WORLD CUP OF HOCKEY: WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW

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There will be a distinct Sabres flavor at the World Cup of Hockey when the tournament kicks off at Air Canada Centre on Saturday. Four of Buffalo’s star players are competing: Jack Eichel for the under-23 North America team, Rasmus Ristolainen for Finland, Dmitry Kulikov for Russia and, thanks to a late addition on Wednesday night, Ryan O’Reilly for Team Canada.

For those not familiar with the World Cup of Hockey, it’s an NHL-sanctioned international tournament returning for the third time and the first since 2004. Canada won that year, led by Vincent Lecavalier and Joe Sakic, while the Brett Hull-led United States won the tournament in its inaugural year of 1996. But while the tournament itself is not new, the format is, so allow us to catch you up by answering some of your questions.

How does it work? The tournament’s eight teams have been split into two groups for the round robin preliminary round: Team USA, Canada, Europe and the Czech Republic will play in Group A; North America, Finland, Russia and Sweden compete in Group B. Once each team plays three games, the top two from each group will advance to semifinal contests, and the winners of those games will advance to a best-of-three final.

That means (spoiler alert) that at least one participating Sabre is guaranteed to make it to at least the semifinal round out of Group B. It also bodes well for fans interested in seeing two of the Sabres’ brightest young stars go head-to-head when North America and Finland square off on Sunday. Ristolainen has witnessed Eichel’s ankle-breaking powers for a full year now, but he’s not exactly the type of defenseman to fear any challenge. That’s a game to circle on your calendar.

North America? Aren’t Canada and the United States in North America? Yes.

Explain. The NHL has so much young talent right now that the League decided to field a separate under-23 team comprised of the best …

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