Pat Hickey: Willpower led Group Canada to its world hockey gold

Article content material

Tyler Toffoli, who was the Canadiens’ main scorer once they went to the Stanley Cup ultimate in 2021, gained his second world championship when Group Canada defeated a shocking German workforce 5-2 in Sunday’s ultimate at Tampere, Finland.

Article content material

However the circumstances had been very completely different from 2015, when Canada despatched an all-star workforce of NHLers to the Czech Republic and posted a 10-0 report en path to a 6-1 thrashing of Russia within the ultimate.

Article content material

Toffoli was coming off a 23-goal season for the Los Angeles Kings, however that wasn’t adequate for greater than a bottom-six position.

Group Canada was led by Sidney Crosby, who was nonetheless younger sufficient to be Sid the Child. His supporting forged included Nathan MacKinnon, Taylor Corridor, Tyler Seguin, Sean Couturier, Jordan Eberle, Ryan O’Reilly, Matt Duchene, Claude Giroux and Jason Spezza, who was voted the perfect ahead although Jaromir Jagr was named most beneficial participant in his ultimate worldwide look.

The defence wasn’t too shabby both, with Aaron Ekblad, Brent Burns, Dan Hamhuis, Jake Muzzin and David Savard, whereas Connor Hellebuyck and Mike Smith shared the goaltending.

Article content material

Article content material

If the 2015 workforce was probably the most proficient Canada ever despatched to the world championships, this 12 months’s workforce was arguably the least proficient.

The world championships have misplaced their enchantment for a lot of NHL gamers. They’re reluctant to lengthen a protracted season for little reward. They might be involved about accidents and a few could need to spend some high quality time with their households. The consequence — and Canada wasn’t alone on this regard — there was numerous marginal expertise on the world stage.

Toffoli was the one bona fide top-six ahead on the roster. He had 34 objectives and 73 factors with Calgary and, at No. 48 within the scoring race, he was the one member of Group Canada within the high 150. There have been seven gamers below the age of twenty-two who will profit from the expertise. One of many children, Adam Fantilli, turned the uncommon participant to attain on this planet juniors and the world championships in the identical 12 months and cemented his spot because the presumed No. 2 general choose on this 12 months’s NHL entry draft.

Article content material

There was one participant who begged to be on the workforce. Growing old Milan Lucic — he’ll be 35 subsequent month — was a disappointment after signing a seven-year, US$42-million contract with the Edmonton Oilers in 2016. He’s now an unrestricted free agent and hoped a powerful efficiency would produce some gives.

Canada gained as a result of, even with the absentees, it had a expertise edge on a lot of the different groups and co-host Finland, Sweden and the Czech Republic, which might have used David Krejci and David Pastrnak, all under-performed.

Canada gained as a result of it confirmed willpower and resilience. It didn’t sulk after shedding to light-weight Norway within the preliminary spherical and it got here from behind twice to beat co-host Latvia within the semifinal.

Article content material

And Canada gained as a result of Sam Montembeault, the Canadiens’ backup goaltender, put collectively two weeks of excellent hockey. He completed the match with a 6-1 report, a 1.42 goals-against common and a .939 save proportion. The gold medal ought to give him a confidence enhance heading into subsequent season.

Kudos for Caro: Previous to the gold-medal recreation, Montrealer Caroline Ouellette was launched as one of many new inductees into the Worldwide Ice Hockey Federation Corridor of Fame. Ouellette is one among solely 5 athletes to win gold medals in 4 consecutive Olympic Video games and it’s a shame that the oldsters on the Hockey Corridor of Fame haven’t acknowledged her.

The opposite inductees to the IIHF Corridor embrace former NHL gamers Brian Leetch, Henrik Zetterberg and Cristobal Huet, the Frenchman who’s the reply to the trivia query: Who was the Canadiens’ No. 1 goaltender earlier than Carey Value?

[email protected]