If you look back on the World Cup and search for a moment when Team Canada defined itself, it was this: Brad Marchand spinning toward Sidney Crosby and shouting “[expletive] yeah!” as the Air Canada Centre erupted around them in the World Cup semifinal against Russia.
It was an exuberant curse of pure elation. It was relief and it was belief, recaptured. It came a little more than a minute into the only real challenge Team Canada has faced in the tournament.
They’d been dominating up to that point, controlling the game, earning chance after chance — but Russian goalie Sergei Bobrovsky was equally remarkable. Because of him alone, Russia remained in the game through the second period. When Nikita Kucherov scored to tie it at one, the shots were 25-8 for Canada.
Then, with just under four minutes to go in the second, a pass from Evgeni Malkin bounced off Nikita Zaitsev’s skate at the goalmouth and Evgeny Kuznetsov tapped it out of the air and into the net.
Russia led 2-1, with little more than a period to play.
It was a collective moment of doubt, crushingly palpable in the Air Canada Centre, where a large contingent of spirited Team Russia fans cheered wildly, claiming the territory as their own.
Yes, Canada had been down once before in the tournament but it was early in a first period and against an out-matched United States team that never found its chemistry. Canada responded quickly, with a goal from Matt Duchene, and then Corey Perry added another 14 seconds later. Before the end of the first, Duchene scored again and the Americans wilted and fell away. It was a necessary lesson about not starting slow.
But trailing Russia in the semifinal was much different.
Canada was down with a just a few minutes to go in the second, against a team of dangerous goal scorers and a goalie who had stolen the game to that point.
Much has been said about Canada’s depth in this tournament. They can throw four lines out that are each dangerous in unique ways. They play team defence. They make opponents try to adapt to them. But in their first true test at the World Cup, the Canadians showed exactly why they are the best in the world.
Quickly— and fittingly —it was Crosby who answered. Just as he had on the game’s first goal, Canada’s captain stole the puck in the Russian zone and found Marchand alone in front of the net. Marchand scored low, near the far post as Bobrovsky stretched but failed to conjure another miracle save.
Marchand spun to find Crosby and roared his celebratory expletive. It said everything that needed to be said.
The timing of the goal was essential. It snuffed out the Russians’ momentum before they had a chance to make something of it.
Despite the rush of adrenaline, the Canadians sat mostly silent in the second intermission. There were no grand speeches, no rousing roars of unity. Coach Mike Babcock kept his message simple. “We’re playing well,” he told his team. “There’s no chance they can keep up if we keep doing what we’re doing.”
It was just a locker room of players who had been there before; the best Canada had to offer. And they had 20 minutes to prove it.
They only needed a few.
Marchand, Perry and John Tavares scored three straight in the first 10 minutes of the final period to put Russia away for good. Bobrovsky, who faced 47 shots, could only hold the onslaught off for so long.
In the end, the 5-3 victory looked like a landslide. But it was a game for two periods — and for a fleeting moment, it belonged to Russia — until Canada turned its moment of doubt into an “[expletive] yeah” opportunity.
