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In a performance reminiscent of the smooth jazz sounds of Miles Davis, Team North America played a flawless game against Finalnd last night in their opening game of the World Cup of Hockey.
The final score was 4-1 for North America, but it could easily have been 10 or 12 to 1. It was a performance of pure dominance. When Team Canada plays Belarus they don't dominate this much, that's how much of a beat-down this was.
The shot attempt totals are insane: NA 73 Finland 31, giving North American a Corsi rating of around 70%. If a team puts up a 55% corsi rating, they will rarely lose. 70% is crazy.
And, keep in mind that in most games, once a team is up 4-0, as NA was after 2 periods, the other team tends to get a spike in their shot attempts due to the winning team relaxing.
And, keep in mind that because of the score, the North Americans only played Connor McDavid for around 14 minutes.
It could have been 5 nothing after the first: a goal that counted, a goal that was called back, a puck that was 1/16th of an inch from going over the line, goal post and a cross bar.
Like I said, the score was pretty kind to the Finns here, who looked absolutely horrible. They just couldn't counter the speed or the talent of the North Americans, who, frankly were toying with them.
While many people were acting shocked and there were several instances of people saying and/or tweeting "no one saw this coming" I think that is inaccurate.
I saw it coming, and so did the thousands of fans and analysts who keep insisting that a) nothing trumps talent b) experience is overrated and that NHL coaches do not play or trust their young players enough and c) peak age for a hockey player is about 24.
Now, I'm not saying team North America will win for sure, but they might. I suspect the overall effect of having Eichel, Matthews and McDavid has somehow been underrated. That combo alone probably bested only by the Crosby-Bergeron-Marchand line, and even then, it's not even certain that they aren't already better. OK, the Canada line is likely still better, but it's a hell of a lot closer than I think anyone wants to admit.
All I'm saying is that it isn't impossible this team wins this tournament and that no one should be surprised that they were able to toy with a team that is filled with NHL third liners, and guys who aren't even in the NHL.
According to https://t.co/2P2sTOgDqt, since 2012-13 Pekka Rinne is tied with Ben Scrivens in 5v5 Adj.FenSV% 52nd amongst G's w/ 2000+ mins.
Pekka Rinne also looked awful. He was flopping around, giving the puck away, letting out huge rebounds etc. It's weird that they wouldn't play Rask first anyways, but they probably will from now on.
As for Finland, if they want to salvage this tournement they'll have to beat Sweden on Tuesday and Russia on Thursday. At this point it looks extremely likely that North America and Sweden will both be going to the Semi Finals.
Team North America on the other hand looks like they could legitimately beat a Canadian team that has made some questionable (where's Hall?) roster choices and some outrageously bad ones (Bouwmeester).
Anyways, what an awesome game. It kind of sucks for Finland because they just got demolished, but at least they can take solace in the fact that they lost to a team who scratched a defenseman (Trouba) who is better than anyone on their own defense.
Finally, as a Toronto Maple Leaf fan, I have to say that watching Auston Matthews skate alongside Connor McDavid and in no way look out of place was enough to make me burn my Matt Frattin Jersey.
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