But it is more than that.
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The hockey kids were dancing to the music, North America and Team Sweden, speed and skill on display and magnificent goaltender from The King, Henrik Lundqvist and then 3-on-3 overtime.
“I feel like after a couple of minutes, we toughened up a bit and played more physical”, says Backstrom.
We may have just witnessed the greatest 3-on-3 overtime in hockey history.
The North Americans need Russian Federation to lose to Finland on Thursday to move on.
“I mean it’s been spectacular to watch”, said Babcock, who doesn’t impress easily. “And what the young players are learning and what we keep telling them is they’re pretty damned good”.
Legendary concert promoter Bill Graham once said of the Grateful Dead: “They’re not the best at what they do; they’re the only ones that do what they do”. “Those first two minutes there was probably the most embarrassing part that I’ve ever been a part of on a team”.
The North American kids were brought here to entertain, to give us a glimpse of the sport’s promising future. “I think it’s going to be great for all of us because because him, Nuge (Ryan Nugent-Hopkins), (Leon) Draisaitl and (Andrej) Sekera are going to be setting the pace because they’re in game mode already”.
A MIGHTY CONTINENT: Slovakia, Germany, Switzerland, Denmark, Norway, Slovenia, Austria and France all likely would’ve been three and out at this tournament, but with players from those eight countries, Team Europe showed it can hang with the big boys.
The sheer volume of offence is what takes us back 30 years. This North America team has been a pump in the arm for hockey.
These teams put a combined 32 shots on goal in each of the first two periods.
Saad, who registered one shot in 10-plus minutes, is one of three Blue Jackets on the team. Four seconds after his first touch, having skated over four Swedes and about 140 feet of ice, he almost beats Henrik Lundqvist through his pads.
“Yeah, always when you step on the ice, you want to win the game, but obviously mission accomplished”, Sweden coach Rikard Gronborg said.
There might be another World Cup. “I know I can play at this level”.
“We became fans”, head coach Todd McLellan said of his coaching staff. “That to me is one of the most exciting things about this tournament”. No!’ and then, ‘Go! Go! Go!’ “It’s a lot of fun to play those games”.
In the other sense of the word, North America is the favorite. There may not be another McDavid, or the stunning young Auston Matthews.
We will have, however, tangible evidence of what hockey can look like when the coach takes the harness off. If North America had pushed, and gotten scored upon, and lost in regulation, that wasn’t the end for them. “How we can rebound from that I have no idea”. “I thought that we could have fun playing as a team”, McLellan said. “I thought we built the team and played to the identity”, he said.
I’d like to be naïve and argue that perhaps there’s room for both – high-octane hockey like the kids are playing, mixed in with Team Canada’s surgical brilliance – but I think the evidence in the NHL nowadays suggests otherwise.
On Team North America alone there are Matthews, Gaudreau, forwards Jack Eichel and Brandon Saad and defensemen Shayne Gostisbehere and Seth Jones who should be wearing red, white and blue if National Hockey League players participate in the 2018 Pyeongchang Olympics.
“I realized he was by himself”.
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Two seconds after he first touched the puck, the 19-year-old blurs past Henrik Sedin, who waves his stick in McDavid’s general direction like an old man trying to push a cat away with a broom.
