Since the outset of the tournament, the question for Europe is do they have the quality up and down their lineup to be competitive, score, and play solid defense. They are no Team Canada, clearly. They are no Team Sweden, no Team U.S.A, and heck...if the past two games have showed us anything, they are no Team North America either.
Unfortunately for Europe, while it was a better overall performance, it was doomed from the get go. Thomas Greiss was lit up for four goals on eight shots in the first 10 minutes of the game before being yanked in favor of Islanders teammate Jaro Halak.
North America again carved through the sloth like European defense in the first, slotting home three goals in the first eight minutes. While Frenchman Pierre-Edouard Bellemare stopped the bleeding momentarily for Europe, with the squad's first ever goal, Morgan Reilly scored just a minute and a half or so later. Johnny Gaudreau, who had himself a night for Team North America, tallied the fifth and final goal of the first period for Team North America.
While a boxscore would tell you Thomas Greiss had a bad night, the Europe defense were again danced and dangled around by the speed and tenacity of North America. Through the neutral zone, it was the young guns that brought the heat.
While the German, Greiss, had a forgettable efforts on the Reilly and Ekblad second goal, it was one of those cases where he didn't get much help while also doing himself no favors.
Perhaps by virtue of hurt pride or anger, Europe stabilized in the second period, adding two goals from LA King and Slovakian forward Marian Gaborik. Altogether they played a much more stable and controlled period, and it gave us flashes of what this experienced Europe group CAN do when they have hold of the puck. The passes and play is intelligent, calm, and decisive.
While Team Europe drew back three to put a dent in their slow start deficit, Team North America again went into capitalizing on speed and skill as the game opened up more. Goals from Gaudreau and Larkin put the game out of reach for Europe, as they fell to 0-2 in the prelim tournament stage.
While brought spots for Team Europe included Mats Zuccarello, Anze Kopitar, and the swashbuckling play of Roman Josi, it was again a tale of two very different style hockey teams. Team Europe might be the most quick footed and active team in the tournament, so it will be interesting to see how Team Europe fares against a much more controllable paced team. If these two games are any indicator, North America is going to give many teams in this tournament a problem. Halak was also able to come in in relief of Thomas Griess and turn away 22 of 24 shots
For Europe, the game did answer some questions.
Yes, they can score. They have the players capable of scoring. Again, Josi, Zuccarello, Kopitar, Frans Nielsen, and Marian Gaborik all had fairly active and and at times quality games. Defensively however they have allowed 11 goals in two games, and looked incredibly slow and porous doing so. Depth was the issue discussed our last time out, and it continues to be a real touch and go group on the lower lines and pairs for Europe.
Luca Sbisa in particular had a rather adventurous night, starting out with this "Own goal"
and topping it off with a Gaudreau show that had Sbisa looking for his car keys later.
Overall though, it was a wildly entertaining game that showed how very different the older guard of the NHL plays versus the new and upcoming talent. Both had moments of quality form, but in the end it was North America that won out.
While we now realize that Team Europe can play a very potent offensive game based around methodical puck movement and possession, defensively they look weak. You also have to wonder how much teams are going to attack them with speed and through the neutral zone now that it has been exposed so heavily in their opening games. Is goaltending going to be an issue? Can they get some offense outside of a few players like Zuc, Gaborik, Kopitar, and Josi?
Europe takes on Team Sweden on Wednesday, which should be an excellent measuring stick game for the Europeans.
The last two games are behind them, and perhaps the rust is off a bit, the familiarity sets in, and we start to see more of last night's second period consistently. If play continues to be anything like Game One of prelims, or last night's first period, it could be ugly.
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