The calm brings the storm
Patient Canada scores two late goals to win World Cup
Of all the things Team Canada had come to rely on, it was calm. They know the pressure that comes with playing for Canada in Canada, but no matter the situation they believed they didn’t lose their heads, didn’t start trying to do things on their own, didn’t lose track of what worked. They had won 15 straight games, the big team, dating back to 2010. They had a history. They just weren’t put under much pressure, anymore.
And then Team Europe, the group made up of players from hockey minnows like Switzerland, France, Slovakia, Slovenia, Germany, Norway, Denmark, and Austria, did something nobody else had done: They made Canada earn it. They made it a damned game.
We were all ready for just one more contest, because Canada’s dominance had become habitual: It blended together, a series of eviscerations, of smotherings, of games that never seemed in doubt. Canada didn’t play well in Game 1 of the World Cup final against Europe, a team that had eight NHL defencemen to choose from, and took seven. They won 3-1 and vowed to be better.
But the other guys get to tell themselves something, too. Europe kept saying after Game 1, they’re human. We can play with them. It might take a perfect game, but we can play with them. And then they did. They negated Canada’s forecheck with smart passing, kept Canada to the outside when they did set up, turned the play the other way. Huh.
Not quite seven minutes in Europe came cruising down the boulevard, slow and easy, as if they were riding bikes on a Sunday afternoon. Canada backed up, and backed up, and by the time Zdeno Chara shot a puck off Steven Stamkos and in, he was inside the left faceoff circle. 1-0, Europe.
And it was a little nervy, right? Drew Doughty let a puck get by him at the blue line, and had to race to cut off a scoring chance. Brent Burns let a 2-on-0 get by him, and Marian Hossa drew a penalty on the breakaway. Jay Bouwmeester’s skate saved a nearcertain goal. Even the Crosby line wasn’t clicking.
French forward Pierre-Edouard Bellemare noted before the game that the physicality of the tournament had dropped as it went on.
Maybe thoughts of training camp and an 82-game schedule, plus two months of playoffs if they’re lucky, were creeping in. Maybe the way the World Cup has felt a little ragged — no full houses, darkened luxury boxes, American Ryan Kesler admitting that the atmosphere was far from great — took some of the edge off.
But Canada couldn’t find the rhythm. They couldn’t control the game, not for long stretches. Passes missed. Defenceman Alex Pietrangelo had particular trouble. Canada earned a power play, and John Tavares had a quick-trigger shot into an open net, and hit the post.
That wasn’t the rule; it was the exception. At even strength Canada couldn’t get chances off the rush, couldn’t set up the cycle to get clean looks, couldn’t get to rebounds when they did. At the end of two periods Steven Stamkos hit a banana peel on a big wind-up in the slot, and Canada was being outshot 23-16 at even strength. They had not been shut out in a game with the big team since Russia in the quarterfinal in 2006.
What had Swiss forward Nino Niederreiter said? “The day is going to come when someone beats the unbeatable ones.”
You kept waiting for Canada to take control, but they couldn’t. They were a step late, a bit off. Europe coach Ralph Krueger helped Mike Babcock prepare for the 2014 Olympics, and Krueger said, “There’s opportunity there for us that we’re going to try and find.”
Canada pushed, and it started to feel like a real hockey tournament for the first time in a non-North America game: the crowd oohing and aahing over chances, chanting Let’s Go Canada, invested. With 4:40 left Crosby was stopped by Jaroslav Halak, right in front.
The desperation kicked in. Corey Perry forced Anze Kopitar to tackle him with 3:35 left, and a Burns point shot got deflected by Patrice Bergeron with 2:53 left. He came within a few inches of a high stick; Crosby got the second assist. They never panic, they said. Well, maybe that’s true.
Drew Doughty got called for a high stick with 1:50 left, and Roman Josi rang a post, and Hossa had to be stopped in close, and holy, a game.
And then Jonathan Toews turned over a puck at the Canada blue line and carried it, and Brad Marchand leaped off the Canada bench and skated hard, and Toews created room for a Marchand wrist shot that zipped in with 43.1 seconds left. The place went wild. 2-1, Canada.
Canada never stops, and the World Cup is theirs. But Europe made them earn it.