The Globe and Mail’s Roy MacGregor asks an intriguing question:
It’s not likely to happen – but it’s not entirely inconceivable, either.
Canadian hockey fans cheering against Team Canada?
It’s early in the relatively meaningless exhibition round of the World Cup, but there are still some things to be learned. And the most obvious has to be is the most-gimmicky team is for real.
Team North America – more often referred to as the Under-24s by the hockey world – is pretty damn good. The kids, as they’re also known, made easy work of Team Europe in two exhibition games last week. And while Team Europe – composed of players from Slovakia, Denmark, Norway, Switzerland, Germany, Austria, France and Slovenia – isn’t expected to be a factor, no one really knows what to expect from the kids.
They could fizzle; they could contend; they could … As the Globe and Mail’s Montreal sports reporter, Sean Gordon, put it in Monday’s paper, they’re “half high-speed circus, half hockey team.”
“Let’s face it,” Team Europe captain Anze Kopitar quickly conceded, “they’re faster than us.” And more skilled. And more ambitious.
