If Canada ever really had a hockey rival other than ourselves, it was Russian Federation.
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Whenever you’re apart of a team that is something special, it forges a bond between those involved that can last a long time. Miller has played sparingly for North America, but he could be a valuable depth player for Team USA in the future.
“I definitely would like the opportunity to try to make a Team Canada”, he said Thursday afternoon. The North Americans need Finland to beat Russian Federation on Russia to join Sweden in the Final Four.
Sweden knew the North Americans’ speed would be a challenge, but the Scandinavians were stunned by just how fast the under-23s played from the opening puck drop.
But Team North America restored their two-goal lead five minutes later when Gaudreau, who took off all alone from the USA blueline, used a nifty deke to beat a sprawled Lundqvist. But the game they played in this event, as incredibly exciting as it was, is gone. The one with no victor, Rendezvous 87 of which the late Viktor Tikhonov said: The NHL didnt win and neither did we.
They were so much fun. “We don’t really want it to be over”. It felt like something had been unleashed, and it was irresistible, because it doesn’t happen in hockey anymore.
In talking about the North America team, Babcock, the ultimate pragmatist as coach, became a fan from the outside.
That’s only half true. All but two players have produced at least a point.
Finland got off on the wrong foot against North America and really never recovered. Since the Dream Team in 1992, the Americans have put together star-filled basketball teams.
Things get even tricker thanks to tiebreakers.
The lack of one or two key goal scorers in this tournament may well work to Russia’s advantage, with the opposition not knowing who to focus on. We’d love to have it, okay? Nothing has been decided, and several conversations between the National Hockey League and NHLPA and participating federations will have to take place, but that’s the sense, as my colleague Pierre LeBrun noted Tuesday on SportsCentre’s Insider Trading. “I think the North American kids have been a … pump in the arm for hockey”. They can play with an explosive style, but they don’t. It doesn’t matter if they’re having a race to tie their shoelaces, one wants to beat the other. It feels like the old world championships – if you lose the wrong game you’re in such a dilemma right away. And trading chances is not normally the way you control the outcome. Especially if youre not involved in the game. “What are we going to do about that?”
Sweden eventually came back to force the overtime, setting the stage for MacKinnon’s heroics. They should have known the stakes, and maybe they would have pressed more for a regulation goal against the conservative Swedes, for whom just getting to overtime was enough to win the group. Finland fell, and that was it. “But this is the best players in the world”. They obviously did a great job of battling back and that’s the way it goes. Koivu’s second attempt, just three minutes later, would be a tip attempt that went wide. “I think the atmosphere is going to be fun”.
“Great hockey. The best game I’ve seen in a long time and one of the few games where the goal was to put the puck in the other guys’ net”, said Hall of Famer Bob Clarke. We have to poke holes in it?
“In my opinion they have a tremendous and bright future ahead of them in USA Hockey”, McLellan said.
“If anybody has been watching us, you’d have to be underneath a rock for the last three weeks to [believe] that we didn’t play all out the whole time”, McLellan said. It was all about winning.
Be proactive – Use the “Flag as Inappropriate” link at the upper right corner of each comment to let us know of abusive posts. “They came to win”.
Forsberg got on the board with Sweden’s fifth shot of the game at 8:24 when he walked over North America’s blue line and fired a harmless looking wrist shot that beat Gibson between his blocking arm and body.
As GM Peter Chiarelli put it, you can’t duplicate this team.
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Team Canada general manager Bob Clarke wasted no time in advising Hockey Canada executives on the direction the program needed to head. They made hockey look better than it can look anywhere else; they were an intoxicating illusion in a sport that is built for far more mundane fare.
