Canada wins World Cup, rallying to beat Europe 2-1

“It’s just insane the way everything worked out”, said Sidney Crosby, selected the MVP of the tournament after scoring three goals and finishing with a World Cup-high 10 points.

“We made it a game where we can take confidence into the fact that we can win against Team Canada, but it has to be flawless”, Europe coach Ralph Krueger said.

Team Europe started fast and strong against Canada, getting three shots on Carey Price and drawing a penalty in the first 21 seconds of Game 1 in the World Cup of Hockey finals. Canada, which was dominant to the point where its games were boring, finally got challenged. The end result was a second straight World Cup of Hockey crown, third straight best-on-best title and 16th consecutive victory under such circumstance. He faded to the right and passed across the crease to set up Marchand’s fourth goal of the tournament 2:33 into the game.

But the resistance to hybrid teams seemed to increase as the event moved along and several players have said they are more comfortable wearing the flags of their country rather than the symbols of a continent. “They’ve been in the league forever, they’ve won Stanley Cups, and I accept the role”.

Canada had the sort of reckoning USA Hockey endured at this tournament back in 2006 at the Torino Olympics, when Crosby was just halfway through his rookie season and not part of the roster. Yes, seventh. The leading scorer was Brad Richards, with just four points. The roster wasn’t almost good enough. Maybe not in a series, but man, would I have liked their chances in a one-game, semifinal-knockout opportunity. Could Sidney Crosby, Patrice Bergeron and Marchand reunite in two years if the National Hockey League returns to the Olympics in South Korea?

Chara, who made one of those egregious errors (which led to the winning goal by Steven Stamkos) played yeoman’s minutes alongside fellow Slovak Andrej Sekera. Even though they continue to lead Canada’s offense, Babcock wasn’t letting anyone off the hook. The Canadian captain finished with three goals and seven assists and was later named tournament MVP.

Opponents understandably feel helpless at times.

“Let’s put things in perspective”, Babcock said, “it’s called players, really good players”.

One of the best things for Tampa Bay Lightning fans came in Tuesday night’s game. “You have to be flawless”. “We know we can go out there and take a game”. Europe has made it further than anyone expected and Canada has destroyed all in their path.

But just as Europe began daring to dream of an upset, Marchand, Bergeron and Canada star Sidney Crosby turned on the style to make the game safe. “I saw him the first time at the world championships in Latvia in 2006 when he rocked the world stage for the first time”.

“It’s exciting as a player to be in those situations”, Crosby said Thursday after his team’s pregame skate.

For more than 57 minutes on Thursday evening Team Canada’s run of perfection was threatened for the very first time.

They’ve also noted that playing well against the world’s top players could make him more attractive to a team looking to add some cheap defensive veteran depth. “But you need to open eye to big picture and the journey”.

Crosby, remember, was thought to be on the downside of his career a scant 10 months ago. Gold, World Cup Gold, Hart Trophy, Ted Lindsay Award, Rocket Richard, Conn Smythe and Hart Trophy.

“It’s a tough loss because we were able to push them all the way to the limits”, Chara said. “We realize the first two periods weren’t the way we wanted to come out and play”. It can be a matter of inches. “We’re all gonna go and I don’t think about it”. “That just shows you how dedicated and hungry he was going for that goal”. (So it’s interesting that best part of the World Cup may have also been a reason for the lack of global pride).

This is your Game Day thread.

Yup. It looked like it would be that kind of night for Team Canada.