MONTREAL — We’ve seen it so many times that we shouldn’t be surprised by it. I speak of a German hockey team taking the air out of a game against Canada in international play.
Okay, maybe the games are so ugly that we will ourselves to forget them.
A quick refresher course here follows. Canada needing a shootout to beat Germany at the 1992 Olympics, check.
The one that stands out for me played out at the Bell Centre as well: Gretzky a bunch of Hall of Famers 4, Germany 1. That game was 2-1 for Canada 30 minutes into the hostilities with the German goal coming off the stick of Peter Draisaitl, henceforth known as Leon’s father. It was hard to write while listening to the crowd boo the home team.
Another working disaster came back in ’98: Canada could have been relegated at the world juniors had it not been for a 2-0 win over Germany that was played at a crawl – hard to sustain readers’ interest when it’s hard to sustain your own.
It was more of the same Saturday night. Okay, the stakes weren’t as high as the ’92 Olympics – this wasn’t an elimination game, and the Bell Centre crowd didn’t boo the Canadian teens, saving lungs and throats for the U.S. game that lies ahead on New Year’s Eve.
Still, the Germans played semi-spoiler, losing 4-0 to Canada, a nation it has never beaten in this tournament. The Germans gave up but one even-strength goal, Max Domi notching it in the third period.
The game felt somewhat closer than the final score with Germany down only 2-0 and with the visitors outshooting the hosts 10-6 in the middle frame. At that point you were thinking the contest might have been an even tenser affair if Draisaitl the younger weren’t being held hostage by the Edmonton Oilers and were available to the German juniors.
The Canadians have a day off to contemplate their one-sided opening-game victory over Slovakia and their workman-like effort to knock off Germany. (In retrospect that win over the Slovaks looks a lot more impressive after they upset defending champions Finland in the matinee.)
So what’s encouraging for Canada?
One: Connor McDavid picked up a goal and two assists last night and was player of the game, so it seems like he’s rounding into expected form if not completely on his game. That said, he seemed pretty subdued in the post-game. If you were reading body language, his practically shouted “not satisfied.” (The idea of his actions speak louder than his words is moot with McDavid, as practically anything speaks louder than he does facing a bank of microphones.)
Two: In stark contrast to the opening game, the win over Germany told us something about a Canadian goaltender. Eric Comrie stopped a breakaway and faced six real scoring chances of various degrees of difficulty in making 17 stops. In the rout of Slovakia Zach Fucale had nothing to squeeze but a water bottle during time-outs.
Three: Max Domi and Sam Reinhart have developed a nice bit of chemistry between them. They even rolled over the boards on a penalty kill, some unlikely casting. For all the talk about McDavid, it’s Domi, Reinhart and Anthony Duclair who stand as the top line for Canada. Duclair was much more impressive against Slovakia than he was last night but Domi and Reinhart have hockey IQs in the 150s and see things that others miss.
What do we have questions about?
One: Curtis Lazar’s place beside McDavid. Lazar was an inspired choice as captain and he’s a great story with the Senators loaning him to the program for the tournament. Still, he was playing centre in Ottawa and he seems more of grinder than a finisher. As Reinhart has Domi and Duclair to maximize his playmaking, McDavid, a left-hand shot, could use a complementary pure scoring threat at his right side.
Two: Who is going to be the defensive pairing that you’re going to want to match against Jack Eichel in the U.S. game? Maybe coach Benoit Groulx has an idea on that count but it would be nothing firm. Towering Samuel Morin and Joe Hicketts? Morin’s long stick could make Eichel’s life difficult to be sure. Josh Morrissey manages the game so well that Eichel’s poaching in the fore-check might go for naught. Maybe we’ll be able to get a better idea of who constitutes the top defensive pairing or top four D after the Finland game.
Three: Nick Ritchie. Okay, we get the idea of using Ritchie as a bulldozer power forward on McDavid’s backhand side, an immoveable object to crash the net and screen a goaltender and a thousand patrons on the other side of the glass. But he might have been only a bare pass against Germany – whistled for two penalties, one borderline, the other wholly bogus.
Sidenote: Much was made of the dire implications for the Finns after their loss to Slovakia. As it stands they could well finish fourth in the group and face a top-ranked team coming out of the Toronto side of the draw. Well, fear not Suomi. This might turn out like 2002, a tournament that saw the four teams out of one side of the draw sweep the quarter-finals. Finland having to take on, say, Sweden or Russia? No walk in the park but probably preferable to playing Canada or the U.S. in a knockout game.