Of course it did.
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Team North America, 4-3 overtime winners over the Swedes Wednesday, impacted the hockey world as a whole, leaving us to wonder out loud: Why can’t we watch hockey played this way more often?
If it was Team North America’s last goal, then that is fitting. What happened next was a literal blur. But it came with an asterisk. It will need help in order to advance to the semifinals.
It’s go time for team North America! If not, this insane experiment is over. “I knew it was going to be a tough game”.
Sorry, Russia. We know the Cold War is over. “It’ll be stressful tomorrow but we have faith in the Finns”.
Either way, its been a hell of a ride. The kids of North America regularly flew past opposing teams, making even quick players look sluggish and slow. Each of their games has been memorable, with Wednesdays game acting as a greatest hits package. The start probably set us up for the end, as well. “I’m not sure we’ll be able to play quite the same way, but that would sure be nice”. He didn’t really take it very seriously: “Not a lot of people knew what was going on”, the upcoming face of the National Hockey League said. Soderberg and Landeskog were counted on for some defensive work, penalty kill and were cycling the puck well as their line got rewarded with a strong effort. Its been very exciting. “Second and third, I felt more comfortable, but it was fun. It was fun, it was pretty cool”. It was obviously an honour to be a part of this team..
With the United States losing to Canada 4-2 yesterday and subsequently being eliminated from the World Cup of Hockey, I wonder if the Team North America suddenly finds itself with a boosted fan base? Lundqvist and the team fought back to make it 3-1 at the end of the first. And we talked about staying patient, even if they were up 2-0.
That’s good enough for Sweden’s Filip Forsberg, who put his team on the board in the first period. If Russia loses in OT, they finish with three points.
They did that and a whole lot more.
Wake the f– up! he said.
In fact, the first minute alone was sensational. They did it all. They had three breakaways, a penalty shot, penalty call with them against us, goal in the net, two goals in the net. And it gave us kind of a slap in the face.. McDavid made a brilliant rush but was stopped by Lundqvist. One, stopping Mikael Granlund, and a second save robbing Teuvo Teravainen on the doorstep. Or maybe it was Johnny Gaudreau streaming up the ice on one of his many breakaways.
It took all of 30 seconds for McDavid to feed Morgan Reilly, who in turn found Matthews for the first goal of the game.
They werent done yet. “They did it all”, Karlsson said. He had a terrific game.
We grew up on Canada-Russia hockey moments. We werent there, he bailed us out.
“There’s definitely some differences”, two-time Olympic gold medalist Jonathan Toews said after scoring two goals Wednesday night.
The opening eight minutes, and much of the first period, belonged to speedy North America.
Berglund scored the equalizer early in the third period.
It doubled its lead when American Vincent Trocheck put a rebound into the back of the net.
“They surprised us a little bit in the exhibition game, but they won’t surprise us on Sunday”, Sedin said.
“I saw his stick came up for a poke check and managed to beat that and get it up”, MacKinnon said. “We’ve proven that this young generation can play with the older ones”. We’ve been very entertaining. When they met up September 4 in Montreal, they were kids with barriers.
TORONTO – And now we wait. Winning in regulation would have gotten it through to the semis and left Sweden sweating out Russia’s game against Finland. That’s completely out of our control, he said. When you play that way, then that skill can really be unleashed and we’re seeing that too. But if we lost, we were out. But it’s out of our control. “They all have things to learn, and they have to grow up physically and mentally”.
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Now, it’s easy to count these young players out and some might already be writing them off. Every day, Chiarelli heard from another general manager or coach or player or fan or whoever about how cool this team was.
