MILAN — Tom Wilson and Sam Bennett were having a stretch Friday morning, long before Canada was to face Finland in the Olympic semifinal, when coach Jon Cooper walked by and mentioned, in passing, that he might try to get the two of them out on the ice together that evening.
Wilson figured he must have been joking.
After all, Wilson plays on Canada’s top line, and the times when Cooper decided to replace Wilson with Nathan MacKinnon on that top line with Connor McDavid and Macklin Celebrini, he had put Wilson with Nick Suzuki.
Cooper wasn’t joking.
What Wilson, Bennett and Brad Marchand did together as a unit had a significant impact on Canada’s 3-2 win against Finland, producing the tying goal from Shea Theodore midway through the third period before MacKinnon won it for Canada with a power-play goal in the final minute of regulation.
Shift after shift, Wilson, Bennett and Marchand terrorized the Finns on the forecheck, played the heavy brand of hockey they are all known for and helped build momentum for Canada.
“I guess controlled chaos is probably a good way of putting it,” Wilson said. “We’re predictable. But we looked each other in the eye when we got put together as a line, and we didn’t have to say much. We knew how we wanted to play. Really fun to play with two guys who play the same style as myself; guys you hate playing against but love playing with.”
Before the tournament began, Bennett said, the three of them mentioned how much fun it could be to play together, but it hadn’t happened until now.
And just as Cooper had hatched together the line of what he called the “Three Macs” long before the Olympics, this possibility was on his mind before arriving in Milan. He mentioned he didn’t anticipate having to turn to the “Three Macs” so early, but he also didn’t anticipate waiting this long to turn to Wilson, Bennett and Marchand as a combination.
The timing, with Canada down 2-0 in the second period, just felt right for Cooper.
“They impact the game in an entirely different way than the ‘Three Macs’ do, but they’re both massively effective,” Cooper said. “I think everybody in the big picture’s expecting one line to score all the time and the other one not to, and it’s only fitting that the work ethic of that other group was the line that scored the goal for us. It’s just lines that can tilt the ice; they just tilt the ice in different ways.
“Everything’s not always about what you put in the net and how many scoring chances you have. Some of it’s about intimidation, leaning on teams, making them think, making them tired and setting up shifts for the next group. That’s what that line was fabulous for.”
On Theodore’s tying goal, Marchand was at the net moments before and got pushed into Juuse Saros by Rasmus Ristolainen, knocking Finland’s standout goaltender to the ice. Saros did not appear to be entirely set when Theodore’s one-timer beat him.
Saros was livid after the goal was scored, and his anger was indicative of the impact the line had on Finland. Their physicality and constant net-front presence helped wear Finland down, both physically and emotionally.
“They definitely had some good shifts to start that third,” Suzuki said. “I thought the Finns did a good job of using each other, playing with a lot of speed, making it tough for us to forecheck. But I thought as the game went on, we just kind of wore them down. Like we have other teams.”
Bennett’s physicality cost Canada early when he was called for goaltender interference for pushing his Florida Panthers teammate Niko Mikkola into Saros, leading to a Mikko Rantanen power-play goal. But to Bennett’s credit, he didn’t stop playing that way; he just adjusted to get on the right side of that fine line.
That is something Wilson had been struggling with, and he had a couple of nights since the quarterfinal win against the Czech Republic to mull it over, to think about how he had been playing and what he could be doing better.
His conclusion? Stop thinking.
“It’s such a tough thing,” Wilson said. “Sometimes you don’t want to be too physical, you don’t want to take a penalty. I thought I let the Czechs off the hook a little bit. I wanted to play smart and I passed up on a couple of hits.
“I wanted to go in tonight just playing really, really physical and play my game. Don’t think too much, just play hard, straight lines, finish checks. Especially in the first 10 minutes, just let them know it’s going to be a long night. Our group did a better job of doing that.”
Canada now has the dream gold medal matchup against the United States, a rematch of the 4 Nations Face-Off final, the game most NHL fans were hoping for. The United States will be Canada’s most physical opponent so far, and by a wide margin.
Canada will probably need Wilson, Bennett and Marchand more than ever, and in that sense, getting them some reps in the semifinal couldn’t have come at a better time.
“Timing’s everything,” Cooper said. “You’ve got to wait for the right time to use it, if it is the right time, and it worked out tonight.”
It could work out in the gold medal game Sunday as well.