Team Canada vs. Team Sweden Postgame/ Team Canada vs. Denmark - Pregame

Adversit

I've talked about it in a lot in my Team Canada discussions, specifically I like to talk about how a team will react to it. There are some teams that will just be so dominant they don't really have to think about adversity, especially in short tournaments like the World Juniors, but eventually, whether it's the next year or the next year, a team will face it. I think a lot of times adversity is harder to overcome if a team isn't used to dealing with it. Gretzky touched upon that idea regarding the Soviet teams of the late 70s and early 80s, he said that although they played great with a lead, if you could stay in the game you saw a different and more vulnerable team.

Going into yesterday morning's game against the Swedes, Team Canada hadn't lost in 20 straight games, had a 400 or so minute EV shut out streak and hadn't let in a goal since the gold medal game of last year. They rolled over the Russian stars in the Super Series this summer, and although the Czechs and Slovaks played them tough, neither team managed a goal against. The closest thing to adversity that Canada has faced in approximately 3 years is a scare in the semi finals against Team USA last year, and that had more to do with Canada being asleep than the USA really bringing it.

In my opinion, pretty much everything was going according to plan going into the third period against Sweden. Team Canada was up by a couple goals, had one completely dominating PK effort in which Sweden barely touched the puck and besides the fact the Swedes were getting the odd scoring chance, I never felt the Canadians were letting things slip out of hand. The turning point, beyond a doubt in my mind, came when the PKing Canadians stole the puck from the Swedes on the points, then had a 2-0 chance. Instead of calmly skating it up, the puck was miss-passed and turned into a dump in. The Swedes recovered the puck and scored on an absolute beauty point shot. Instead of a 3-0 affair, the game was now 2-1. For about 5 minutes after that, the Canadians were a complete disaster of a team.

The Swedes next two goals were either extremely flukey or extremely skillful (or a combination of both). Jonathan Bernier made an extremely difficult save on one chance, only to have puck (now behind the net) deflect off his skate as he scrambled back into position. The next goal deflected off a defenceman's skate on a play that was either a unsuccesful centering pass or a genius read. 3-2 Sweden.

Fortune smiled upon Team Canada as the Swedes received a phantom call against, already shorthanded. Canada scored on a beauty play started by John Tavares (whom I believe should be given more ice time) who made a fake spinarama pass to Turris out front who put it past the Swedish goalie, but not all the way in. Ice cold Claude Giroux managed to bang home the puck and the Canadians were seemingly back in the game.

The Swedes however, would not be denied. With less than a minute to go in the third period, and the game looking more and more like an OT or shootout affair, a series of blunders occured , almost all by players who need to be leaders on this team for it to be successful.

1. Brad Marchand gets the puck near the top of the circle in the Swedish zone, instead of getting the puck deep (as he is the high man in the zone), he dangles it towards the blueline and is overwhelmed by two Swedish players.

2. One Swedish players gets on a partial break past Thomas Hickey, however, not by Drew Doughty. Instead of letting Doughty handle it, Hickey continues to persue the Swede. Doughty also continues to persue the Swede, eventually falling (to try cut off the shooting angle?) and therefore pretty much eliminating Hickey's effectiveness. Meantime, the Swede simply skates a little past the two inept Canadian defenceman and centers the puck to a wide open player.

3. Meanwhile, Bernier, forgetting everything he's ever learned about goaltending, completely overplays the Swede being covered by two Canadian defenceman and has no real angle at the net. By the time the centering pass is made, Bernier has completely vacated his net. The puck is easily banged home.

Now there are a lot of questions about what happened in that play, but it was only a microchasm of the whole game and Canada's general reaction to a little bit of adversity. Panic. It was not a pretty sight.

Now there are a couple of positives to be taken from this experience - firstly, it wasn't an elimination game. Team Canada supporters saw a similar reaction to adversity way back in 2004 when a team consisting of a lot of great NHLers saw Team USA snatch victory from the jaws of defeat coming back in the third period after Marc-Andre Fleury banked a goal in off his own teammate.

Secondly, it should be painfully obvious now that Canada is not immortal. They've gone unbeaten for so long that perhaps they had forgotten what it was like to lose, perhaps they had forgotten that sting. That's the sting that motivated Canada to greatness in 2005, and perhaps this team can figure out what it takes now rather than wait till next year.

Today Canada will play Denmark, and they will win. Steve Mason will be starting in goal, and I believe that is a sign he will be our goalie in the elimination portion of this tournament - that misplay by Bernier at a key moment was enough for Hartsburg to believe a change was necessary.

The question now, is who will step and lead this team? In 2005 it was leadership by commitee, in 2006 is was Steve Downie and Justin Pogge who inspired, and in 2006 it was Jonathan Toews and Carey Price that took the team and put it on their shoulders (Marc Staal honourable mention). Will Stephan Legien and Brandon Sutter take this team by the collar and give everyone a shake? Will Steve Mason pull a Manny Legace and win games single-handidly? Will Karl Alzner take control of this group by shutting down the opposition and making a phsyical statement?

Or will Team Canada go out with a whimper when it comes time to face the music in quarterfinals?

The Price is Right or Toewed by the Bell

In a game where everything seemed decided by the start of the third period, Canada gutted out a 7th round shootout victory over the United States to advance to the U-20 World Jr. Championship gold medal game.

