It was thrilling theatre. Over that span they’ve outscored opponents a combined 52-15, making the average final score a comfortable 4-1.
Advertisement
Crosby opened the scoring, assisted on two Brad Marchand goals and led Team Canada to a 5-3 win over Russian Federation to advance to the World Cup finals.
All evidence points to a Canadian victory being by far the most likely outcome.
He made the puck dance on both sides of his stick as he skated across the front of the crease and as soon as Bobrovsky went down on his left hip, Crosby backhanded the puck into the net.
“None of us with the United States team here from head to toe is happy with what’s happened here”, coach John Tortorella said.
“This is the longest time I’ve been away from NY since I came over for the first year”, said Lundqvist, who arrived for the 2005-06 season and is Broadway’s longest-running show on ice. “I don’t like surprises. We just didn’t find a way to win the hockey game”.
That’s not to say it’s impossible to fathom a night when the inherent randomness of the sport – the luck of the bounces – catches up with Canada.
Goaltender Sergei Bobrovsky stopped 42-of-47 shots and nearly single handedly kept his squad in the game at Air Canada Centre. They’re now the old guys who young stars Erik Karlsson, Filip Forsberg and Victor Hedman want to win for, especially because the Stanley Cup has evaded Tre Kronor’s three oldest players. That game will not be remembered as classic chapter in the lore of an ancient rivalry; it didn’t require a moment of Gretzky-to-Lemieux genius or a Hendersonian wild stab. He only had one shot on goal, and wasn’t noticeable with the exception of an opening-shift bodycheck on Canadian defenceman Marc-Edouard Vlasic and diving to block a shot from Canadian blueliner Drew Doughty in the second period. So maybe that means Canada is still ramping up to peak efficiency.
There’s enough game-breaking talent here to threaten the Canadians in a single-elimination setting.
“Don’t be afraid to play against them”, Ovechkin said. “When we’re up two goals against the Americans the other night, one goal the other way and it’s a tight game …” “When you come into an event and you throw on the Canadian jersey the expectation and the feeling in the room is that we want to win and we’re here to win”. Then, with just under four minutes left in the period, Russian Federation went ahead as Evgeny Kuznetsov batted a shot past Price. “We’re going to have to be at our best”.
To that end, on Friday Babcock was speaking in grave tones about the state of the power play.
“Age catches up to all of us”, Babcock said.
Despite having the likes of Alex Ovechkin, Vladimir Tarsenko, Evgeni Malkin, Pavel Datsyuk and Nikita Kucherov, and what looked to be the most menacing powerplay unit at the tournament, Russia’s top scorer has only one goal and two assists (Ovechkin) with just four players on two points (Tarasenko, Telegin, Malkin, Datsyuk). Final shots on goal were Canada 47, Russian Federation 34.
In this edition we discuss whether the Team North America 23-and-under team should be a one and done situation or if they should stick around moving forward.
And how it laid the cornerstone of the rivalry that will be renewed when Canada meets Russian Federation at 7 p.m. today at Air Canada Centre in a World Cup of Hockey semifinal.
Advertisement
“When it comes down a matchup [against players such as Ovechkin and Malkin] and things like that, you’re just thinking about what you have to do for your team”, he said.
