by Christian Grenon, Special to AllHabs.net
It seemed everyone on Twitter was writing about their disappointment and embarrassment over the “meltdown” of Team Canada in the third period of the IIHF World Junior Championship in Buffalo. The coaching, goaltending and defensive coverage all got criticized.
In the minutes following the loss, Cameron was pegged as the principal reason for the loss; the opinion of many was that he had coached his team to protect the lead, ultimately failing to do so. Many comparisons to Jacques Martin were made, none of them flattering. Others blamed him for not calling a timeout after the Russian’s second goal. A few experts suggested he should have changed goalies, either after the second or third goal. Later on, I read that goaltending just wasn’t good enough through the tournament, and especially in the third period. This morning, I am reading news stories and blogs filled with the words: shame, embarrassment, disappointment, collapse and failure.
While everyone, including myself, was trying to find the cause for such a turn of events, we all lost sight of the other side of the coin. As Canadians, we expect our team to return with gold, year over year. In fact, we demand that they do. The expectations are clear: gold, or nothing else. The second place finisher is the first of the losers… Those 20 boys have to carry the expectations of an entire nation; 70 million eyeballs are trained on them between December 26 and January 5.
Expectations aside, had Team Canada been behind by three goals after two periods, and then scored five unanswered goals in the third, we would have praised the team for playing with such heart, courage and perseverance. We would have praised the coaching for brilliantly adjusting the game plan to fend off the opposing attack, and play around the defensive system put in place by the other coach. We would have noted the change in the transition game, playing the puck behind the defensemen instead of to trying to play through, which hadn’t worked for the first two periods.
We would have recognized the momentum change that came from changing goalies in the second period. We might even have credited a player that probably exaggerated (faked?) an injury to silence the crowd, take away the momentum from the other team, only to come back stronger than ever in the third, scoring one goal, and assisting on another.
But we expect our beloved team to win, so we must find where our team went wrong. Or do we? I suggest we look at the game in a different way…
We could celebrate the amazing determination of the Russian team, who had come back in two games previously in this tournament (FIN, SWE), and had lost their first two games in the round-robin round (CAN, SWE). Those boys continued to believe that they could win, and would not stop trying until they did. They played with everything they had, and were rewarded for it. Their coaches made the right adjustments, and found the way to motivate the young Russians during that second intermission.
We could also celebrate the accomplishment of a Canadian team, who played without a few of our best players who are so good that they are already in the NHL. A team that had lost only lost one game before the final, to Sweden in a shootout. Those boys didn’t lose the gold medal… they won silver!
(Photo by REUTERS/Mike Cassese)