Team Europe: ‘We have no past, and we have no future … so we are really great in the now,” coach says
Ralph Krueger’s post-game press conference — after Team Europe stunned Sweden 3-2 in overtime of their World Cup of Hockey semifinal — covered a wide spectrum of topics, including a reference to comparing water-skiing passes with Canada’s Mike Babcock.
That’s one of many reasons why the European bench boss has become the coach everyone is raving about at the World Cup. But the most important details Krueger spoke about following his team’s Sunday afternoon win was how a group of players from eight different countries continually got better from the moment the tournament started.
On Sunday, it was Tomas Tatar’s turn to, as Krueger described it, “step forward and lead us to success.” The Detroit Red Wings star scored his first two goals of the tournament, including the overtime winner, and Krueger said the forward has been pushing himself since a first-round game against Canada where Tatar “felt he didn’t play up to his capabilities.”
“He just won the battles for the overtime goal,” Krueger said, “fighting against guys a lot bigger than he is. We continually find ways to do that and that’s what is special about this team.”
Tatar fought for position at the right side of the net to convert a pass from Mats Zuccarello. The puck struck his skate before it trickled past Sweden netminder Henrik Lundqvist, prompt- ing a review. That goal, though, stood, and touched off a scene with the European team holding each other and jumping up and down in the corner.
“I enjoy it more being with the group than (scoring),” Tatar said.
The Europeans entered the tournament as a tired blend of players, largely because many of them had come from Olympic qualifying tournaments for their respective countries.
Most of those players rarely get to the final of a big, international tournament, because their countries rarely advance to them.
Krueger understands their underdog nature, with his head-coaching experience in the NHL limited to 48 games with Edmonton in 2012-13. He told a story of how he was in his daughter’s bedroom, on Skype, following the firing when a call came in from Babcock, inviting him to be a part Canada’s gold-medal coaching staff at the 2014 Sochi Olympics.
Since then, Krueger has taken an executive job with the Southampton football club, which he thanked at the top of his presser Sunday for allowing him to coach this European team.
That kind of gratitude has shown in Team Europe’s spirit of togetherness at this tournament, and it was Tatar’s turn to embody it Sunday.
“We’ve never been together as a group before, we’ve never seen all these faces in the same locker room before,” Tatar said. “But when we started playing, there was an energy there, and that’s what helped.”
“We have no past,” Krueger said, “and we have no future … so we are really great in the now.”
The moment continues with a bestof-three final against the heavily favoured Canadians. The Europeans relish the challenge, believing in themselves when no one believed they would be close to the final when the tournament began.
“Everything,” captain Anze Kopitar said, when asked what has to go right for Europe against Canada. “It’s no secret, they pretty much bull-rushed everyone in the tournament, so we are going to have to play a solid game. I’m not even sure about the pressure they’ve faced . . . they’re used to it, they know how to play these big games, so we’re going to come in and try to spoil it.”