Let me start by saying that was a great comeback at the end. I'll continue by saying that if there hadn't have been an extraordinary series of flukes at the end the game would have ended 5-4 Russia.
If the Russian player had not gone for the empty net instead of just skating out or flipping the puck down, if he didn't miss the open net, if the Russian defense wouldn't have cleared just one more of Hodgson's multiple stupid no-look behind the back passes to no one in the slot in the final minutes (I counted three and couldn't understand why he was out there in the first place with the game he was having), if the Russian defender who stopped Tavares' backhand flip shot would have gloved it to the corner instead of bobbling it right to the Canadian forward's stick, etc.
You get the point. Exciting finish but also very lucky.
So that brings me to the issue of how things got to that point at all. Anyone else watching the game would have probably noticed that Canada's only good forward line was Kane's. Sorry, but no other line had any jump in their step, they all made soft passes, didn't really create anything offensively, and pretty much looked like they expected to just breeze through this one.
I'm not going to rip into Hodgson because every player has a bad game or two but I honestly would have benched him for the last seven minutes of the second if I was coaching just to make sure he understands that at this level he needs to compete a little harder every shift of every game. He wasn't the only one either and I won't even get started on how poorly I thought Hickey played basically the entire game but it should be noted that a lot of guys just weren't in it tonight.
Looking at how the game progressed, how pressure was applied by each time, what sort of scoring chances came up, etc, you really need to ask how this game was at all close. Canada really had better chances when they were deep in the zone, once the Canadian defense was really setup Russia had some okay chances but definitely weren't dominant so it's sort of surprising that they scored five goals.
I think two of them really should have been stopped and the fifth probably should have been as well but that was an absurdly poorly play by the defense so I won't fault the goalie completely. One could argue that whoever was telling the Canadian defenders to try and pick off passes and miss in the neutral zone, resulting in odd-man rushes, 10 seconds after scoring a goal is the culprit.
The Canadian D made similar stupid plays in the first against the US which I blame for two of the first three US goals so that's maybe a fair argument.
I expect a lot of old Leafs fans won't like what I think the real issue is. In my honest opinion I don't believe Pat Quinn is coaching this team at all. I think he feels it's fun and he's having a good time behind the bench but the team has not improved (have actually gotten far worse from a systems perspective) as the tournament has progressed.
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