Canada vs. Sweden Olympic Hockey 2014: Final Grades, Analysis for Both Teams

Gold again for Canada.

Sidney Crosby, Jonathan Toews and even Chris Kunitz scored as Canada dominated Sweden 3-0 to win gold for the second straight Olympics.

Carey Price made 24 save and did not allow a goal over his final two starts of the tournament.

This one was over before it started, as Sweden center Nicklas Backstrom did not play because of a reported migraine headache, although Greg Wyshynski of Yahoo Sports said Backstrom was out after failing a drug test.

That left Sweden without its three best centers—Backstrom, Henrik Zetterberg and Henrik Sedin—due to injury either during or right before the Olympics.

Here are the final grades and analysis for this contest:

Line combination/Pairing	After 1st	After 2nd	Final
Chris Kunitz-Sidney Crosby-Patrice Bergeron	A	A	A+
Jamie Benn-Ryan Getzlaf-Corey Perry	B	B	A
Patrick Marleau-Jonathan Toews-Jeff Carter	A	B	A
Patrick Sharp-Matt Duchene-Rick Nash/Martin St. Louis	B	B+	B
Duncan Keith-Shea Weber	A	A	A
Jay Bouwmeester-Alex Pietrangelo	B	A	A
Marc-Edouard Vlasic-Drew Doughty/Dan Hamhuis	C	B	B
Carey Price	A	A	A
Special teams	C	B-	B

Line combination/Pairing	After 1st	After 2nd	Final
Daniel Sedin-Jimmie Ericsson-Loui Eriksson	C	C	C
Alexander Steen-Patrik Berglund-Daniel Alfredsson	C	B	C
Gabriel Landeskog-Marcus Johansson-Jakob Silfverberg	B	C	C
Carl Hagelin-Marcus Kruger-Gustav Nyquist	B+	B	B
Alexander Edler-Erik Karlsson	B	B	B
Jonathan Ericsson-Niklas Kronwall	C	D	D
Niklas Hjalmarsson-Johnny Oduya	B	B-	C
Oliver Ekman-Larsson/Henrik Tallinder	Inc.	Inc.	Inc.
Henrik Lundqvist	B	B	B
Special teams	B	B	C

Final analysis

Team Canada

Chris Kunitz-Sidney Crosby-Patrice Bergeron: Kunitz scores, Crosby scores, the line as a whole was very productive. After five games of chances that never resulted in goals, Crosby came through in the biggest game of the tournament.

Jamie Benn-Ryan Getzlaf-Corey Perry: They had one shift in the third period where they used finesse and power to generate a wraparound chance for Perry. They were a physical force over the final two games against Team USA and Sweden.

Patrick Marleau-Jonathan Toews-Jeff Carter: Once they scored in the first period, this one was all but over. Toews had a goal and Carter used his speed to nearly score in the third.

Patrick Sharp-Matt Duchene-Rick Nash/Martin St. Louis: Only Canada could lose John Tavares and not have it matter. They combined for five shots.

Duncan Keith-Shea Weber: They concluded a nearly flawless tournament with a nearly flawless gold-medal game.

Jay Bouwmeester-Alex Pietrangelo: Another yeoman's effort for the pairing. Outside of getting fooled on a trick play against Latvia, it was an outstanding showing for these two at the Olympics.

Marc-Edouard Vlasic-Drew Doughty/Dan Hamhuis: Doughty nearly scored his fifth goal of the tournament but hit the post instead. 

Carey Price: He barely had to work in most of his games, but when he did, he was almost perfect. He ends the Olympics with back-to-back shutouts.

Special teams: They went 0-for-3 on the power play. Shameful. Take the gold away from them.

Team Sweden

(Their lines and pairings changed throughout the game, but these are the ones that started)

Daniel Sedin-Jimmie Ericsson-Loui Eriksson: The absence of Backstrom hurt them big time. Their top line was invisible. Ericsson moved to lower lines after the first period but it didn't matter.

Alexander Steen-Patrik Berglund-Daniel Alfredsson: This trio stayed together for nearly the entire game. It did not matter, even when Steen took shifts with the top line.

Gabriel Landeskog-Marcus Johansson-Jakob Silfverberg: Landeskog and Silfverberg combined for six shots. 

Carl Hagelin-Marcus Kruger-Gustav Nyquist: Nyquist hit a post in the first period, and that was about as close as Sweden would come to scoring the rest of the game.

Alexander Edler-Erik Karlsson: Kronwall moved up with Edler for the third period, which was the equivalent of moving around the silverware after the Titanic hit the iceberg.

Jonathan Ericsson-Niklas Kronwall: Ericsson was a train wreck, committing a ghastly turnover on Crosby's goal and getting caught out of position on Toews' goal.

Niklas Hjalmarsson-Johnny Oduya: They were at the game, definitely. I saw them.

Oliver Ekman-Larsson/Henrik Tallinder: Ekman-Larsson played 7:19 in the third period after sitting the first 40 minutes. That's like starting to take vitamins after you learn you have a terminable disease.

Henrik Lundqvist: Nothing he could have done in this one. The Kunitz goal was through a screen, Crosby beat him on a breakaway and Toews redirected a perfect pass from in tight.

Special teams: They needed a power-play goal in the worst way in this one, but could not find it.