TURIN, Italy – You think the Americans, coming here with a realistic shot at the bronze, are feeling the walls closing in on them while scoring only one goal a game?
Try the Canadians, who have to win every tournament they are in, prompting a national nervous breakdown by scoring no goals a game.
Switzerland shut out Canada 2-0 Saturday, which was stunning. Finland shut out Canada again last night, also 2-0, which was staggering, even if the Finns are 4-0 and have nailed down the Group A title.
Saku Koivu spun off Chris Pronger and fed Teemu Selanne for a gimme, Sami Kapanen converted a funky bounce off the boards and totally discombobulated Canada did a lot of patient Finland’s work for it. The loss didn’t jeopardize the Canadians’ medal-round berth, but sure scared the hell out of the country headed into the defending gold medalist’s final Group B round-robin contest tomorrow night against the Czech Republic.
“You look around our locker room, you know we going to find ways to score goals,” said Jarome Iginla. “We just have to relax. We’ll get one and we’ll get it going the right way again.”
It won’t be quite that easy, according to coach Pat Quinn.
“Obviously we’re missing individual assignments, not really playing much like a team right now,” he said. “Part of that was the successful positioning of the Finnish team, but what’s more important is our approach to compete.
“The way we think to use the big ice is to leave the zone early, leaving our defensemen to pass to only guys standing still. We kept trying to pass through instead of finding the right spots. And we weren’t going to the right spots.