After he scored two goals in Team Canada’s 4-2 drubbing of the United States at the World Cup on Tuesday night, someone mentioned to Matt Duchene that he’s technically on the fourth line.
He laughed, and everyone laughed along — just kind of chuckling at the absurdity of it all. Because, come on, Matt Duchene is not a fourth-line player. That’s crazy.
Except, yes, on Team Canada he is.
Duchene played just 11:05 in the game, the least amount of any player on the team. His line with Ryan O’Reilly and Joe Thornton were the least used, but most effective. After the game, coach Mike Babcock joked that he probably should have let Duchene see a little more ice time. But honestly, look at that roster.
Still, Babcock refuses to let his team get too chipper about its success. The victory over the United States put Canada in a commanding position heading into Wednesday’s battle for first in the division against Team Europe but Babcock saw several problems with in his team’s game.
“We weren’t as good as we’re capable of being tonight,” he said.
In particular, Canada got off to a slow start for the second straight game, struggled with face offs, and spent a lot of time chasing, he said.
And, as it was against the Czech Republic in the opener, the start for Canada was weak. Ryan McDonagh opened the scoring for the United States early in the first period, and it looked for a moment like it would be the kind of battle everyone anticipated.
But a little over a minute after McDonagh’s goal, Marc-Edouard Vlasic fired the puck from the point intentionally left of the net, banking the puck off the boards to Matt Duchene, who’d battled for position on the right side of the net.
It was particularly special goal for Duchene, who hadn’t scored for Canada in front of a home crowd since playing in the World Under-17 tournament in 2008. Duchene was cut from the Canada’s final roster for the 2009 World Juniors in Ottawa, but has played for his country in every other national tournament.
“It was one of the highlights of my career,” said Duchene, whose parents, fiancé, two best friends were in the crowd.
Fourteen seconds later, Canada scored again. This time, it was Corey Perry crashing the net to tap in a beautiful pass from Logan Couture—both late additions to the team, replacing Jamie Benn and Jeff Carter, who are injured.
Later in the first, Duchene scored again with swift deke on Jonathan Quick after American defence left him all alone on a feed from Brent Burns.
It was three goals in the first, and Team USA was done. Three goals from the Canada’s bottom two lines, which seems like an absurd thing to say when it comes to a team packed with stars.
In Canada’s opening game on Saturday, the top line of Sidney Crosby, Patrice Bergeron and Brad Marchand were dominant, as those three tend to be. That line is still the best in the tournament. But against the United States, Canada showed just how incredible its depth is — and how essential that depth will be to winning the tournament.
“That’s the strength of our team,” said Duchene, the fourth line plug. “On any given night you’re going to have one line step up, or even two lines…we have four huge weapons in terms of lines and we showed it tonight.”
