Nathan MacKinnon had to make an unreal move to just to beat Lundqvist in the extremely exciting 3 on 3 portion of the game.
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For Peter Chiarelli, they were all special.
But they were instead part of Team North America, which exemplified what hockey should be about.
Henrik Lundqvist (G, Sweden): 45 saves on 49 shots in 4-3 loss to North America. While they couldn’t complete the comeback, they did manage to get within one goal with numerous opportunities to tie it in the final few minutes.
Social distortion: Team Sweden and Hawks defenseman Niklas Hjalmarsson have a love-hate relationship with social media.
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. But this was different.
To Chiarelli’s and maybe everyone’s surprise, it worked.
Coming into the tournament the hockey world was undecided on whether or not it was a good idea to have the under-24 North American group as part of an worldwide competition. Still, it’s hard to argue that this wasn’t a huge success.
The game was considered an instant classic, a showcase of speed, skill, scoring and goaltending. The point Sweden gained by getting to overtime was enough to clinch Group B, setting up an elimination match with Team Europe, who was soundly beaten 4-1 by Group A-winner Canada last night.
It was a special experience, said Chiarelli, the kind of thing that may never happen again even if you tried.
“When I scored, I thought we were in”, said MacKinnon. While they weren’t able to come out with the victory, losing 4-3 after a near comeback from down 4-1, the kids know that they aren’t out of this tournament just yet. I mean, when they announced the team, Connor McDavid was 17 and Auston Matthews was far away from the draft. 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.
Team North America, an explosive mix of US and Canadian players 23 and younger, scored two goals in the opening 95 seconds of the game but Sweden did not panic and twice erased two-goal deficits to force overtime. Every day, Chiarelli heard from another general manager or coach or player or fan or whoever about how cool this team was.
I remember seeing Usain Bolt running for the very first time at the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing.
Karlsson said the message on the bench was to “wake the bleep up”.
Everything you could have ask for from Henrik Lundqvist in his first competitive game back since his early playoff departure.
Matthews and Trocheck (both Americans) had combined in 95 seconds for as many goals as Team USA has scored in this tournament.
Maybe this is a one-and-done. The team is 2-1 in the tournament and even if they fail to advance to the next round their stars are certainly on the rise with the team being under 23 years of age.
Translation: Team Canada isn’t here to entertain you. Not on any national level either. “You just keep watching it”. “You might not ever have it again. I didn’t know. I thought we were in if we won”, said Gaudreau. I think I’ll go out and buy one of those jerseys.
“It was fun to be a part of it”.
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“It’s fun, especially being (in Toronto) and keeping track of what your family does and all that stuff but I think I’m spending too much time on the phone and I don’t like that”.
