It is hard to draw any conclusions from the very first pre-tournament exhibition game with a roster assembled from all sorts of teams. However, Thursday night's bout between Team Europe and Team North America gave us two things to chew on as we wait for meaningful tournament games.
1. Team North America might be way better than odds makers have given them credit for.
and
2. Team Europe might be in a bit of trouble.
It was hard to feel exceptionally positive for Team Europe from the outset and the 33:1 odds (The worst for the tournament) kind of put that in perspective. As did the 4-0 drubbing they received from the young guns squad of North America.
Talent wise there is a lot of good, positive things on the European team. Center depth is pretty solid with Anze Kopitar, Leon Draisaitl, and Franz Nielsen. Roman Josi is solid, and their is still some juice in the legs of Streit and Chara. And who doesn't like Zucarrello, Hossa, and Gaborik?
But like any team, if we can make a cross comparison to the NHL, depth is key, and Europe is going to struggle with that against some of these larger and more comprehensive teams. They will never match the talent pool of a USA or Canada, and that is just the nature of the beast that Team Europe faces. We will come back to that later.
Speed played a major factor in the team's first real competitive action, as North America's high paced attack and neutral zone play seemed to catch the European squad flat footed. No play exemplified this difference more than Mark Streit dragging down Nathan MacKinnon about halfway through the third period. The play led to a penalty shot in which MacKinnon scored on.
Team North America put just 21 shots on goaltender Jaro Halak, however several were plays in which he had no chance on, ala Nugent-Hopkins 2-0 goal that was essentially an open net tap in whilst Europe scrambled for a clearance.
While the pre-tournament games do not matter that much, we did see a glimpse of how Team Europe might be set up in usage.
As expected, the ice time was skewed pretty evenly throughout. Los Angeles Kings center and Slovenian native Anze Kopitar (20:28) led all players in ice time, with Swiss-born Roman Josi leading all defenseman (20:22). The lone Norwegian, Mats Zuccarello also hit the 20:00 minute mark on the button. Kopitar and Josi were also arguably the team's most effective players on the evening. Pretty much everyone except for the more depth oriented players like Draisaitl, Bellemere, Hansen, Rieder, and Ehrhoff saw powerplay time.
Overall, results weren't as easily spread.
If anyone is interested, here is the 5v5 Corsi For and Against for each player from the Team NA vs. Team Europe game pic.twitter.com/mAfHRsWzgZ
The Kopitar/Zuc/Boedker line were extremely good most of the night, and one of the few lines capable of handling the outright speed of Team North America. Most of the play, however, was generated by the duo of Kopitar and Zuccarello who, looked incredibly comfortable with each other. German representative Christian Ehrhoff also had a good night, as did Swiss player Luca Sbisa, but both benefitted from logging heavy time with Team Europe's top forward units.
The Team Europe "Shut down lines" really got taken to school by the Team North American top lines. This should be a common theme to look for throughout the tournament for Team Europe. It will not be their top lines that doom them but moreso the depth lines and how they match up against the other team's top pairs. Unless coach Ralph Krueger plans on playing Anze Kopitar 40 minutes a night, it is going to be difficult for Europe to shut down the high powered offenses of all these teams.
That's not to say things are all bleak and grim for Team Europe. Because they have such dynamic talents on parts of their roster, anything is possible. They also have the goaltending of Thomas Greiss and Jaro Halak to rely on. Both of whom are capable of holding down the fort against tremendous pressure.
Depth is going to be absolutely key for Europe to make a mark in this tournament, but the first game against Team North America wasn't all that positive. They have an older roster and almost certainly looked it as the game wore on. How heavy must they rely on their top lines for success? Is Krueger going to try and protect his bottom lines more in the actual tournament matches? It will be a tough road for this squad, but overall if they can rely on their big guns and some perhaps some more defensive oriented hockey they may squeeze out a few tighter matches than people think.
Last night was not the best of showcases for them, but it is the first game for a brand new team. Game two against North America on Sunday will really show if that veteran presence and experience will have an impact in making adjustments to limit the skill and speed of an exciting team North America.
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