COLUMBUS, OH – SEPTEMBER 9: Blake Wheeler #26 of Team USA reacts after being hit by Jake Muzzin #7 of Team Canada during the second period of an exhibition game on September 9, 2016 at Nationwide Arena in Columbus, Ohio. (Photo by Jamie Sabau/World Cup of Hockey via Getty Images)

WASHINGTON, DC – On Sept. 20, the United States will play a World Cup of Hockey preliminary group play game against Canada. The game will be in Toronto. The world will be watching.

“Canada’s the best right now. They’ve proven that the last couple of years. If you want to win the tournament, you have to go through them,” said Team USA goalie Ben Bishop.

“To be the best, you gotta beat the best.”

The Canadians and Americans split their World Cup exhibition games in Columbus over the weekend, combining for an uncharacteristic 13 goals in the games. They’re grouped together in the World Cup, and bracketed to meet in the best-of-three championship round should they both advance.

Canada is mentioned with frequency in the American locker room, sometimes unprompted. They’re the measuring stick, to the point where Team USA’s very construction is by design to beat Canada. They’re the bullying older brother. They’re the architects of anguish for the veteran American players that have suffered through two medal-round defeats to the Canadians in the Olympics.

The players we spoke to wouldn’t go as far as to say that defeating Canada on its home ice in either the first round or in the semifinals would be as important, or more important, than winning the World Cup of Hockey. But beating Canada is certainly front of mind.

“It’s about winning a tournament. We want to get to that level with this group, and it’s about going through a lot of good teams to get to that level,” said Joe Pavelski of the San Jose Sharks.

“Obviously it’s not just about beating Canada. But obviously it’s nice if you beat them along the way.”

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So how does one beat Canada, if one is Team USA?

“We’re pretty familiar with their talent level and what they bring. The first game was pretty up-tempo. The second was a little more sluggish, as you’d expect in a back-to-back. Playing against the best prepares you the best,” said goalie Cory Schneider of the New Jersey Devils.

Playing the best allowed the Team USA coaches to get a handle on the team’s weaknesses’ before the tournament.

“Yeah, we’ve got some work to do,” said coach John Tortorella. “I thought Canada, as far as time of possession and end zone play, the two games they played against us they spent a lot of time in our end zone. I think one of our biggest weaknesses in the two games, and I’m glad we played Canada because they are a really good team, probably the best team in the tournament right now and you’d have to say that, I think it really gave us a focus on that we just weren’t close enough to the puck on our breakout, so we didn’t come out clean. We just weren’t supporting enough and we certainly weren’t close enough, or really even gave ourselves a chance to forecheck because we got stubborn at the blue line in trying to make too many plays instead of putting it behind them.

“Everybody talks about puck possession but sometimes puck possession is you don’t have the puck, you put it into an area to get it back and I don’t think we did a good enough job there,”said Tortorella. “When we did, I just think we need to be closer there. We need to support and outnumber people there also. That’s our biggest weaknesses in the two games, so we have a little bit of work to do as we go through and prepare for the start of the tournament.”

View photos COLUMBUS, OH – SEPTEMBER 9: Jack Johnson #3 of Team USA and John Tavares #20 of Team Canada battle for position as they skate after the puck during the first period of an exhibition game on September 9, 2016 at Nationwide Arena in Columbus, Ohio. (Photo by Jamie Sabau/World Cup of Hockey via Getty Images) More

Of course, Canada can exploit many weaknesses while not offering many to exploit. As Schneider said, they’re not going to help you out much with their own miscues.

“You have to be smart about it. You have to play the right way. They don’t have a lot of guys who cheat or give you free offense too often. For us, it’s about establishing our speed and getting pucks behind them. I know it’s a little cliché,” he said.

The exhibition games showed that the Americans have plenty of speed and some offensive pop if the World Cup contests are played a little loosely.

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