In Day Two of the World Cup Of Hockey tournament, another shocking result happened.
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Expectations for Team North America were high entering group play at the World Cup of Hockey.
And when the Russian goals came they came thick and fast.
With players slumping at their lockers after allowing Russian Federation to score four goals in under seven minutes, McLellan told them they were better than they thought they were at that moment. If we would have lost today, we’d just live with hurting in the heart. I think the sky’s the limit as far as what he can do. He feels it’s his responsibility a lot of times to make them better, and that’s just a good sign of leadership.
“We could have been up 3-0 after the first”, Jack Eichel noted, “but we used that to gain momentum in the second, and shut them down in the third”.
“It’s a good opporunity for this team and myself personally to make a name for ourselves and put a real statement on what the future may hold for us”. Slow reading, slow reacting and, you know, slow to the scoreboard, I guess.
Russian Federation is up next Monday night after a 2-1 loss to Sweden earlier Sunday.
Either way, the North American team is dressing an impressive young defenceman.
McLellan was quick to shoot down any idea that this was an issue at all for his young team.
“We got away from our game, trying to be too cute and getting pucks instead of going to the net going east to west too much”, Matthews said.
“We knew we can’t lose the game”, Russian captain Alex Ovechkin said. “But he’s a guy that’s important to our team and as you see tonight, we’ve missed him”.
Well, if you count goal posts and pucks rolling oh-so-close across the crease in a dominant third period that included a wild final minute and a comeback falling just short. Except now he’s in the KHL and he’s 38, and Connor McDavid is 19 and skates like it. Needless to say, we’re in for a wild ride over the next four days of round-robin competition. North America’s greatest strength is their forward depth and they take advantage of that.
Bobrovsky faced 17 shots in the third period alone as the next-generation looked to tie it up and send the game to overtime, but it wasn’t meant to be. “I don’t think we got pushed out of the game at all”. Replacement Jacob Trouba had a decent game in Ekblad’s place but the pair of Columbus’ Seth Jones and Ryan Murray was particularly weak with the puck at times. However, Russia was limited to chances mostly from the outside and Matt Murray was able to control the pace of the period.
SWEDISH D-LIGHT: The all-world blue line led by Erik Karlsson, Victor Hedman, Anton Stralman and Oliver Ekman-Larsson has been as good as advertised for Sweden, which has allowed one goal in two games.
With 25 percent of players in the NHL now coming from outside North America, commissioner Gary Bettman boasted that the league continues to lead the way when it comes to inclusion.
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“He’s definitely a great player”, said Hopkins, McDavid’s teammate with both the Oilers and the North Americans. McLellan said afterward Murray is dealing with a jammed thumb so it bears watching if Team North America goes to John Gibson for its game Wednesday against Sweden. Namestnikov scored in his World Cup debut, replacing Vadim Shipachev.
