It is painfully simple for Team USA: Win, and its hope of advancing in the World Cup of Hockey lives for another day or two. And then, 30 months and a painful knee injury later, he returned to the global stage Saturday night with a triumphant 6-0 blanking of the Czech Republic in Team Canada’s opening game of the 2016 World Cup.
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That’s the job. And as unimpressive as the USA has looked to this point, nobody among the Canadian contingent was pretending it was going to be easy.
“I mean, it’s Canada/U.S.”, Erik Johnson said. “There are guys that have different roles and different jobs on the team”. I think we need to have just a business look.
With Team Europe leading 1-0 in the middle stages of the second period after a Zdeno Chara goal, Voracek carried the mail into the right circle and snapped a shot past Team Europe goaltender Jaroslav Halak (28 saves on 30 shots).
Price stopped 27 shots during the game.
In an elimination game in just their second game of the tournament, the Red White and Blue must take down the favored Canadian squad to continue on.
“This game, I’m not wasting much time”. “There were times we went D-to-D when I thought we didn’t have to, but even if we didn’t, we didn’t get the puck up the ice quickly. That’s unacceptable from me”.
Fifteen of the 558 athletes in the USA delegation at the Rio Olympics – or slightly less than 3 percent – had therapeutic-use exemptions in force during the games. A skilled Team Europe that fields the creativity of Anze Kopitar, Marian Gaborik, Mats Zuccarello and Frans Nielsen controlled the pace and took advantage of USA’s countless bad pinches and defensive zone breakdowns.
Team Canada’s Patrice Bergeron (37) celebrating his goal with Brad Marchand (63) and Drew Doughty (8) during the first period of a World Cup of Hockey exhibition game against Team Russia in Pittsburgh on September 14, 2016. As volunteer gigs go, in other words, presiding over this US team might not exactly go down as a productive resume builder if Tuesday’s result doesn’t go the way of the underdogs.
Players such as McDavid, Jack Eichel and Johnny Gaudreau are dominating the league at an early age, and Maple Leafs top pick Auston Matthews looks like the real deal, too. “If anything, hopefully that’s something that gets the best out of us”.
Canadian players even brushed aside eliminating the U.S.as a source of motivation. Tortorella, for his part, said it won’t be long into Tuesday’s game that he’ll expressing his by shortening his bench.
“We lost the game, so you think there is going to be some changes naturally”, said Kane, whose turnover led to a rarely seen 2-on-0 rush and a Europe goal.
That belief extended to the locker-room, even if beating the US looked shocking from the outside.
“We stayed as a unit of five, and I think the key is staying most of the time out of the (penalty) box”, said Halak, who was playing his first meaningful game since March because of a groin injury. “There are a lot of good guys and experienced guys here”. “A big win for us”. It involved a poor performance by the actual defense, smart play by Team Europe and not the best matchup decisions by Torts.
“There’s just complete buy-in on this group”, Krueger said. “We’re coming. We’re going to come”.
Nine members of this US team were in Vancouver in 2010, when they lost to the Canadians in the gold-medal game, and 14 players were in Sochi when Canada shut out the Americans 1-0 in the semifinals.
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“We’ve put ourselves in a spot now we’re chasing”, Tortorella said. “It’s a very risky spot, but we are here”.
