Europe keeps it close in Game 1 loss to Canada
Gretzky surprises Euro captain Kopitar prior to World Cup final opener
When Team Europe captain Anze Kopitar showed up for the opener of the 2016 World Cup of Hockey final against Canada, a note from Wayne Gretzky was waiting in his dressing room stall at the Air Canada Centre.
The brief message read, "Good luck, have fun. Wayne, 99."
When The Great One leaves you a pre-game note. <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/WCH2016?src=hash">#WCH2016</a> <a href="https://t.co/UGLMYchKnk">pic.twitter.com/UGLMYchKnk</a>
—@TeamEUR_WCHGretzky was on hand Tuesday to be introduced as the league's ambassador for its 100th year celebrations.
His note to Kopitar was not the Great One choosing sides before Canada cracked open the best-of-three series with a 3-1 victory. He lives in Los Angeles and has not only become friends with the talented Kings captain, a two-time Stanley Cup winner, but Gretzky admires Kopitar, opining earlier in the day that he's one of the top-two players in the game.
Kopitar has played a massive part in Team Europe's surprise run to the final and was a key performer in this tight opener.
'A nice surprise'
"It was a nice surprise," Kopitar said, when asked about Gretzky's note.
Was it more of a surprise that Kopitar and Co. kept it close on Tuesday or was it more of a surprise that Canada suffered through its first clunker in a long time? Probably, a little of both.
"There were times we showed that we can play with them," Kopitar said.
"There's nothing to lose for us. We played well in their zone and we were getting chances. But we shot ourselves in the foot a couple of times. We gave them a couple of freebies."
After a strong start from Team Europe, Canada's top line took advantage of a turnover for yet another Sidney Crosby to Patrice Bergeron to Brad Marchand goal. Ryan Getzlaf stripped Europe's stud defender Zdeno Chara to set up Steven Stamkos for a 2-0 lead.
Team Europe was fantastic later in the first period and for long stretches in the second period when Canada got messy. Team Europe was fast, physical and forced turnovers.
Hard work
"We all know this is the final series and also that it's the best-of-three, and what order you win the two games in is irrelevant," Team Europe coach Ralph Krueger said. "I think we just have a group that understands the opportunity that we're in and that we've created with a lot of hard work.
"This will pull us together even that much tighter, I think. That's what I feel out of this group and in the room right now."
Tomas Tatar scored to bring the Europeans to within a goal midway through the second period. Before and after Tatar's goal, Canadian goalie Carey Price kept his mates in the lead with a series of brilliant stops to improve to 15-0-0 in a Canadian sweater (6-0 in 2007 world junior, 5-0 in 2014 Olympics and 4-0 in this event).
First, Price turned aside Tobias Reider and Frans Nielsen in a bang-bang play. Then it was saves on Mikkel Boedker, Nino Niederreiter and Boedker again. He also foiled defenceman Andrej Sekera on a breakaway.
"It helped a lot to have him back there," Marchand said.
The Canadians were better in the third period. Crosby, once again, came to the rescue, setting up Bergeron to give Canada breathing room. The high-scoring trio has combined for 10 goals and 22 points in five games here.
Rare close call
A close call like this rarely has occurred in this incredible 15-game win streak Canada has compiled in best-on-best hockey since the 2010 Olympics in Vancouver.
Still, of the 300 minutes for the Canadians in this tournament they have led for 258:46, been tied for 38:33 and trailed for only 2:41.
"We scored timely goals on their turnovers," assessed Canadian coach Mike Babcock. "In the first, I thought that they were better than us for large stretches of the game at times. I thought they executed and played fast.
"I didn't think we moved the puck out of our zone at all tonight, went back and forth. We had guys out there that didn't talk to one another so actually didn't play fast and then turned the pack over on entry, so they looked quicker than they were and we probably looked slower than we were.
"In the end, obviously, we've got lots of room to get better, but we came here today to find a way to win a game. We won a game, so now tomorrow we've got to get better again so we can take this step."