Illegal Curve Hockey

World Cup of Hockey (Jets update): Byfuglien scratched for USA

I suspect Team USA coach John Tortorella will be on the receiving end of that Byfugilien stare as word filtered out today that big #33 will be a scratch for the Americans in their first game of the World Cup of Hockey game against Team Europe this afternoon according to Stephen Whyno of the Associated Press:

“John Tortorella says Kyle Palmieri and Dustin Byfuglien scratched for U.S. in World Cup of Hockey opener vs. Team Europe.”

Here are some more more quotes from Tortorella.

This comes after Tortorella made the curious move of switching Byfuglien from his preferred defence up to forward during the pre-Tournament games.

It will be interesting to see how this plays out for Team USA. For now Dustin Byfuglien sits.

Update:

Team Europe beat the Americans 3-0. After the game Coach Tortorella was asked about sitting Dustin Byfuglien and he said (according to Mark Masters of TSN):

“It’s not a negative thought on Buff, but we decided to go with this lineup tonight”.

You can listen/watch the post game chat here. The Byfuglien comment starts at 44 seconds of the video:

David Minuk

Working hard on a daily basis to provide the latest Winnipeg Jets and Manitoba Moose news for our readers and listeners. I also appear on the Illegal Curve Hockey Show every Saturday on our YouTube channel as well as the Illegal Curve Post-Game Show after every single Jets game. And I occasionally jump in the play-by-play booth at Canada Life to provide colour analysis during Manitoba Moose games.