Canada 4-1