Team Europe One of the Best Hockey Stories in Years
Team Europe’s defeat at the hands of Team Canada in the World Cup of Hockey finals might be called crushing defeat, but that’s only part of the story. The rag-tag group will be remembered for being another story of beating the odds and coming together as a team to see how far they could go.
Team Europe was close…I mean very close to making a final series of it and taking Game 2 from Team Canada and forcing a decisive Game 3 for the World Cup of Hockey Championship. Alas Patrice Bergeron and Brad Marchand had other plans as the two Canadians scored with just under three minutes to go and again with only 54 seconds left. It was an exciting ending to what was an exciting three weeks of hockey.
The look on the faces of the members of Team Europe was disappointment and a close-up of European goaltender Jaroslav Halak after the final horn showed you all the emotion you needed to know. So why is it that this team of players from eight different countries would care so much if they lost? I mean they weren’t even necessarily playing for their home country’s team, they were playing for some conglomerate the NHL brass had thrown together.
Related Story: Team Europe Shocks the World and Makes World Cup Final
The players didn’t see it that way though. They did what great teams do, they come together and play of each other. Team captain Anze Kopitar summed it up well after the Game 2 loss by saying “We had a lot of fun. It was a special group, and it’s something that is one thing I am for certain, that this going to stay with us for a long, long time.”
That’s a statement not to be taken lightly. Kopitar has won two Stanley Cups and is the best hockey player from his native Slovenia. For him to describe playing with this rag-tag group as special that means a ton from someone who has a lot of great hockey memories and has played with some great players on those Cup winners in LA.
So looking at the World Cup through the lens of Team Europe you can see why this tournament was actually a lot of fun to watch. Here are the best hockey players in the world just having fun. The Olympics are great don’t get me wrong, but there is an immense amount of pressure that goes with playing in that tournament. The World Cup offered the same competition level, possibly even a bit higher level and took a lot of pressure off the players.
For Europe the pressure was almost non-existent. There wasn’t really a national press breathing down their neck like Team USA or Team Canada. Heck they didn’t even play an anthem for them at the beginning of the game. Yet if you asked these players if they were playing for their home country, they would most likely answer yes and point to the flag on their left shoulder.
Minnesota Wild forward Nino Niederreiter described the pressure as almost non-existent after the Sweden win. “Now all of a sudden we’re in the Finals. It’s been great. The good thing, there’s literally no pressure for us, right? You really just go out there and play and see what happens.”
More from International Tournaments
- Let’s Check in on the Minnesota Wild Prospects in the WJC
- Minnesota Wild: No draft picks represented at World Juniors this year
- Team Europe Shocks the World and Makes World Cup Final
- Minnesota Wild: Team Europe and Niederreiter Roll to the Semis
- Team Finland Exits World Cup in Disappointment
Also this was a Team Europe that was counted out right away because of their haphazard assembling and being the oldest average age in the tournament. Sometimes it’s those kind of underdog expectations that makes a team special and bands the players together. Marian Hossa after the win against Sweden to get to the finals explained that “I think nobody would guess we could be in the final. It was 33-to-1 odds against us. So it just feels good to be where we’re at. I think everybody here is really happy.”
Next: Keep Preseason Games in Perspective
Any way you slice it this was a special team and a pleasure just to watch. So if you didn’t watch the World Cup of Hockey because you didn’t see the point or just didn’t notice, I’m here to tell you made a mistake. Team Europe was one of the best hockey stories in years, and Coach Ralph Krueger puts the best end to the story when he said after the loss The way it turned out at the end is very painful. But you need to open eye to big picture and the journey. How we played was amazing. They played their hearts out. … We beat the odds and we turned this into a hell of final, which nobody expected.”