|
Canada Fulfills Expectations |
|
|
|
The inevitable has happened. Canada has won the 2016 World Cup of Hockey. They deserved to win. The amount of talent that they have at their disposal is unfair.
The best player in the world played like he was the best player in the world and won tournament MVP honors. Sidney Crosby finished with the tournament lead in points with ten. Sid now currently holds a Stanley Cup, Olympic Gold, and World Cup championship. Team Canada has now won 26 straight games with him in the lineup.
Brad Marchand scored the game winning goal with under a minute left in regulation while shorthanded. A very deserving moment for a player who has done a spectacular job on Canada's top line.
Jonathan Toews did a great job of taking advantage of the European defenseman backing down into his own zone and losing his gap control.
Overall Team Europe made the most of what their roster had to offer against such a juggernaut. They did what they had to do which was score early on in the game, but they were unable to put any more goals past Carey Price. They were never going to hold Canada to zero goals. You can see below that Canada kept pressuring and pressuring until late in the third when they really poured it on.
Canada finishes the tournament 6-0 while controlling the flow of play throughout.
On the shot attempt front Canada had 362 for and 289 against during the World Cup. They were consistently good.
Canada scored 24 goals while only giving up 10 in the tournament.
It isn't always easy being the overwhelming favorite in a two week tournament. Expectations could wear on a team. This didn't happen with Canada and hasn't for a while. Until further notice Canada is hockey's elite country.
Thanks for reading!