A HAPPY ENDING
Canadian men climb back from shocking semifinal loss to beat Czech Republic for bronze medal
PYEONGCHANG, SOUTH KOREA— To navigate the emotional terrain between an Olympic semifinal loss tinged in regret and bronze medals hung around proud necks, Canada’s Olympic men’s hockey team employed the gamut of psychological tactics.
There were game-day addresses to the team from members of the leadership group. And there was video screened for the squad, described by a handful of players as particularly moving. The production featured game and practice clips from Team Canada’s journey to Pyeongchang’s medal round interlaced with passages from a speech by motivational speaker Jamie Clark. The mountaineer and a master of messaging, who has come to work frequently with Hockey Canada, talked about the failed attempts at summiting Everest that led to his ultimate success at the world’s highest peak.
“I think it sent some chills through some guys . . . Best speaker I’ve ever heard,” said defenceman Chris Lee. “I shed a tear, I think,” said centreman Derek Roy.
If the speech struck a nerve, perhaps it’s because the Canadians were attempting to pull off a rink-bound version of what Clark did on those Himalayan heights. They were trying to find a way to bounce back from the epic failure of a 4-3 semifinal loss to Germany with a win that would mean a medal.
They succeeded in reaching their modified Olympic summit — a 6-4 win over the Czech Republic that gave Canada its third straight medal in Olympic men’s hockey and its third bronze in history. Shaking off some early doldrums — they didn’t register their first shot on goal until the first period was nearly half over — the Canadians played with a force they’d lacked for most of the night before.
“I don’t know how we did it. It’s very hard. When you’re so close to the finals, it’s so hard,” said Roy. “But we said in the dressing room: We don’t want to let this moment slip away.”
Canada scored first — Linden Vey firing a power-play shot off Andrew Ebbett’s net-front skate — and they scored often, more goals than they’d managed in a game all tournament. And thanks to two-goal nights from Ebbett and captain Chris Kelly, and two-assist performances form Rob Klinkhammer, Cody Goloubef and Brandon Kozun, they outlasted a Martin Erat-captained Czech unit that didn’t go away easily.
“We didn’t want (the loss to Germany) to be the defining moment for our hockey team,” Kelly said.
“(The semifinal) wasn’t our best effort. We know that. Everyone knows that. We wanted to come out and show what we could do.”
Along with drawing on the tales of Everest and the wisdom of peers, the team was also reminded of some stories from Canada’s Olympic teams of the past.
“Honestly, a lot of what we talked about was past performances by Canadian teams and the history we have of maybe not showing up for the bronze because the gold is such a win-or-nothing thing,” said Lee. “It’s unfortunate we looked at that as motivation. But you’ve got to find some things to pump you up.”
So give a touch of the credit for Canada’s win on Saturday to the lesson of 1998. That’s when members of an NHL-laden roster that included Wayne Gretzky, Steve Yzerman and Eric Lindros essentially admitted their hearts weren’t in a bronze-medal loss to Finland after crushing agony of a semifinal shootout loss to the Czech Republic.
“Nobody had their head in that game,” Lindros has said.
But in the 20 years since, members of that team have looked back on that bronze-medal loss with regret. To that end, another of Saturday’s pre-game messages asked Canada’s Olympians to consider how they might feel 20 years from now, looking back on their careers as retirees.
“This is forever,” said Mat Robinson, the defenceman. “This is something you’ll remember for the rest of your life, whether it’s a gold or it’s a bronze.”
What Saturday’s win ultimately produced was a dressing room full of delighted, unlikely medallists. Given that the NHL’s best players populated this tournament from 1998 until 2014, only Canada’s stars of stars harboured realistic dreams of getting an Olympic sniff.
But here was Klinkhammer, the KHLer from Lethbridge, smiling widely: “I’m an Olympic medal winner now — I can’t believe it.”
Here was Ben Scrivens, the exMaple Leafs goaltender now playing in the KHL, whooping giddily: “I never anticipated going to the Olympics, for sure. But that’s the fun part of life. Sometimes you get presented with opportunities you don’t anticipate. And now we’re here.”
Here was Lee, a KHLer at age 37: “If this is the last thing I win, I’m going to retire a happy man.”
Ultimately, a group of players coming off the most crushing loss of their lives had to make a choice. They chose to stop wallowing in self-inflicted misery and do their best to make the final game of their Olympics a victory. They chose to climb out of the crevice and look toward the mountaintop.
“You serve your country pretty well when you get to wear this medal around your neck,” Robinson said. “We didn’t want to go out like we felt (after the semis). This makes it a happy ending for us.”