Canada can’t take Europeans lightly
When examining the David vs. Goliath World Cup matchup that pits the heavy underdogs of Team Europe versus the overwhelming favourites that make up Team Canada, let’s remember that there already has been a miracle in the world of team sports earlier this year.
Did you forget that tiny Iceland beat mighty England in soccer at Euro 2016? Iceland has a population of 320,000. England’s total is 53 million.
If that real-life fairy tale ending could play out like that, who’s to say a roster melding players from eight different European nations can’t unite to beat a country in Canada that has won the past two Olympic gold medals?
Doug Armstrong knows anything can happen in the Canada-Europe best-of-three final, which begins Tuesday night at the Air Canada Centre. He also understands that a loss to a team that was specifically plopped together just for the 2016 World Cup of Hockey would be a wart on the legacy of he and his players that likely would never be forgotten in hockey-mad Canada.
As such, the Team Canada GM is taking nothing for granted. He can’t afford to.
“They’re a great story, and shame on us if we don’t take them serious for what they’ve done to this point,” Armstrong said. Shame indeed. Behind closed doors, this matchup could not be what NHL and NHLPA officials wanted for its alleged marquee final to this tournament. Sweden was the much sexier option, the one that would have provided far more sizzle. Having played Canada in the Olympic gold medal game in Sochi, the runner-up Swedes have some of the splashiest names in the sport in Erik Karlsson, Henrik Lundqvist, the Sedin twins ... the list goes on.
Team Europe? It’s a squad that doesn’t even have a national anthem.
What it does have is a mixture of competitors with obvious proven skills and some deep heart. Players with well-known track records such as Anze Kopitar, Marian Hossa and Zdeno Chara. And a coach in Ralph Krueger who has given them a legitimate sense of belief.
The idea for the concept of a Team Europe — made up of Europeans not from Russia, the Czech Republic, Sweden or Finland — was spearheaded by Chara and Kopitar, who wanted someway, somehow to be a part of this event. Putting together a roster wasn’t an easy task however, something Armstrong acknowledged.
“I think it’s very difficult,” Armstrong said. “One of the things that you have for the nations, you have that synergy, whether it’s world juniors or under-17s, under-18s (whereas) these (guys) basically, if they haven’t played on their club teams together, they don’t know each other.
“I think Ralph and his staff have done a great job of pulling this together quickly. I thought they didn’t panic when everybody else was panicking around them after watching the first game against the North Americans.”
Armstrong is referring to the fact that Team North Europe looked old and slow in a pair of pre-tournament losses to Connor McDavid’s electrifying Team North America, which outscored Chara and company 11-4.
That Team Europe managed to stay the course after such a rough start has translated into their emergence as one of the final two survivors in this tourney, thanks to a semifinal 3-2 overtime victory over the Swedes on Sunday.
The only loss suffered by Krueger’s team in the preliminary round was a 4-1 decision to Team Canada, which peppered goalie Jaroslav Halak with 46 shots.
But that one-sided victory certainly isn’t going to give Canadian coach Mike Babcock a sense of security, especially since his knowledge of Krueger’s hockey smarts goes back to when the two worked together as part of the Team Canada brain trust for the 2014 Sochi Olympics.
“I’ve known Ralph since the ’04 world championships. Ralph and I are good friends. We talk a lot. He’s a very, very intelligent person,” Babcock said.
“He has these guys believing and prepared and in the finals. From where they were at one point when they got lit up a couple of times early to where they are now, he’s done a heck of a job.”
Having said that, Babcock doesn’t just hope Team Canada will avoid the upset. No, he is doing everything in his power to ensure it doesn’t happen.
“I think we’ve got better every game,” Babcock said of Team Canada. “I expect the same to continue.”
In his mind, there are no thoughts of this being another England-Iceland.
We’re guessing there certainly are for Krueger, though.