Canada draws first blood in World Cup final with 3-1 victory.
CANADA EARNS A 3-1 VICTORY, BUT IT WAS A SNOOZER
Let’s be serious. The game was a bit of a joke. As for the tournament ... well, we’ll let you decide that.
Yes, it was kind of dumb that Canada was playing in the World Cup of Hockey final against a made- up team of players who represented eight different countries. And sure, the trophy that was on the line sort of resembled a flower vase.
But forget about all that. The game itself, a 3-1 snoozer in Game 1 of a best- of- three championship final, was brutal.
It had the intensity of an AllStar Game. Or, based on the number of empty seats in the Air Canada Centre or lack of fans watching outside at Maple Leaf Square, a Tuesday night tilt between the Toronto Maple Leafs and Carolina Hurricanes.
At one point in the first period, with Canada leading 2- 0, Ryan Getzlaf made a no- look drop pass at the opposing blue line. It was the kind of play you make in a meaningless exhibition game — not in a championship final. Then again, they are sort of one and the same.
The worst part? The teams are playing again on Thursday and could meet for a third time on Saturday.
This was always the problem with the World Cup’s format: it hinged on a compelling championship final. The fake teams were fine — and actually added spice to the round robin portion of the tournament. But eventually, you needed real countries to root for. As much fun as it was to see Team Europe upset the Americans or for Team North America to skate circles around Finland, no one really wanted to see either team make it to the final. Or worse, actually win.
It was why the NHL practically rigged the two divisions, placing Canada and the U. S. with Czech Republic and Team Europe in hopes that it would result in an easy path to the semifinal and then final. Of course, it didn’t work out that way. Instead of a 1996 World Cup rematch between Canada and the U. S., or even a 2014 rematch of the Olympic final between Canada and Sweden, we got this.
Two teams. Zero history. And for one, zero future.
As Canada’s head coach Mike Babcock said, “the World Cup is great — it’s not the Olympics. Let’s not get confused.”
Babcock was right. The Olympics have passion. The World Cup is manufactured. As much as Team Europe has tried to play for pride or to adopt an usversus-the-world mindset, something gets lost when you are playing in an international event minus an actual country ... or anthem.
You wanted passion? You were better off walking down the street and watching the Toronto Blue Jays play the Baltimore Orioles. Or flipping the channel to one of the many pre-season NHL games on last night.
Five years from now, we likely won’t remember this championship final.
We’ll remember how Connor McDavid and Auston Matthews played together on the same line. And we will remember how Sidney Crosby, whose line with Patrice Bergeron and Brad Marchand have been the most dominant, somehow managed to take another step and get even better as a player.
But no one is remembering this.
Has a championship final ever felt so uneventful? So bleh?
The first real hit was delivered with 5:55 remaining in the third period. During one point, some fans tried to start a “Let’s go Canada!” chant. After repeating it a few times, they just gave up. It wasn’t worth the effort.
Canada played the same way. The players worked just hard enough to win. Goals from Marchand and Steven Stamkos gave Canada a 2- 0 lead in the first period, whereupon the hosts shifted into cruise control and simply tried to run out the clock.
Europe made it a one- goal game in the second period when a shot took a funny bounce off a Canadian defender and ended up on the waiting stick of Tomas Tatar. And Andrej Sekera almost tied things up when he had a short- handed breakaway. But even then, things were not as close as the scoreboard or the shot clock made them seem.
When Canada needed a goal in the third period, a switch was flipped and Bergeron scored. It was like playing a game against your older brother; they let Europe get chances and even a goal, but when the game got close they started trying and took over again.
As Team Europe f orward Thomas Vanek said of Canada, “We know this is the best team in the world. To beat them is going to be tough. To beat them twice is going to be — it’s impossible.”
Hopefully Vanek is right. Two Europe wins would mean this best- of- three series goes the distance.
And after what we saw in Game 1, we can’t imagine having to watch two more games of this.