Passion missing in drowsy World Cup
Canada-Europe matchup played more like a meaningless exhibition game
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 Europe, 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 snooze-fest in Game 1 of a best-of-three championship final, was brutal.
It had the intensity of an All-Star 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.
Team Europe captain Anze Kopitar called it “our best game so far of the tournament.” But it might have been Canada’s ugliest.
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, the lines are sort of blurring at this point in the World Cup.
The worst part? The teams are playing again on Thursday.
“Obviously, we got the two points,” said head coach Mike Babcock, who was not impressed with the team’s effort or execution. “You’d like things to be perfect every night. But that’s just not real.”
Babcock was talking about Game 1, but he could have been referencing the entire tournament. The problem with the World Cup is that it’s not real. For it to be successful, you needed a compelling championship final between two teams that actually cared about beating the other.
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 all the way to the final. Eventually, you needed real countries and real drama.
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 between Canada and Sweden, we got this.
Two teams. Zero history. And for one, zero future.
As 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 passion. As much as Team Europe has tried to play for pride or to adopt an us-versus-the-world mindset, something gets lost when you are playing in an international event minus an actual country ... or anthem.
You wanted passion last night? 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 preseason NHL games on television.
“Obviously, we’re fortunate that we still came out with a win tonight even though we didn’t play our best hockey,” said Canada defenceman Drew Doughty. “We can’t think that way. We have to play our best hockey.”
Even then, Canada’s best can- not change the aftertaste of this tournament? Five years from now, it’s unlikely that we will remember this championship final. We’ll probably remember how Connor McDavid and Auston Matthews played together with Team North America. And we will remember how Sidney Crosby, Patrice Bergeron and Brad Marchand were unstoppable as a line.
But no one is remembering this.
Has a championship final ever felt so uneventful? So blah?
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.
As Team Europe forward 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.