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Team Europe Shocks Team USA 3-0 to Open World Cup of Hockey |
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Why wait until late in the tournament to have the upset of the whole thing?
The heavily favored Team USA stumbled on ill-discipline, brain cramps, and altogether sloppy play to lose to the veteran Team Europe 3-0 to open the tournament. For the Europeans, after a very rough start to the preliminary matches steadily improved, this was the premier performance they could have expected.
Jaro Halak gave the Europeans outstanding goaltending, and the depth/role players of Europe came up big yet again. Against Team Sweden, Ralph Krueger's line juggling paid off huge with better production and impact from his lower lines, and it helped again today. Pierre-Edouard Bellemare and Leon Draisaitl each potted a goal, while Marian Gaborik contributed from the Team Europe top 6.
While Jonathan Quick stopped just 14 of 17, the goals against came with little help defensively for a sloppy Team USA.
Little was going to be done by the LA Kings netminder, or any netminder for that matter, to stop those chances. Reliance on the 82% save percentage is a bit too detached from the game itself in this instance. The real concern for John Tortorella came with the neutral zone play and turnovers that allowed Europe to capitalize so easily, and essentially set the tone for the game. There was also the inevitable questioning of some of John Tortorella's player choices by some major media members...
Yahoo's Josh Cooper followed that up with an even better tweet probably describing how many felt in that regard
Questions about the U.S. lineup were probably fair considering the offensive potency of both Byfuglien and Palmieri would have helped the U.S. quite a bit, particularly on the powerplay, in solving Halak.
Overall the Europeans probably allowed far too many chances, but the 35 save shutout effort by Jaro Halak may go down as one of the performances of the tournament when all is said and done. Europe was opportunistic, capitalized when they needed to, and stayed calm and structured despite holding a 3-0 lead against their heavily favored opponents. Both teams went 0-for-4 on the powerplay. In terms of sheer shot volume and possession, USA did little wrong except for run into an in the zone Jaro Halak.
For Europe this is obviously a dream start to the tournament, and they seem to be getting a lot of cohesiveness in terms of style and play at the moment. However, captain Anze Kopitar put a more focused, "unfinished business" feel to it in his post game.
Krueger likewise in his post-game comments stated "We haven't accomplished anything yet."
Overall, continued strength from players like Draisaitl, Bellemare, and Ehrhoff, will go a long way in making them a competitive threat deeper into this tournament. While a victory against Canada is a pretty high expectation, thinking that they can beat the Czechs is not all that inconceivable at the moment. Ralph Krueger and the European team seems to be hitting stride at exactly the right moment. Beating the Czech Republic almost all but finalizes Europe's berth into the next round, unless the U.S.A. can beat both Canada and the Czechs in their next two games. Then things will get down into tiebreak. For Europe, the Czechs stand as their next opponent and two will square off on Monday. Team Canada plays the Czech Republic later today in a game that will likely be watched heavily by the Europe coaching staff.
It's on to the next with a feel good, confident win for the Europeans.
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