The Americans, counted out by many (including myself) early in the tournament, looked like a completely different team than the one the Canadians faced last week. With a forecheck and puck possession game that seemed to befuddle team Canada, the Americans lead at the halfway mark with a goal by Oilers prospect and team USA captain Taylor Chorney. The goal was a PP that banked in off of Marc Stall's skate, who looked to the sky in frustration after surrendering the first go-behind goal against Canada. While the American PP dealt a crucial blow to the Canadians, the Canadian PP looked anemic at best.

Halfway through the game my idea was to give my 'therealdeal' of the night award to the American PK unit, who dominated the Canadians by blocking virtually every Canadian shot and forcing the Canadians into bad plays. Kris Russel, the player who Pierre Maguire has been lauding for having the ability to get shots to the net, looked absolutely lost and had his worst game of the tournament by far.

During the 2nd intermission, things looked bleak for Canada. Bob Mackenzie talked about how this was a test for Canada, and how this was the first time they faced adversity in this tournament. I couldn't have agreed more with Bob, although my particular conclusion was that Canada was done. They looked terrible, they looked defused, they looked broken. The two bright spots were Carey Price, making what was essentially a perfect effort and keeping Canada in a game they shouldn't have been, and Marc Stall dominating defensively, using his body to make some big hits and using his long reach to defuse several potential scoring opportunities for the Americans.

But from the first faceoff in the third, the Canadians looked like a different hockey team. Players like Kristopher Letang began to win battles along the offensive zone blueline. Eventually the Americans were forced into taking another penalty, then another, leading to a Canadian 5-3 advantage. While the Americans killed off the first penalty, they were not so lucky the second time around, with an otherwise lacklustre Luc Bourdon nailing a one timed shot top corner. While the Americans complained 16 year old Sam Gagne (who was the penalized player the Americans scored their PP marker) was in the crease, the replay clearly showed it was a clean goal.

In overtime, the Americans once again used their speed and puck control to dominate the play. Eventually Kris Letang made a mental mistake and he lazily one handidly high sticked Jack Johnson who was in on the forecheck. The Canadians caught a very lucky break in that the referee only called a 2 minute minor on a high stick that undoubtedly drew blood.

Enter the Carey Price show once again. Up 4 men to 3 because of the 4-4 overtime format, the Americans patiently waited for their chances on the PP. Eric Johnson masterfully quarter backed the PP, even as the boos reigned down upon him from the Canadian fans, still bitter after Johnson's last minute cheap shot on Downie in last years matchup. But every time the Americans got a chance, Price shut them down, and as the last seconds of the 2 minute straight without a whistle PP for the Americans died down, Ryan Parent, after heroically playing the full PK got off the ice, and the Canadians again bent but did not break. With nothing solved in the OT period, even with the Americans outshooting Canada 12-2, the game headed to the dreaded but dramatic shootout.

This is where I witnessed what I believe to be possibly the single greatest individual effort in all of sports history. While Canada won the cointoss and elected to shoot first, initial shooters for both teams (Downie for Canada, Patrick Kane for USA) were shut down, the second scorers for both teams potted a goal (Bryan Little for Canada, and Peter Muller for the Americans). That is where Jonathan Toews stepped in. After scoring a penalty shot goal against the Americans in the round robin matchup of this year, I felt it was unlikely Toews would be successful again. Just look at shootout percentages for NHL shooters in SOs and penalty shots. 50% is an impressive number in the SO. But Canada needed this goal, now.

But score Toews did, nailing a perfect shot low blocker on American goalie Jeffrey Frazee, who played an outstanding game himself. Jack Johnson replied for the Americans a shot later.

After 3 shooters each, the SO moved to 1 round sudden death, in which you could use any shooter you wanted from the previous rounds. Bryan Little, on his second shot, missed, and the Americans had a chance to put the game away. But once again, Carey Price stepped in, stopping Kane on the shootout. Canada went back to Toews for the next shot? What was it I said earlier about successive shots? But again, Toews confidently fired the puck into the top right corner of the net, hitting post and in on what could only be described as a perfect shot. Jack Johnson once again replied for the Americans, an impressive feat by itself. Cogliano shot next for Canada, slamming one in low glove side, and once again, the Americans replied with a goal, fending off elimination.

Finally, Toews stepped up one more time. As he went in it looked like American goaltender Fracee had Toews beat. Toews however had other plans, and he fired it past Frazee for what is essentially a 4th straight one-one goalie battle, (one penalty shot, 3 shootout shots). Peter Muller shot for the Americans, but Price once again stood tall, shutting down Muller's attempted 5 hole shot.

And thats the way the game was. Canada faces the winner of the second semi-final today in the final on Friday.

therealdeal of the night: Obviously Carey Price and Jonathan Toews played a huge role in this game, but for my money, the best non goalie of the match had to be Marc Stall. While the rest of this vaunted defensive group looked tentative, unprepared, overmatched, slow, Marc Stall lead the way, dominating everytime he came near the puck. He was Canada's best player over 70 minutes of play, getting in the way of American players, eliminating opposition offensive efforts down low, making fantastic breakout passes (which were sorely lacking today), getting his long reach and big stick involved in the play, and just generally staying calm amidst what was at one point a sea of panic.

edit: and for those readers wondering why I spelled it 'Muller' instead of 'Mueller,' well I originally had it 'Mueller' but the official game summary provided by Hockey Canada had it spelled 'Muller.' Officially, I'm almost positive it's spelled 'Mueller.'