Canada was very solid in their 3-1 victory over Norway. But the fact that they did not blow out the pesky Norwegians seems to be a concern to some, especially since Finland, USA and Russia all put big wins in their tournament opening games on Thursday.
Sure, it would have been nice to see Canada score a couple more goals and witness some better offensive cohesion right off the hop. And yes, goal differential is an important tie breaker which may come into play further down the road. But Canada's small victory over Norway is actually a good thing, and here's why -
Canada came out to a lacklustre start to the game, which, oddly enough, I blame on their over-exuberance. They hit the ice excited to blow away their outmatched opponents just like the other big boys in the tournament did. But they did so by being completely reliant on their NHL-sized ice strategy which just will not work on the big ice. In fact, not scoring early goals against Norway was the best thing that happened to Canada on this day. They regrouped in the second period and completely dominated the rest of the game by focussing on big ice strategies.
After the game coach Mike Babcock was asked what was the best part of the game and he replied, "It was hard." Babcock loves to talk about the process and working towards achieving goals each game and each period. Team Canada made good progress on this day.
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