Team Europe gives players championship opportunity

TORONTO – At various international tournaments playing with Team Denmark, Frans Nielsen never had a chance to win.

He had been to a quarterfinal of the World Championships, but his team just didn’t have the firepower of the big hockey playing countries.

With the Slovenian national team, Anze Kopitar’s biggest achievement was helping his country to the quarterfinals of the 2014 Olympics.

Norwegian forward Mats Zuccarello never made it past the quarterfinals of the World Championships.

The list of Team Europe’s players who couldn’t compete for a championship on the international stage goes on and on. It’s why their win over Team Sweden in the World Cup semifinal was important to them and why this event has been such an enjoyable ride. This team finally gives some smaller hockey nations an opportunity to go toe-to-toe with the world’s best.

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“That’s been the biggest difference I think for me playing here is usually when you play with Denmark it’s about surviving and not getting relegated and that kind of stuff,” Nielsen said. “You kind of come in here and look and see our team and kind of – we might not be the favorites but at least we got a shot in every game. I’m not used to that. It has been different but it has been a fun experience.”

Team Europe is made up of eight different countries, all of which have had international success of varying degrees. Slovakia is the most accomplished overall, having won the World Championships in 2002 and finishing fourth at the Vancouver Olympics.

Switzerland picked up a silver medal at the 2013 World Championships. But beyond those nations, Team Europe players often find themselves helping their countries fight for their international hockey lives.

For example, before the tournament, Kopitar played with Slovenia in their Olympic qualifiers. Several others had to do the same. This is an issue players in this tournament from bigger hockey countries don’t need to worry about.

“Personally, first and foremost, just so pleased that these peripheral countries in the world of hockey have had an opportunity to compete with the best in the world for the first time in their life and to truly believe in being competitive on the way to a semifinal, and then the overtime showed the belief in the group to get to the final. That’s not possible when these players show up alone at tournaments,” coach Ralph Krueger said. “They’re forever fighting relegation in world tournaments. They’re forever fighting just to get to Olympic Games, forget about competing for anything at them. And to be in a best-on-best tournament for these countries that are important for the game of hockey, that are future-growth countries for the game, I’m just so pleased for all of them.”

At the World Cup, Team Europe’s players finally had the chance to be an aggressor, and they took advantage. Europe beat the Americans 3-0 in their first game. They beat the Czech Republic 3-2 in overtime of their second game. They lost to Canada 4-1 in their final preliminary game before out-maneuvering Sweden in the semifinal.

“I don’t think it’s a payback, but at the same time I don’t think anybody thought that we can make it all the way through here, but there’s just a bit of confidence in the room we have,” Kopitar said. “We know we can beat anyone, but obviously we have to play our very best and that’s going to be the case now going forward and we’re enjoying every single moment of it, as everyone has said, there’s no future for this team so you have to live in the moment and we’re doing it.”

When Europe was outscored 11-4 by Team North America in their first two tournament exhibition games, it seemed that this team would get rolled over in the World Cup. But then they made some adjustments, and those brought greater results. With each game the team’s confidence grew.

“Everybody that thought they might come in and beat Team Europe that’s going to be pretty and bangled and put on a show, we realized real fast, thanks to the (Team North America) kids, that we can’t play that way,” Krueger said. “We began with a very simple concept with the puck actually. It’s amazing after you’re down 9-1, we didn’t speak about defense, we spoke about puck management. We learnt that and built our defense on the heels of that.”

It’s easy to dismiss Europe’s chances to beat Canada in the best two-of-three final series. When they played each other earlier in the tournament, Canada out-shot Europe 46-20 en-route to the victory. In the World Cup the Canadians haven’t really been tested, outscoring their opponents 19-6.

But when Krueger was the coach of Switzerland he beat Canada in the 2006 Olympics. Goaltender Jaroslav Halak’s game stealing ways led the Montreal Canadiens to the 2010 Eastern Conference Final. It’ll be tough, but it’s not completely out of the realm of possibility. Belief is a powerful weapon and for the first time in an international event members of this team think they can actually do some damage.

“I don’t think anyone wanted us here in the tournament and now we’re in the finals,” Zuccarello said. “I think this is something we’re really proud of and it’s fun to be here, fun to be playing with these guys and have a chance going far in a tournament like this.”

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Josh Cooper is an editor for Puck Daddy on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at puckdaddyblog@yahoo.com or follow him on Twitter! Follow @joshuacooper

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