The Canadian team, as usual, brought a third-rate composition to the World Cup: several strong NHL players, promising youth, the rest are players who play mainly in the AHL and only periodically plug holes in the main teams. But even in this form, the “maple” set their sights on first place in group A – in the absence of the Russian team, they did not expect equal rivals.

Indeed, Germany, Slovakia, Switzerland and Denmark are such rivals to Canada on paper, even despite recent successes at the Olympics and the World Cup. The founders started, and really not bad – the Germans and Slovaks fought on equal terms only in separate segments. The Italians, of course, did not pull.

Unhealthy symptoms began in the first period of the match with Kazakhstan, which led twice. Even before the break, Claude Julien’s team achieved the desired result, but it was clear that the Canadians were playing the fool. North Americans have been coming to Europe for a long time not only to play, but also to show off properly. Both on and off the ice.

And now, the match with the Swiss. Trained, played, ready to shoot again – as in 2013 and 2018. But who are they before the great and terrible? The first pick of the 2017 draft and some other guys from Europe.

1:0, 2:1, 3:2 – three times in the course of the first period, Canada took the lead and the same number of times instantly, within a minute or two missed. The merry fellows, ready to play themselves, and to let the opponent show what he is capable of. The Canadian defense turned into an auditorium – when Michael Fora and Dean Kukan scored, everyone around just watched hockey, and Jonas Siegenthaler on the left flank was tritely forgotten – apparently, they thought about the soda in the locker room.

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The self-confidence of Canadians in hockey is something like the Brazilian football “you give us as much as you can, we give you as much as you want.” The ease with which NHL players beat the European “amateurs” is sometimes truly amazing. What is Adam Lauri’s puck worth in the minority – neatly, without a shot, in the style of Nikita Kucherov, he transferred the puck to Leonardo Genoni’s “house”.

But Switzerland has its stars – the young captain Niko Hishir scored the puck, which became the winner – for the second and third periods, the disciplined Swiss redoubts were beyond the control of the Canadian techies. They continued to feint, not really thinking about the team game – in modern hockey, this works less and less. The result is a sensational victory for the Crusaders.

You can forget about defense when you have a wall at the gate. This is clearly not about the Canadian goalkeeper Logan Thompson – he did not help out in that game and in the match with Denmark he lost his place at the gate to Chris Dredger. Changes followed in many parts – Julien shuffled the line-up, deciding to cheer up the team.

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It got even worse. Matt Barzal and Pierre-Luc Dubois continued to play with their opponents like cats and mice, only the mice turned out to be quite biting. Islanders star Barzal so easily passed several Danes at once with one movement that he decided to pull off this trick, being the last player in front of the net. The result is an interception by Frederik Storm, a goal by Peter Regin in the minority and 0:2.

Photo: Peter Regin’s goal against Canada

Max Comtois cheered up the floating Canada – he threw the puck, climbed under the skin, provoked. But he got carried away and got 5 + 20 for hitting the opponent with his elbow. And the game in the minority is not the strongest side of the Canadians. Five-minute removal of Comtois survived, but in the third period after a fine by Tom Chabot missed.

In the third period, they could compare – they loaded the post several times, had a good final assault with positional attacks and a goal from Ryan Graves. Only here went the semblance of a team game. But the punishment for excessive self-confidence and carelessness at the beginning and middle of the game was inevitable – in the decisive episodes they were simply unlucky.

Photo: © REUTERS / Antti Aimo-Koivisto/Lehtikuva

Instead of a comeback, it turned out only to injure the referee with a puck in the back. The referee fell on the ice and could not get up for a long time. And Denmark won the first victory in its history over Canada at the World Championships, giving the opponent a historical disgrace. Even in the absence of Russia, Canadians are not able to fight for leadership in the group. Who did they even bring to the tournament?

To clean up, Canada has a game with France. And then – the quarter-finals with the toughest opponent: Finland, Sweden or the Czech Republic with David Pastrnak. Indeed, after two defeats in a row, the first place in the maple group definitely does not shine.

However, a year ago we already went through something similar …