Team Canada readies one-two punch
Conquer Slovakia then U.S., says coach Brent Sutter, who’s unfazed by No. 5 ranking
Brent Sutter hasn’t needed to dig into his motivational speaking tool bag this week as he prepares the Canadian team for the IIHF world men’s championship.
The head coach said the team assembled by general manager Kevin Lowe arrived in Europe with the right attitude as Canada tries to end a two-year medal drought and improve its world ranking in advance of the 2014 Winter Olympics.
“They’re all hard-working guys and very competitive guys,” Sutter said in a telephone interview. “Every single one of them is a very coachable player. They all have great mindsets coming here and their attitude’s been outstanding.”
Canada won six medals in seven years at the world championships from 2003-09 — including tournament titles in ’03, ’04 and ’07 — but has been knocked out in the quarterfinal stage the last two years.
Those losses have dropped Canada to fifth in the latest IIHF world rankings, although the team remains within striking distance of the top four. The rankings after the 2012 worlds will be used to determine the seeding for the 2014 Games.
“We do know and understand the situation that this means for the Olympics as far as seeding,” Sutter said. “But the first game is all we’re focusing on right now.”
That first game is Friday against Slovakia and is followed quickly by a game against rival United States on Saturday. All of Canada’s group games will be played in Helsinki, Finland.
“We have to play Slovakia and the U.S.A. right off the start, so it’s two very tough teams,” Sutter said. “That’s why it was important for us to get the line combinations going here now and get some different chemistry with the lines.”
Lowe built a team that Sutter describes as having plenty of speed and skill, something that will come in handy on the big international ice surface. The relatively young team is led up front by the likes of Ryan Getzlaf, Corey Perry and Jordan Eberle. Dion Phaneuf, Duncan Keith and Jay Bouwmeester anchor the blueline. Sutter has yet to name a No. 1 goaltender as Cam Ward and Devan Dubnyk vie for the job.
The tournament has a new format this year with just one group stage instead of two. The old format meant a top team like Canada would likely face a few cupcakes early on, but this year Canada plays four potential playoff teams in its first five games.
Sutter sees the new system as a positive because Canada knows its seven round-robin opponents from the outset and will play its quarterfinal game against a team from its group.
Canada also plays France, Switzerland, Finland, Kazakhstan and Belarus in the round robin and must finish in the top four to move into the medal round.
Canada won a pair of pre-tournament exhibition games against Switzerland this week and Sutter said he saw improvement over both games. Canada needed a shootout to escape with a 2-1 win on Sunday and completed the sweep with a 4-2 victory on Tuesday.
“We played a very good Swiss team,” the coach said. “They’re a team that’s been together and played quite a few games together with each other. Outside of a couple of things I think we could have done better, I thought we did pretty good.”