World Cup of Hockey game thread, lineups and schedule for Saturday

We have two games coming up on Saturday — first Patrick Kane and Team USA face off against the demigod Marian Hossa and Team Europe, then this evening Jonathan Toews and Team Canada (with Corey Crawford backing up) will play Michal Kempny and the Czechs.

Blackhawks fans will be interested to see how Kempny looks against a stacked Team Canada, while people will be … interested to watch USA coach John Tortorella’s lineup choices:

#TeamUSA‘s projected lines for #WCH2016 opener against Team Europe at 3:30pmET on ESPN2. https://t.co/pudSaeW4Ax pic.twitter.com/LtSbcY7Pr9

— USA Hockey (@usahockey) September 17, 2016

Yes, that is Dustin Byfuglien getting scratched so the Americans can roll out a top line of Erik Johnson and Jack Johnson on defense. Whatever John Tortorella is trying to do with this team, it’ll be pretty damn shocking if it works.

And here are the forward lines for Team Europe:

Team Europe lines: Tatar-Kopitar-Hossa; Gaborik-Nielsen-Zuccarello; Niedererrieter-Draisaitl-Rieder; Vanek-Bellemare-Hansen.

— Tom Gulitti (@TomGulittiNHL) September 17, 2016

Hossa gets the top-pairing assignment with Anze Kopitar and Tomas Tatar.

And here’s the schedule for the day:

LET’S DO THIS!