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Despite the big Olympic ice surface, Joe Thornton and Canada have not found much room to skate. |
Canada getting lost
on Games' big ice
By Rich Libero | NHL.com
Feb. 19, 2006
TORINO, Italy - The desert plays tricks on the mind; its expanse often leaves the stranded traveler wandering in circles and seeing mirages. The end result: a trap that leads to bad things.
This, apparently, is what team Canada experienced on the 100-foot wide Olympic ice sheet on Sunday night at the Torino Esposizioni. "We kind of looked dopey," Team Canada coach Pat Quinn said.
Canada had trouble dealing with space and getting into position in a 2-0 loss to team Finland. Quinn said they missed passes, didn't get into position and went to places on the ice where they thought there might be space.
"We missed a couple of plays tonight that we shouldn't be missing," Quinn said. "You don't draw those on the board. That comes from within."
Finland stormed out in the first 10 minutes to seize control of the game. Teemu Selanne opened the scoring at 11:14 and four minutes later Niko Kapanen added the insurance marker.
"We knew they play physical," Finland captain Saku Koivu said. "We wanted to match their intensity. We couldn't give up, if you fell on your ass, you had to get right back up and into the play. On the first goal, I just battled, spun away and Selanne was free."
The loss was Canada's second in as many days after they were stunned, 2-0, by tiny Switzerland on Saturday. The back-to-back shutouts mark the longest such Canadian drought since they failed to score in the final three games of the 1984 Winter Olympics.
The Finnish victory makes them the unlikely champions of Group A and, in probability, the first round opponent of Team USA in the quarterfinals.
Speaking of the Americans, Canada's North American neighbors seem to be suffering from the same problem -- adapting to the larger ice surface. Team USA captain Chris Chelios said that he thinks the European teams know all the angles and can set traps for their North American opponents by leading them to places on the ice that do not result in goals or anything productive.
Selanne thought Chelios' observation was spot on. "In the NHL when you beat somebody 1-on-1, you get a scoring chance," Selanne said. "Here, you beat somebody and the other guy can still get you, you have to kind of take the shortcut. You really have to skate."
And in physical games, players have to be careful about which battles they pick. Running around to finish a check on the larger ice surface can lead to more problems.
"You can't compare this with the NHL," Florida center Olli Jokinen said. "If you miss a hit over here, you're out of the play."
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Finishing your check on the Olympic ice carries a risk: getting caught up ice.
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Quinn said Canada's forwards were getting too far ahead of the defensemen, making the transition game more difficult. Hockey is a game about time and space management and the Canadians aren't doing either too well right now.
"We think we're using the bigger ice by leaving the zone early," Quinn said.
Canada faces the Czech Republic on Tuesday at 10:30 a.m . ET (CBC, MSNBC) and Quinn hopes that he will see his team transition from individual play to team play
during that time.
"It's a time thing and hopefully it won't take too much time because if you do, you disappear," Quinn said.
Team Canada dropped a preliminary round game to Sweden during the 2002 Olympics. They seemed to struggle with the strategies and team-building aspects of that tournament, but got their act together in time for the knockout stages.
The kicker to that tournament is that Canada got a bit of a break in the semifinals when they faced tiny Belarus. By the time Canada reached the gold medal game against the Americans (who won a hard-fought semi-final vs. Russia) Canada had figured out its way.
"We're very individual and the progress of being a team has been halting," Quinn said. "We said we needed five games to pull our team together."
Canada will go back to the drawing board during an off-day on Monday. Quinn said that talking more than practice will be required to fix Canada's woes. The coaching staff will sit down with the players and attempt to determine issues and line combinations.
"Tomorrow we'll spend time talking to the players and see how they feel," Quinn said. "There is some collaboraton of ideas."
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