CANADA BREATHES A SIGH OF RELIEF
Anything can happen in a game, and it almost did
Canada could have lost. Of course they could have lost. In an infinite universe, there are infinite possibilities, and one of those possibilities could have been Canada losing to Latvia in Olympic hockey. Probable? No. Latvia has 17 indoor rinks, and no outdoor rinks, in its entire country. As Latvia coach Ted Nolan put it: “I think we have more rinks in my hometown of Sault Ste. Marie.”
But it could have happened. It was 1-1 after one period, and 1-1 after two, and Latvia grew and grew. Their scoring chances made the sound from the largely Russian crowd rise like a wave, and some of the chances were good. The officiating was a garbage fire, and the Latvians weren’t scared, and the Canadians couldn’t score, again. Sidney Crosby said that short of picking the puck up and throwing it at the net, he’s not sure what else they could have done.
It had all the elements of a potentially titanic upset, and it should have scared Canada half to death.
“Probably a little tense,” said Crosby, who has two assists in four games. “A lot of people screaming at the TV, I’m sure. It was tough.”
Latvia is a country of a little over two million people, and they made Canada sweat. Canada’s chances slapped up against the pads of this longhaired 21-year-old Tampa Bay prospect named Kristers Gudlevskis, a rangy kid with Latvia’s Freedom Monument on his helmet, which was built to remember Latvia’s dead in its war of independence. The shots found his glove, his chest, his shoulder. They hit the crossbar; they shot wide. For the game, Canada outshot Latvia 57-16.
And for 53 minutes, it didn’t matter. Canada had scored after getting the puck inside and going to the net, Patrick Sharp scoring 13:37 in, but Latvia tied it when Lauris Darzins snuck between Alex Pietrangelo and Jay Bouwmeester and scored two minutes later. And Canada couldn’t untie it. At one point, Latvian defenceman Kristaps Sotnieks gloved a puck at the goal-line into his goalie’s armpit and lay there like he was covering before the shells rained down.
Latvia blocked shots, including Shea Weber’s. Latvia de- livered hits; John Tavares was knocked out of the tournament on a clean but heavy hit from Arturs Kulda with an apparent knee injury of uncertain severity. Latvia grabbed and tripped and acted as though hey, they can’t call everything. And they didn’t.
Latvia believed. When asked how many oh-no moments there were, Ryan Getzlaf said: “A lot of them. They played great. They came after us. They played hard. They shut us down. When you’re not scoring goals, there could be one break that goes their way or our goalie falls asleep. (Carey Price) played great, too.”
And if not for a slashing penalty, which Nolan complained was soft, that allowed Weber to unleash one of his rib-breaking sonic booms that zoomed past Gudlevskis with 6:54 left, who knows? Latvia still pushed to the end with its collection of young men and old mean and fearless men. Canada escaped Latvia. Imagine.
“Well, if we come out and we knew we’re going to lose, f---, it would be stupid,” said Oskars Bartulis with a grin.
“I think everything that happened today, if you just look at the games leading up to our game, it’s not like we took Latvia lightly,” said Canadian coach Mike Babcock. “The whole day set us up to know how hard it was — the Slovenia game, the way the Finns played. The whole game was just a reminder: This is the Olympic Games, and when you play for your country, you play with an inordinate amount of passion and you compete hard. And that’s what Latvia did tonight.”
Told he scared Canada, Gudlevskis said: “Hope so.”
Afterwards Canadian players insisted they weren’t worried, and weren’t really that surprised, and they knew their game would come, that the percentages would reward them. But they cannot know that, and anything can happen, anything at all. If you gave this team a month of training camp, it would be a monster. But that’s not what this is.
So Crosby called this escape the ultimate test of patience, and Toews said: “I don’t think anyone’s squeezing the stick or worrying or panicking too much.” And Corey Perry said:
“Obviously, if you let tension creep into your game, you’re not going to be at your best.”
Well, Canada is in the final four against a U.S. team that evinces no tension whatsoever. Canada, like everyone else, is two wins from gold. They haven’t lost yet. But — and this is the part that is inescapable — they could.