MILAN — It’s the day before the Olympic tournament begins, and Brad Marchand, one of Team Canada’s penalty killers, is still catching his breath.
The veteran has just been put through the wringer, the all-star nation’s final special-teams workout before diving headfirst into their three-games-in-four-days preliminary round.
The 37-year-old can already relate to what those poor Czech, Swiss, and (next up) French defenders are about to get burdened with.
“Physically, you can’t keep up,” Marchand explains, matter of fact. “I mean, there’s not a whole lot you can do, you know? You’re just kinda hoping they try to make one too many plays. With talent level like that, you know they're gonna make plays for sure, and you're not gonna be able to stop everything. You’re kind of hoping you give them the worst chance that they can get, try to keep it to the outside, or… I mean, they just make plays that you can’t even see. So, it’s tough.”
Imagine trying to stop Connor McDavid, Nathan MacKinnon, Sidney Crosby, Cale Makar and Sam Reinhart when your side has one less player on the sheet. What does that even look like, penalty killer Drew Doughty?
“Well, it looks like almost five of the best players in the whole world,” Doughty says. “So, it’s a pretty good PP.”
The power-play of coaches’ fantasies struck early in Canada’s Olympic debut and again in Game 2, a no less decisive but harder-fought 5-1 victory over an improving Switzerland side Friday at Milano Santagiulia Arena.
“Ultimately, it was a back-to-back against two good countries, and we wanted this. We want to give ourselves a chance to advance. We don’t have to play in the qualification game,” coach Jon Cooper said postgame. “They were a test… they pushed us.”
The Swiss were a test the way a CAPTCHA is a test. They pushed the way a piglet might nudge its mother.
Absolutely, the Swiss have taken a step. But against this Team Canada? Cooper is being gracious.
McDavid stacked another three points, teenage wingman Macklin Celebrini scored his second of the tournament, Crosby finished another fine feed from setup man Mitch Marner and defenceman Thomas Harley hopped on the board when joining a rush.
Canada’s threats are too plentiful, too unique and too interchangeable.
As valiant an effort as the plucky Swiss — now featuring 10 NHL talents — delivered, Cooper was still able to take joy in mixing and matching his embarrassment of riches up front.
Not loving Canada’s first period, he bumped MacKinnon up with McDavid and Celebrini midway through the game. Three elite centres, two adapting to the flank on the fly.
Imagine having the luxury of throwing three of the NHL’s top four scorers over the boards at once. This generation’s reboot of Hawerchuk–Gretzky–Lemieux. Naturally, they clicked for another insurance goal.
“Nate’s a guy I watch a lot of,” McDavid said. “Big fan of his. I watch a lot of Colorado games, obviously, with some special players there. So, I have an understanding of where Nate likes to go and where to be. And we play the game similarly, too. So, I think we have a good understanding of where we might want the puck.”
“I don’t like playing them when they’re on their own team,” winning goaltender Logan Thompson said.
“I couldn't imagine when there’s three of them.”
But is there any risk of stars of this calibre getting too fancy, knowing the skill is lopsided?
“I don’t think they can. That’s just what they do all the time,” Marchand says. “There’s guys that try to get too cute and they force it. But they have that ability to slow it down in a pile and find a stick. It’s almost like they can slow it down in their head. And they have the ability to make that play in tight around five sticks.”
So even though Switzerland gave Canada a little more to handle than the Czechs did on Thursday, the outcome was never in doubt.
Once again, the Canadians outshot and outskilled their prey.
Nothing cute about it.
Having locked up two wins in regulation, Canada has already claimed top seed in Group A and a bye to the quarterfinals.
The country wraps up its preliminary-round action Sunday versus France (0-2).
Fox’s Fast Five
• Kevin Fiala threw a counter hit on Tom Wilson, fell awkwardly, and suffered a nasty leg injury in garbage time. He was stretchered off the ice and sent to hospital.
“Doesn’t look very good,” Swiss coach Patrick Fischer said. “Tough moment for Kevin and the whole team.”
“It sucks!” Timo Meier exclaimed. “We got other guys we know can step in, and we’re going to battle for each other because we care a lot about each other. Yeah, it hurts. But it’s going to make us stronger.”
• Here’s winning goalie Logan Thompson on his custom-made Team Canada bucket:
“Dave Fried, who’s in Alberta, does all my masks. We always have a pretty open communication. I just told him I wanted to show a little respect to Calgary, Alta., where I'm from. Love that city. We came up with some few ideas, and he put it together. So, it was pretty simple and quick — but I love the way it turned out.”
And here’s Darcy Kuemper, who employs the same airbrush artist, on his new mask:
“I wanted to do an ode to back home. So, that’s where the wheatfield and the grain elevator (came into play), being from Saskatchewan. And then the other side is a play on the loonie, because what’s more Canadian than the loonie? So, I wanted part for the nation and part for my home province.
“For my club team in the NHL (the L.A. Kings), I usually don’t get super involved. They have good ideas. I lean on them. They’re the artists. But for this one, I wanted to have a bit of input, so it was pretty exciting to be a part of that.”
• Left-shot defenceman Travis Sanheim filled in for injured lefty Josh Morrissey, and Seth Jarvis replaced Marchand in Canada’s lineup. No. 1 goalie Jordan Binnington was given the night off, and third-stringer Kuemper dressed as the backup.
Morrissey will not play Sunday versus France, but “by no means is he out for the tournament,” Cooper says.
• Connor McDavid, Olympian: Six points in his first six periods, the most ever in any Games with NHL participation through two matches.
Finnish teammates Teemu Selanne and Saku Koivu share the record for most points by an NHLer in one Olympics with 11 (2006)
• Tom Wilson says the Tumbler Ridge shooting has hit Team Canada hard.
“When we got the news, we were all together. We’re here playing for our country, and when something that happens in your country, it’s a sad day. And with everything going into this Olympics, we want to try and make Canada proud,” Wilson says.
“Thoughts go out to all the families and people affected, and you never want to see that. So, what we can do right now is, try to bring happiness and pride to our country and play hard and win as many games as we can. Just come together as a community as a country and just keep moving forward.”
Born in Prince George, B.C., coach Cooper has a personal connection to the area.
“Tumbler Ridge, that’s a tough one. I mean, I stayed in the hotel there growing up, and it kind of became an instant town. I had friends go over there and work there,” Cooper says.
“But you think about tragedies that happen, usually they kind of happen somewhere else, so you never really feel the effect of the touching close to home. This one’s close to home.”
