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Duchene hopes to one-up Avs teammate Landeskog for gold

Ice Hockey - Winter Olympics Day 14 - United States v Canada

during the Men’s Ice Hockey Semifinal Playoff on Day 14 of the 2014 Sochi Winter Olympics at Bolshoy Ice Dome on February 21, 2014 in Sochi, Russia.

Martin Rose

Being NHL teammates on opposing teams in the Olympics can make for awkward situations. Such is the case for Colorado Avalanche forwards Matt Duchene and Gabriel Landeskog.

Those two will face each other on Sunday in the gold medal game between Canada and Sweden (7 a.m. ET on NBC). As Duchene tells Mark Kiszla of The Denver Post, they’re enemies until the game is over.

“We’ve talked a few times during the Olympics,” Duchene said. “I’ve seen him at the cafe. And we chatted. But I’m not talking to him now until after the gold medal game. He has rubbed the fact Sweden won the world championship last year in my face. And I’d like to give that back to him. Absolutely.”

Duchene hasn’t gotten quite as much ice time as Landeskog has for Sweden, but he was more of a factor against the United States winning faceoffs in Canada’s 1-0 victory in the semifinals.

You can imagine the chirping that will go on if Sweden comes away with the win, however. Holding gold at Worlds and gold at the Olympics over someone’s head (all in good fun) in the locker room is how prank wars begin.

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