Why does Canada rule?
Team Canada lost some games in the games prior World Cup but their players did not lose one battle in World Cup. The war consists from the battles and one lost battle does not make a war, but the question is: What does make a perfect army? Commander in chief aka coach Babcock and his preparation, drill exercises, training system and strategy? Maybe? A group of star NHL players? Maybe, but remember, Russia has All Star Team in Sochi and left with the tails between their legs. We can speak about ice hockey being a number one in Canada where any boy breaths for skating and the ice rink is in every village, start with the frozen pond. Yes, they have heroes such as Gretzky, Lemieux or Crosby, Toews. It is a national pride as well as a duty to win in Toronto, Canada, but..
also Team Europe was great. They almost defeated Canada in Game 2 in the finals, so how is it possible? There was no national identity and a pride. It was about a bunch of the players raised in Europe. Florida forward named it perfectly: You need to leave your ego in the locker room. It does not matter who scores the goal. Actually Samkos is a Mr Sniper. Toews is genius on the skates, both way player who can score as well as block the shots and he or anyone else were able to jump into the fired rubber puck, dive and fight, without any hierarchy. They were one team, one breath, one heart beat, they also showed the strength to fight when they were losing against Team Europe. Yes, Tazer's role was smaller in this championship but he did a lot of dirty work as well as many stars doing so called terrain work on the ice rink, blocking, passing pucks instead of amazing figure skating and scoring.
Other big reason, the forceful game of huge strong bashers known for Team Canada where just 2-3 players were able to score a la Gretzky or Lemieux and the rest just hooked, forchecked and bodychecked rival players is gone. They have fast and great skaters, even Crosby learnt to pass the puck and be a team member, but their new generation is fit athletic amphibian who can play both ways and adjust quickly, reads the game quickly. It was important during our history. You saw where cavemen ended, as a part of history!
