Jack Eichel, Johnny Gaudreau, Auston Matthews, Dylan Larkin and Seth Jones sure would have looked good in this lineup, wouldn’t they?
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The no-goal definitely woke the United States of America up, and the intensity of the game kicked up by several notches. Lose another and you can forget a spot in the semifinals. Another shot to the gut for Team USA. All the United States had to do was beat Europe, and they wouldn’t have to worry too much about the Canada game in the round-robin.
“From the outside, we got stamped up as the underdog here”, Draisaitl said.
“Not the way you want to start the tournament but at the same time we can’t lose confidence”, said USA forward Patrick Kane. It’s a spot we didn’t want to be in.
“It’s a very unsafe spot”. We just need to stay together and not blow ourselves up here.
In the second period, Team Europe scored once again less than five minutes in. Draisaitl picked it off, executed a flawless give-and-go with Nino Niederreiter that made it 2-0 Europe 4:02 into the second. Yes, a 2-on-0. As if it was some rookie tournament in HarborCenter. Leon Draisaitl picked Patrick Kane’s pocket at the blueline, and scored on an easy 2-on-0 give and go with no American defensemen back. “We took advantage of our opportunities”, said German Christian Ehrhoff, who had one assist today. “We handled their pressure and I’m proud how we played”. I just kind of lost the puck and the next thing you know, they go down 2-on-0 so that’s unacceptable for me. “We’ve been there and we’ve had our chances and it’s time to break through”.
“We really haven’t broke through”.
Carey Price, back from injury and playing in his first meaningful game since last November, made 27 saves for the shutout while Patrice Bergeron, Jonathan Toews, and Alex Pietrangelo had the other Canadian goals.
The U.S. wasn’t without scoring opportunities, launching almost twice as many shots as its opponent (18-10), but the Americans could not find the crack in the armor of Team Europe goalkeeper Jaroslav Halak. They ended up with 37 shots, but 17 of those came in the third period when they were already chasing the game. Team Europe goalie Jaroslav Halak was stout when he needed to be, especially on Team USA’s four power plays. American coach John Tortorella, whose hiring at this point in any arena is an act of at least mild desperation, said his major worry was that “developing quality scoring chances, it was a struggle for us”. It was a game where the Americans had very little zip. This U.S. roster is not built to chase the way that they had to in this game and it showed. It’s that they are not the best players at Team USA’s disposal for this type of tournament. “There were chances when another player was there but it just didn’t happen”.
“So I thank the kids for spanking us so hard, because we had adversity early”. The bench was good.
Just one game, yes, but theres no time in the World Cup to build up steam.
Moreover, any momentum the strong power play might have generated was rapidly extinguished as France’s Pierre-Edouard Bellemare pulled a fast one on Jonathan Quick, and the second period ended with Europe up by three. “We started slow but we’re building each game”.
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Gaborik, of Slovakia, opened the scoring at 4:19 of the first period on another odd-man rush. And any team that has two-time Stanley Cup champion Anze Kopitar as captain has to be worth something. As night falls on Toronto one crowd files out and another files in.Team Canada and the Czechs are about to continue the fun. “It’s disappointing, not the way we envisioned starting”.
