A dark day for Canadian hockey

The worst possible

GANGNEUNG, SOUTH KOREA outcome for an Olympic team without NHL players landed like a spear to the gut in an embarrassing night for Canadian hockey at the Gangneung Hockey Arena.

Never mind the comeback, a dismal effort early on doomed Team Canada in a stunner of an Olympic hockey semifinal. Not only did they fall 4- 3 to a group of little- known Germans, they punctuated it with a lacklustre start and some old- fashioned head hunting.

It was just the second German victory in 30 international meetings with Canada and they did it despite being outshot 15- 1 in the third period and 31- 15 overall.

The Canadians were unprepared to face a team they were favoured to handle with ease and earn a goldmedal date with the Olympic Athletes from Russia.

Instead, they watched the Germans beat them to loose pucks and take advantage of some suspect goaltending while jumping out to a 3- 0 lead, all before the Canadians showed any willingness to compete.

“There are no excuses,” forward Rob Klinkhammer said. “We’ve got to be ready to go. It’s one of the biggest games we’ve ever played, so there’s no reason not to be ready.”

As expected, the sport of hockey took a significant step back during this tournament, erasing some of the global gains made since NHLers joined the party in 1998. The blood is on the hands of NHL commissioner Gary Bettman and the IOC for ruining a good thing.

But, who to blame and how to explain what happened on the ice in the early going of Friday’s game is another matter. Given the stakes, it was baffling how poor the effort was against a Germany team filled with hard- working players but not exactly deep in talent.

“We knew what they were going to come with and they outworked us, especially in the first half of the game,” defenceman Mat Robinson said. “That’s not the Canadian way. We had to be better.”

Even with the absence of the best players on the planet, the result was a stunner. Germany, which had a handful of Canadians in its lineup, didn’t even qualify for the 2014 Olympics in Sochi.

Of further concern was the lack of discipline showed by the Canadians, who disrupted their already limited momentum by taking inopportune penalties. The worst came in a sickening moment in the second when Canada was trailing 4- 1 and forward Gilbert Brule’s response was to go headhunting. For a savage hit that felled Germany’s David Wolf at centre ice, Brule was ejected and the Germans awarded with a five- minute power play.