WJC 2014 Semifinals: Game 2 - Canada vs Finland

This game was arguably the game that Canada had to play their best in, and it was the game that they played their worst in. Canada came into this game just expecting to beat Finland, and in theory they should have. Part of that cockiness may have been the result of the fact that Canada has beat Finland every year for the last 13 years, or that Finland may not have been the best team in the tournament, or that Finland doesn’t have the same “star power” that Canada does. Whatever it was that caused the Canadians’ over confidence, it was that over confidence that caused Canada’s demise. Finland outplayed Canada and deserved the 5-1 win that they got.

The first period of the game was relatively boring and certainly not at all like the awesome game that the Swedes and Russians played. Really, there wasn’t much that went on at all. Finland was clearly outplaying Canada though. You know how Burke said that Bobby Ryan had no intensity? Canada was the definition of no intensity in this game.

The second period was when things finally started to happen. Finland gets a goal. Finland gets another goal. Canada gets a 10 minute misconduct for abuse of an official. Canada takes an extremely questionably penalty. Canada scores. Canada takes another penalty – this one an “IIHF Penalty.” Finland scores. Third period stuff was still happening. Canada’s abysmal powerplay was on full display. There was a dramatic penalty shot incident. And an empty net goal. Wow, that’s a lot.

 Let’s go over that. Start with the Finnish goals, shall we? Well one of them was a flukey bounce off the boards that seemed to catch everyone by surprise, including Fucale who just didn’t suspect to have anyone from the Finnish team there right away, yet they were. One goal, Fucale shrunk down to way too small of a size and the shot went easily over his shoulder. The third goal was somewhat reasonable. Despite those goals, this game was not on Fucale, don’t take that the wrong way. Fucale played exceptional in this game, and he gave Canada every opportunity to win this game. You cannot blame a game on the goalie when the team in front of him seemed to just not be there – physically and mentally. The empty netter is what it is, no more to say, no less to say. The penalty shot? That will come later.

Penalties? Sure, there are three very interesting incidents here. Nic Petan took a ten minute misconduct for abuse of an official. It appeared as though after some physicality and a bit of a scrum in front of the net, Petan got singled out by the official and yelled at him. It’s tough to say whether or not that is exactly what happened because of the way it was broadcast, but in all likelihood from what they had shown and the comments that were made, that’s more or less what happened. That’s a fairly routine occurrence, but this time Petan took the misconduct. Odd. Keep in mind that it was this same tournament that Michal Plutnar ran a linesmen and got a two minute penalty. So there went one of Canada’s strong centres. The next one, Zach Fucale took a tripping penalty. Yeah, the goalie took a tripping call. There were mixed reactions to this call because of the way it played out. It was obvious that Fucale’s stick did go straight into the feet of the Finnish player, but on the other hand, it was obvious that it wasn’t done with the intentions of tripping the guy, but rather simply making the save. So yes, in definition it’s a trip, but in the context – which is something that officials should consider when making calls – it’s not a trip. This is why there were some mixed reaction. Personally, I think that is the most ridiculous call. But it is what it is. Next penalty was a Jonathan Drouin head check, yes, again. This time though, Drouin fell victim to what has been named “The IIHF Penalty” essentially saying that because the IIHF has such strict rules on head shots, any contact with the head – intended or not – gets disciplined. This check appears to be one that was shoulder to shoulder and the way that the Finnish player absorbed the hit and chose to go down clipped Drouin with his head. It’s tough to explain this hit, so go look it up. Regardless, this hit did not appear to have the head as the principle point of contact which makes the ten minute misconduct seem excessive. Drouin has been quoted saying so post-game as well. But it is what it is.

I really hate to say this because I’m not a person who believes that any officiating is done in a specific way in order to increase the odds of a certain outcome, I’m really not. I’m not a conspiracy theorist when it comes to officiating. That being said, of course the IIHF would like a Finnish-Swedish final, because the games are being held in Sweden and that’s a great rivalry. The extreme nature of the calls makes that seem a little suspicious. The official who was making most of the calls against Canada happened to be a Swiss referee, so there’s that too. Keep in mind that the other referee was American and the linesmen were German and Russia. So make your own opinions here, I’m not saying either way, it’s just something that seemed suspicious to me and a handful of other people I know who also watched the game. Just consider it.

