Canadian hockey fans had to be feeling déjà vu Thursday as Swiss goalie Jonas Hiller (Anaheim Ducks) stonewalled their team with 44 saves and three more in the shootout on Thursday night. But Sidney Crosby (Pittsburgh Penguins) found the twine on his second attempt of the shootout (in the Olympics, shooters can shoot as many times as the coach wants after the third round of shootouts) to give Canada a 3-2 win. It was four years ago to the day that former NHLer and then-Swiss goalie Martin Gerber shut out the Canadians 2-0.
But unlike Switzerland’s monumental upset in 2006, the Swiss on Thursday were unable to beat Canadian goalie Martin Brodeur (New Jersey Devils) when it counted. The NHL’s all-time winningest goalie turned away 21 of 23 shots, making huge saves in the final minutes of regulation and overtime and then stopping all four Swiss shootout attempts.
The Shark attack continued to pay dividends for the Canadian offense as Dany Heatley and Patrick Marleau had a goal and an assist each. But while Hiller was amazing, the vaunted Canadian forward corps was not much of a factor. That was painfully evident on the power play, on which Canada went 1-for-7.
Bruins forward Patrice Bergeron found his ice time limited for Canada on Thursday, but he won a big faceoff late and seemed to make a positive difference when he was on the ice. For now, it seems he will be the hockey equivalent of a “utility man” for Canada, playing whatever role is needed at the time.
Canada can come away from this game knowing it did what it had to do. Good teams find a way to win, and Canada did that in solving Hiller on a day on which he was clearly in the zone. But the Canadian team can also look at the negative and see plenty of wasted opportunities.
But the home-ice favorites are probably better off taking lessons from both perspectives and moving on. They have a solid test coming up against the U.S., and being heavy favorites once again, they can ill afford to let another solid team keep it close.
