Take Sweden, the reigning Olympic silver medalist, the squad with the deepest and most talented blue-line corps in the tournament.
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Once Sweden took Wednesday’s game against the Young Guns to overtime, it was the best possible result for the enigmatic Russians, who now have a glorious chance to became relevant again in a best-on-best tournament. He thought that game was evident in the tournament opener against Czech Republic, a 6-0 win, and only in spurts in the two games that followed.
Aging: Team North America, which kept its hopes alive to advance to the semis with a scintillating 4-3 overtime victory over Sweden on Wednesday, consists of top North American players 23-and-under. They sport a good amount of depth at the forward position, including breakout players like Dylan Larkin (Detroit Red Wings), Jonathan Drouin (Tampa Bay Lightning) and Johnny Gaudreau (Calgary Flames).
Imagine what it was like being head coach North America head coach Todd McLellan during that OT session.
“I didn’t think either team probably had the emotion they’ve had”, Canadian coach Mike Babcock said. I know nothing’s on the line tomorrow, but you still play with a lot of pride. Lombardi also spoke to players and staff from the 2010 team and the 2014 Olympics team to get an idea of what broke down in Sochi, Russia. That was exciting hockey. Making the feat even more impressive, he has yet to play more than the 12:33 he played against Europe, in any contest. The fans were into it. Guys in the room were excited to watch it.
After North America’s Auston Matthews scored to put the kids on the board early, Russian Federation knew it had to strike back and strike back hard. Canada game, which was admittedly a snore, were low by ESPN standards: 766,000 viewers on Tuesday night. Mistakes are just not allowed.
Team USA lost 4-2 to Team Canada Tuesday night and Kessel reacted to the loss on Twitter by tweeting, “Just sitting around the house tonight w my dog”. “I think the amount of pressure on both teams is a little bit different”.
Those guys were the Canadians, who went 3-0 and outscored opponents 14-3 in round-robin play and are clear favorites going into the semifinals this weekend. They know that even though maybe they’re not as strict with their systems – if that’s the case – they’re working hard. “We have some work to get respect back and that stuff doesn’t help”. “It’ll be fun to see what happens if they come together”. “They’re playing loose and they’re not anxious about a thing”. They ended up scoring four goals which lead to John Gibson entering the game and ultimately Team Russia’s first win of the tournament. “We did our job pretty well”. The complete buy-in from every player, the attitude everyone has coming in, it’s very light and confident but it’s also businesslike at the same time. Parise said the US won’t repeat what it did in against Finland in the bronze medal game at the Sochi Olympics, essentially mailing it in. Milan Michalek scored twice and Zbynek Michalek and Andrej Sustr each had a goal. Guys are blocking shots, guys are back-checking.
That made it 2-1 for Canada, though tension was never really apparent. It’s here to win, baby, win.
If Canada ends up meeting Team North America in the semifinals, it will be a matchup between efficient veteran structure versus the unbridled skill of youth.
The latter always wins out.
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Vladimir Tarasenko didn’t have to think hard to recall his favourite Canada-Russia clash.
