Europe stuns U.S. in World Cup opener

When the United States filled out its roster for the World Cup of Hockey, it looked heavy on grit and physicality and light on skill and scoring.

That became reality in the Americans’ stunning 3-0 loss to unheralded Team Europe on Saturday in the World Cup opener. With offensive defenseman Dustin Byfuglien and 30goal scorer Kyle Palmieri scratched, the U.S. struggled to generate quality scoring chances and finds itself in trouble one game into the tournament.

“It was just tough to score,” winger Zach Parise said. “There are guys that have different roles and different jobs on the team. Guys that play with grit, play hard — but it was just tough to score for us tonight.”

Jaroslav Halak stopped all 35 shots he faced to earn the shutout for Team Europe, a mix of players from Slovakia, Switzerland, Germany, Austria, Norway, Denmark, France and Slovenia. Marian Gaborik, Leon Draisaitl and PierreEdouard Bellemare scored on U.S. goaltender Jonathan Quick, who made 14 saves.

Despite the lopsided shot total and the Americans’ dominant puck possession, Europe was in control for most of the game because of major mistakes. Defenseman Ryan McDonagh made an ill-advised pinch to set up a 2-on-1 rush that became Gaborik’s goal, and Hart Trophy winner Patrick Kane turned the puck over to give Europe a 2-on-0 rush that became Draisaitl’s.

“You saw on a couple of our mistakes — turnovers, pinching, giving them oddman breaks — they were able to capitalize,” Kane said. “On that second goal, I’ll definitely take the fault on that one. That’s a play that I’ve made a million times in my career. Just kind of lost the puck and the next thing you know they go down 2 on 0. That’s unacceptable from me.”

It was an unacceptable performance for the U.S., which now has been shut out in three consecutive major international tournament games dating to the 2014 Sochi Olympics. Leaving skilled players like Tyler Johnson and Kyle Okposo off the roster sparked plenty of second-guessing of the U.S. management team, and that won’t slow down after losing to Team Europe.

Defenseman Ryan Suter called Sochi a “setback,” and the first game of the World Cup wasn’t a step forward.

“If you go back nine (international) periods where you don’t get anything, it’s frustrating but we’ve had some looks along the way,” captain Joe Pavelski said. “We had the power plays, we had some chances, we had a few looks. We’ve got to strike when we get those.”

The U.S. had a powerplay goal disallowed when James van Riemsdyk was ruled to have intentionally directed the puck in with his chest.