Dale Hunter's Canadians may have punched their ticket to the gold medal game at the 2020 IIHF World Juniors on Saturday, but the 5-0 win over Finland came with a potentially heavy blow: Team captain Barrett Hayton left the game in the third period with an apparent injury.
On Sunday, however, things looked a little brighter. TSN's Mark Masters reported that Hayton is a game-time decision. He then showed up to the arena later in the day without a sling or appearing to be favoring the arm.
No sling for captain Barrett Hayton 🇨🇦 as he arrives for Canada's gold-medal game against Russia 👀 pic.twitter.com/xJy6IHBAQF
— TSN (@TSN_Sports) January 5, 2020
Hayton, tied for the tournament lead in overall scoring (five goals, six assists) with Sweden's Samuel Fagemo, was in obvious pain shortly after he crashed into the endboards while battling for control of the puck with Finnish defenseman Lassi Thompson on Saturday. He could be heard yelling out directly after the collision, in which his left arm appeared to bear the majority of the contact.
WJC SEMIFINALS: Russia defeats Sweden in OT | Canada shuts down Finland
🇨🇦 Canada's leading goal scorer Barrett Hayton heads to the dressing room after this play. 😬😬 pic.twitter.com/xTamCxdvP7
— TSN (@TSN_Sports) January 4, 2020
After the game, Team Canada coach Dale Hunter had no update on Hayton's status, but TSN's Frank Seravalli tweeted, "Sounds like outlook on Canada captain Barrett Hayton’s injury is not positive. He hasn’t been ruled out and the team plans to reevaluate in the morning, but the belief going to bed Saturday night was that Hayton is a bit of a long shot to play in the gold medal game."
If Hayton can't play, Canada will be down one of its top players for the second time this tournament. Star prospect Alexis Lafreniere (eight points in four games) missed two of Canada's preliminary round games after he was injured during the team's last clash with its final opponent, Russia.
The 2018 fifth-overall pick caused some bad blood with the Russians in that first meeting on Dec. 28. After Canada's embarrassing 6-0 loss, Hayton failed to remove his helmet during the opponent's national anthem — a tradition after all IIHF-sanctioned games — after the game. Russian captain Grigori Denisenko and three other players refused to shake Hayton's hand after the game as a result. The Arizona Coyotes forward later apologized and said he was "lost in the moment" after such a poor game.
Hayton played 14 games for the Coyotes this season before heading to the Czech Republic with Team Canada for the world juniors.