Canada's hockey dominance reaffirmed with latest world title
Country has now won gold at last 2 Olympics, world championships
If any faith in Hockey Canada was lost because of the meek run at the world junior championship five months ago, Connor McDavid and the young Canadian team at the world championship likely restored belief that the game continues to be in a good place in this country.
Canada's 2-0 win against Finland in Moscow on Sunday provided more proof that the system devised by Mike Babcock and his coaching staff for the past two Olympics gets results.
This same tight-checking, disciplined system was employed in the last two IIHF world championships and it has resulted in Canada's 19th and 20th gold medals at this springtime gathering for Stanley Cup playoff castoffs.
At the Sochi Olympics, Babcock's team yielded only three goals in six games and didn't allow a goal in the final 144 minutes.
At this world championship, Canada's only blemish was a 4-0 loss to Finland in the preliminary-round finale last Wednesday. But once again, the Canadians exhibited a commitment to defence, limiting Finland in the gold-medal final to just 16 shots on net as goalie Cam Talbot of the Edmonton Oilers checked in with his fourth shutout of the tournament.
In total, Canada surrendered only 11 goals in 10 games. Last year, it was only 12 goals against and the Canadians held Russia to only 12 shots on goal in the gold-medal final.
"It's a different team," said Oilers forward Taylor Hall, who along with Matt Duchene and Ryan O'Reilly also won gold a year ago. "A lot more experience last year, a lot of youth on the team this year. So a bit different, but at the same time we got hot at the right time in the tournament [thanks to] a great coaching staff, great preparation, and great goaltending."
The Canadians also managed to score timely goals. They were shut out in only four of 30 periods. Three of those periods were in the loss to Finland, a country that was trying to become the first to win the world junior, world under-18 and world championship in the same year.
"You learn a lot about an opponent when you play them a second time," said captain Corey Perry, who became the 27th member of the Triple Gold Club as a winner of the Stanley Cup along with Olympic and world titles.
"We executed our game plan perfectly. Everybody in that dressing room wanted to win and everybody buckled down and played unselfishly, and it really showed today."
Forwards make World Cup case
Canada, which now has won an incredible 19 of 20 games in the last two world championships, will attempt to show this commitment again for Babcock at the World Cup of Hockey in four months in Toronto.
Carolina Hurricanes bench boss Bill Peters, who coached Canada in Moscow and will be on Babcock's staff for the World Cup, saw first-hand there were players on this world championship team who deserve consideration for roster spots in September.
Canada still has vacancies for three defencemen and four forwards to be added when the rosters will be finalized later this week.
The 19-year-old McDavid is not eligible because he will suit up for the "Young Guns" team made up of North American players under the age of 24. But I don't have a problem with adding Brad Marchand, Hall, Duchene and Perry to the mix of the Canadian forward group of Jonathan Toews, Sidney Crosby, Jamie Benn and company. Too bad there also isn't room for O'Reilly.
Marchand, Hall, Duchene and Perry have the speed, skill and smarts to play for Canada in the World Cup. They exhibited as much in Moscow.
Canada's win at the world championship takes plenty of the sting out of the fact that no Canadian-based teams made the Stanley Cup playoffs this year. This country has gone on a remarkable run with Olympic gold in 2010 and 2014 and now back-to-back world championships.
We'll see if it continues when, as the song goes, we see you in September.