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Canada vs. Europe: 5 keys to World Cup of Hockey final Game 2
TORONTO – In Game 1 of the World Cup final series, Team Europe hit Canada with their best shot. On the other side the Canadians played their worst game of the tournament.
Canada still won 3-1, which isn’t a good sign if Europe wants to win the tournament.
“We feel good. I think we played arguably the best game so far in this tournament but we just fell short,” said Team Europe captain Anze Kopitar. “Because of that, we can’t get discouraged. Our backs are against the wall now. We’ve gotta win two games now to win the thing. We’ve got to come, play with confidence. There’s no reason for us to be nervous about anything. Come out, play hard and we’ll see what happens.”
Game 1 also showed that Canada, which had mostly rolled through the tournament, can indeed struggle and leave the door open for a team without the same caliber of players. Canada did find themselves down against Russia, but quickly recovered for a 5-3 win. The Europe outcome was in doubt until Patrice Bergeron’s third period goal gave Canada some breathing room.
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“The standard is high,” Canada forward Corey Perry said. “When you look at our game there’s a lot of turnovers, there’s a lot of missed checks. They could have had a couple chances to get up a couple goals. That’s kind of a characteristic of how we play and how we have been playing. Those are just things we have to clean up.”
Will Europe again figure out a way to knock Canada off balance, or will the pre-tournament favorite fix some of their problems?
Here are five keys to Game 2 of the final series.
Sidney Crosby
The Team Canada captain has been unstoppable this World Cup. He leads the tournament with nine points in five games and his line with Patrice Bergeron and Brad Marchand has come up with big plays when needed.
Canada has four lines that can score, but stopping Crosby would at least give Europe a chance to beat them. This game, Europe will have last line change, so maybe putting do-it-all center Anze Kopitar on Crosby could help slow him down. Kopitar is really Europe’s only hope in regards to stopping Crosby.
“I’m inspired by him,” Europe forward Tomas Tatar said of Crosby. “He’s a great player. He made some good plays and was the factor of why they’ve won. We have to be aware more of him. I’m not saying one guy should be standing by him, but we should be always aware of where he is on the ice.”
The two goaltenders were part of a ‘can you top this?’ contest in Game 1, with both making big saves to give their teams the shot at the win.
It was really the first time all tournament Price needed to make some key stops to prevent Canada from falling behind against an opponent. Some of the 33 shots on goal Price faced involved good scoring chances – such as Andrej Sekera’s breakaway, which Price stopped.
Europe’s motivation
Some players from Team Europe have been playing international competition for some time between Olympic qualifiers and now the World Cup. Are they simply out of gas and ready to go home to their NHL teams and families? Or are they up for pushing this tournament one more game?
“If anything it has been long,” Team Europe forward Thomas Vanek said when asked about his overall thoughts on the World Cup. “I think guys like myself who have three kids at home, FaceTime is a great tool, but when you’re gone three weeks, whatever we have, it’s not the end of the world, but yeah, that’s the only thing.”
Training camps have been up and running now for over a week, and there’s probably a sense from players in the World Cup that they’re missing out to some degree.
Tomas Tatar
The young Slovakian forward has been Europe’s best offensive player this tournament with three goals in five games.
“I’m playing with two great players, Marian (Hossa) and Anze (Kopitar), and I’m trying to create the most space I can for them. They’ve been in the league forever, they’ve won Stanley Cups, and I accept the role,” Tatar said. “It’s always been that way, in front of the net, around the net, that’s where the puck always ends up so I guess I get to a good spot. I’ve got some good bounces the last two games and I was fortunate to put the puck in the net.”
Tatar has scored the last three goals for Team Europe, including the overtime winner against Sweden and their only goal in Game 1 of the championship series. He has some of the best speed in the tournament and the creativity to match it. Expect coach Ralph Krueger to try to employ Tatar as much as possible against Canada.
Canada’s killer instinct
Beating Team Europe – a team that was made up for the World Cup – in this tournament isn’t the same as downing a national team for an Olympic gold medal. But a World Cup win over a group of elite players is still something Canada should be proud of.
Canada’s locker room is full of captains and champions, and all know how to close out an opponent in big games. If Canada starts strong and imposes their style of game on Europe, they should be able to cruise to a victory.
But if Canada starts poorly and lets Europe stay in the game, this contest could be tight until the end.
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Josh Cooper is an editor for Puck Daddy on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at puckdaddyblog@yahoo.com or follow him on Twitter! Follow @joshuacooper
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