STOCKHOLM - The first shot has already been fired.
Well in advance of puck drop, too.
Mikael Backlund, bedecked in blue and yellow with host Sweden at the 2025 IIHF World Championship, perhaps moved the needle with a little needling of Canadian opponent and Flames teammate MacKenzie Weegar.
"Weegs and I... he always says, 'You have a such a good stick,'" Backlund prefaced.
"So, tell him to watch out for that CCM stick. It's going to be coming on the forecheck."
Shot blocked by Weegar.
"The CCM?" he questioned. "I'm not worried about his CCM. I've already got (Sidney) Crosby with a CCM that I've got to look for. I'll watch that stick before his."
Backlund, with Rasmus Andersson, will have true a home ice advantage when Sweden welcomes Canada in the final exhibition of round-robin play at the Worlds. Weegar, with Flames head coach Ryan Huska, serving as an assistant on the staff, will be firmly planted on the other side.
"It'll be great," Huska said. "I love those two guys. I think they're special players. Hey, I want to make sure we're winning that game, but I think it'll be a lot of fun for me to be able to watch them play that game as well, and actually see how far both of those guys have come over their careers."
That's the diplomatic approach.
With first place in Group A on the line, things might get a little more heated from ice level.
Sweden has jumped out to a superb 6-0-0-0 start, out-scoring opponents 25-3 heading into the heavyweight tilt opposite Canada. The Canadians, for their efforts, are 5-0-1-0 - their lone loss, a shootout setback to Finland on Monday, and have out-scored the opposition 29-4 through six skates.
"I love those guys," Weegar said. "Those guys are my boys.
"But I'm looking forward to it and I know they'll be looking forward to playing me. I just can't wait to get after them. I'll be chirping. I know Backs doesn't really like to chirp too much. I'll try. I'll see what's going on out there. I know Ras has the 'C' so I'll be chirping him too. He thinks he's the big dog over there.
"There might be a couple buttons I can push. We'll see. He's going to try to be all serious out there and try to be disciplined and stuff. We'll see. We'll see how the game's going, I'll say that."
Andersson doesn't think that approach will work too well for Weegar.
"I am under his skin already," No. 4 declared.
"Me and Weegs are extremely close. l'd say Weegs is one of my best friends on the team. Me and him are kind of the two guys that lead the backend. One of us plays 25 (minutes) and the other plays 24. Then the other night it's the opposite. We have that understanding with each other.
"But, I mean, no... he can't get under my skin. There's no way.
"If anything, I'm the one that's going to crawl underneath his skin."
Andersson is jesting, of course, and is one of the best gum-flappers in the game.
So, naturally, his gamesmanship is all in good fun.
Same from the other side.
"Those guys are awesome and they're in their home country and they're going to be playing hard for their country, just like us," Weegar said. "It's just going to be fun to play those guys."
Ditto, Backlund offered.
"It's going to be a great game," he said. "When you got the schedule that's one of the games your circle on the calendar in the round robin. I'm sure they feel the same. They've got a really good team here.
"On paper, we're the two best teams in the group. There's no doubt about that.
"It should be a great match."
Game time is set for 12:20 p.m. MT on Tuesday. Needless to say, you won't want to miss it.