Now, Canada’s powerplay. That was quite possibly the most disappointing aspect of the Canadian game today. The defensemen were struggling to hold the line, the Canadians were skating so slow that it took them for-fricking-ever to regroup when they went offside, they weren’t moving their feet and they weren’t getting pucks to the net. Canada had a four minute powerplay at the end of the second that transferred over to the third period. They had a handful of shots in those four minutes because they spent the majority of the powerplay collecting the pucks that the Finns cleared. The powerplay was absolutely abysmal. Despite the thing I mentioned before, Canada still had 6 powerplays in the game while Finland had 8. Those numbers mean a little bit less when you consider the penalties and the double minors and the majors, but regardless.

Canada dominated Finland in the faceoff dot finishing with winning 61% of the draws. You’d think that that would help them win. You’d think.

Now for the penalty shot. This is where things get fun. Henrik Haapala was shown in the pre-game show on TSN to be chirping with the Canadians during the pre-game skate and trying to get them riled up, so you can form an idea of the type of player he is right there. Now, third period comes around, Haapala gets a break away on Fucale. Pouliot is furiously chasing Haapala and does what he had to do to stop him, he reached around and essentially hugged the guy and pulled him down, during the hug he grazed the guy’s glove with his stick. Officials call a penalty shot. Fair enough. Then Haapala goes up to the referee and claims injury from being slashed. That’s suspicious. Haapala is a reasonable player, but not great, he goes over to the ref and you can see him pleading his case that his hand is injured. Canada questions this move, as you would expect and the officials end up going to recheck on Haapala. The officials did decide, through whatever process, that Haapala was sufficiently injured and that Finland could choose another player to take the shot. In comes Teuvo Teravinen, a major step up from Happala. Teravainen scores on the penalty shot, like everyone expected him too. Haapala’s “injury” didn’t appear to hamper his high-fiving on the bench. Or his handshake at the end, for that matter. So there’s that too.

One other thing that Finland did that was picking Canada’s ass all game was standing behind the net. Usually, when the standing behind the net play happens, it’s so that the rest of the team can quickly regroup and get in position for their play. Not for the Finns. They would stand behind their net for an extended period of time trying to get Canada to chase them – we’re talking like twenty to forty seconds here. There were three incidents in the game that this was extremely evident. It would have been completely fair to call a delay of game penalty on one of these instances, but that never happened.

Now, there are absolutely no excuses for why Canada lost. It is undeniable that the Canadians did not play as well as they should have, by any means. There were two things that Canada did that hurt them badly. One of them was just being a hot mess, the second being that they were trying to play five guys all by themselves. Canada came out super cocky, as discussed earlier and it lead to sloppy plays and no speed in their skating. It was ugly. And as for the selfishness in their plays, everyone was doing it. Nobody wanted to pass to anyone else when they were in the offensive zone. Nobody wanted to pass to anyone else to carry it in past the blue line. Nobody wanted to pass to anyone, period. Every single guy on that team wanted to be the guy that saved the game for Canada and it just ended up hurting them more than anything. With most of the guys, this became evident in the second and third period, but there was one player that stood out as trying to do it all by himself all game – hell, all tournament. Jonathan Drouin. Drouin is a player that likes to do all that he possibly can. Sometimes it works out for him; think back to last year and some of the filthy dangles that he scored on, those can’t be accomplished by being a constant passer. But sometimes it doesn’t work out for him. Drouin needs to learn to recognize when it will work for him and when it won’t. It hasn’t been. All game, Drouin refused to pass the puck to anyone else to take the puck in over the blueline. Drouin would not pass as he was getting swarmed by Finns and could not hold possession. Drouin didn’t want to pass to anyone who had a shooting lane when he didn’t. Again, not blaming Drouin for this loss and I’m not picking on him either – in fact, I really like Drouin and I think he is an amazing player. Drouin is simply the player that it is easiest to see this in his game. It’s likely that if Drouin would have made plays that were less selfish, he could have had a much better tournament. Same goes for all the guys on that team.

Now that the semi-finals are over, early tomorrow morning are the medal rounds. It should be interesting to see how Canada matches up against Russia; truthfully, I think that came is going to boil down to attitude. And it will be interesting to see if Finland can upset the host country. We will see. Time will tell.

Best of luck to all four countries tomorrow!