Kings F Gaborik out 8 weeks with foot injury from World Cup

When Team Europe captain Anze Kopitar showed up for the opener of the 2016 World Cup of Hockey final against Canada, a note from Wayne Gretzky was waiting in his dressing room stall at the Air Canada Centre.

This, after all, is the World Cup of Hockey finals few predicted and even fewer, it appears, wanted. The oddities of Team North America – the 23-and-under team from Canada and the US – and Team Europe provided some exciting moments you won’t get in a preseason training camp. That manner would be in the form of a shellacking.

Europe general manager Miroslav Satan confirmed the injury in a release Monday.

How could they avoid being embarrassed? Through five games, the trio of Canadians has combined for 22 total points.

After withstanding a flurry of Team Europe shots, Canada’s Brad Marchand opened the scoring after a short pass from Patrice Bergeron less than three minutes into the game.

Certainly you could find European players who concurred with that thesis. They forechecked with great diligence.

Marchand continued to make the World Cup his bar mitzvah as an offensive star, notching his fourth goal of the tournament just 12 seconds after his minor penalty for cross-checking expired.

Down 2-0 going into the second, Tomas Tatar scored his third of the tournament to get Europe within one. Crosby fed Bergeron with a nice pass up the middle, and Bergeron went in on goal with Marchand on a 2-on-1.

Canada forward Steve Stamkos is one of the NHL’s most prolific goal-scorers, but his touch has deserted him through the first four games of the World Cup. Instead of a 1996 World Cup rematch between Canada and the USA or even a 2014 rematch between Canada and Sweden, we got this. I thought they executed and played fast. They peppered Carey Price with shots for several minutes before he finally gave up a rebound.

Head coach Mike Babcock agreed. I think we realize that. Crosby got the play going, notching the first of his two assists on the night. “Because Team Europe is representing hundreds of millions of people where the game is not the No. 1 primary sport, but maybe it has a chance to move closer to the No. 1 sport”. We know what we can do. Not that the Europeans didn’t put in a organized and dogged performance; they did, and given a bounce or two they might have made the tournament host pay more dearly for its limpest outing of the tournament.

Overall, the event has been good for the game and good for the National Hockey League – but this isn’t the Olympics.

The unselfish play by Bergeron to set up Marchand while on a partial breakaway was just one example of the brilliant decisions this line seems to make, with precise execution.

“I’m not going to say it’s the best hockey he’s ever played because he plays so well in the NHL all the time”, teammate Ryan Getzlaf said of Crosby. Two Europe wins would mean this best-of-three series goes the distance.

Team Europe has already proven that they’re a worthy opponent and a noble experiment.

“Third [goal] was tough”. “But same time, this for sure gives the group a lot of confidence, and I think we have a feeling in there that this is far from over”.

OK, so here’s the thing. A loss on Thursday will leave the World Cup trophy in Canada and continue the host country’s global domination. We had guys out there that didn’t talk to one another so actually didn’t play fast and then turned the pack over on entry, so they looked quicker than they were and we probably looked slower than we were. There is no question who the more talented team is.