MILAN — Team Canada went the full hour at practice Tuesday on the eve of the medal round.
In fact, head coach Jon Cooper was seen chatting with the Zamboni driver, negotiating a couple more minutes past the hour as Team Canada wrapped up its last drill.
They were all business on this day. Notable by their absences were Nathan MacKinnon and Sam Bennett, both taking maintenance days and both deemed available to play in Wednesday’s quarterfinal.
One thing no one ever does is question MacKinnon’s toughness. He plays through a lot.
“I don’t think I’ve ever questioned it once,” Sidney Crosby said Tuesday of his fellow Nova Scotian. “I know how much he loves the game. He’ll play through anything. That’s never really in question.”
In MacKinnon’s absence, Nick Suzuki skated on that line between Brandon Hagel and Sam Reinhart at practice. It sure seemed like Suzuki was MacKinnon’s placeholder and that perhaps Reinhart would be getting elevated in the lineup for Wednesday. That might result in dropping Suzuki to the fourth line or the 13th forward. During special teams drills, Suzuki was on the penalty kill with Hagel, while Bo Horvat and Seth Jarvis were paired up on the PK as well.
Whatever the case, based on Tuesday’s practice, Connor McDavid was back between Macklin Celebrini and Tom Wilson. So that appears to be how Team Canada will start the game Wednesday. Whether or not Cooper reunites the Mach3 line at some point during the game remains to be seen.
Morrissey back at practice but still no confirmation
Josh Morrissey was a full participant at practice, skating alongside his normal Team Canada defense partner, Colton Parayko. After leaving the Olympic opener with an undisclosed injury, Morrissey appears to be on the mend based on watching him in practice Tuesday. There was no hesitation in anything he did on the ice, and he did not appear limited in any way.
Neither Cooper nor Morrissey himself was ready to commit 100 percent to him playing Wednesday. That requires one last conversation between both of them.
“Just taking it day by day,’’ Morrissey said after practice. “Had a good practice here. Just trying to get ready for the rest of the tournament the best I can.”
Said Cooper: “That was a big thing for him to get out here today. In my opinion, he looked great. But (no confirmation) until after I talk to him.”
Thomas Harley was back with Drew Doughty at practice Tuesday, while Travis Sanheim skated alongside Shea Theodore. If Morrissey is back, we would venture to guess Sanheim is the scratch.
Wilson doing what comes naturally
It was a calculated Tom Wilson who lined up for an offensive zone faceoff with a little more than seven minutes left in regulation time against France on Sunday night.
He knew who was on the ice for France. He knew what that player had done to Nathan MacKinnon a few minutes earlier. He knew how much time was left. He knew the rules.
He saw Pierre Crinon lining up for that faceoff and waited for an opportunity, and once one presented itself, he took it, drilling Crinon into the boards and triggering the fight that got Wilson kicked out of the game, and Crinon kicked out of the Olympics by his own national hockey federation.
“It was kind of a dirty hit, and it’s a little bit different in the Olympics, how you have to go about it,” Wilson said. “I obviously ended up with the same guy who had done it. And hockey is an emotional game. It’s a competitive game, and when you come together with a big guy, you kind of have to make the decision quickly, and the gloves came off and got thrown down to the ice.”
While much was made of zero-tolerance policy on fighting in the Olympics, Wilson knew he wasn’t risking anything more than the automatic game misconduct that is applied in this tournament to both combatants, as long as both are willing.
“I was aware of the rules; if you fight, you get thrown out,” Wilson said. “But generally speaking, that’s it. There’s five minutes left in a 10-2 game, and I was aware of the rules. I was aware that as long as I didn’t take it too far, or he took it too far, that you should be good to play in the next game.
“So, obviously, when it started to get a little crazy there, he wasn’t stopping. There’s a certain level of having to defend yourself. And then once I kind of got around on top, I was like, OK, time to stop. It’s gone on far enough, and the linesmen were trying to do their job, and you just don’t want to get carried away. So, I decided to stop at that point. I think it was a good decision.”
So, in other words, this was not a heat-of-the-moment situation for Wilson. It was the exact opposite. He knew what he was doing, he knew the situation allowed for it, and he did it within reasonable limits.
“I just wanted to stick up for our team,” he said.
In so doing, Wilson further ingrained himself in the fabric of Team Canada. His teammates and coach have raved about his presence in the room and just how good a teammate and player he has been. This only added to what they already thought of him.
“It’s amazing,” Celebrini said. “Getting to know him, being his linemate; I’m definitely happier that he’s on my line and not someone I’m playing against. We’ve got along really well, and it’s been really cool to get to know him.”
Marchand is ready and available
Brad Marchand missed the last two games healing up a little something that’s been nagging him. But he’s ready to go for Wednesday if called upon.
“Yeah, yeah. It was just a little maintenance. We talked about it as a group and made a decision. Feeling good here now,’’ Marchand said after practice.
We asked him if his issue was related to what kept him out for some games last month in Florida.
“Um, yeah, part of that, but part of it is old age,” he said with a smile. “Sometimes you’ve got to just take care of the body. Big picture, make sure you’re ready for the important times.’’
Somewhat revealing and perhaps simply his humility showing through, Marchand claims he wasn’t sure before the Olympics if he’d play at all in this tournament.
“I mean, you always want to be in to play,” said Marchand. “But the goal is to be here and be part of this team. It’s an incredible group. You know, to be honest, coming in I didn’t think I would be in the lineup. I thought I would be an extra guy and be a voice and try to be loud and obnoxious in the room. So I mean, I’m just so proud and honored to be part of this group. It doesn’t matter if you get in the lineup or not. Everybody is just as important and has a role to play.”
Marchand sounded somewhat nostalgic as he talked about soaking in every moment of his first Olympic experience.
“It’s what you want to make of it,” he said. “Obviously when you’re at the rink and on the ice, there’s a job to do. But it’s an incredible opportunity to be here. Especially in this environment in Milan, it’s a beautiful place. A place you want to take in, a lot of different athletes you want to meet and speak to and hear their story.’’
As far as the dressing room dynamic, the two loudest voices by far are Marchand and Drew Doughty. As was the case at 4 Nations.
Which begs the question, who gets the last word between the two of them? They were seen laughing together at practice Tuesday.
“It depends on the conversation, but typically he likes to have (the last word),” said Marchand, again with a smile. “But I’ll just say something under my breath as he skates away.”
Details matter at Team Canada practices
The first time Team Canada took to the ice for practice in Milan back on Feb. 8, Cooper ran the team through a forecheck drill where he very deliberately, and slowly, had players move to spots on the ice where he wanted them to be. Assistant coaches Bruce Cassidy and Rick Tocchet played the role of an opposing defenseman with the puck in the corner, and forwards skated to their instructed spots and stopped.
There was no detail spared, and no room for confusion.
This is a quick tournament, and at practice Tuesday, with Canada’s next game having the potential to be their last, there was a lot more detail and a lot more situational instructions in the drills Cooper and his staff decided to run.
One drill was a breakout from a won puck battle along the boards at the hashmarks in the defensive zone. Another was a box out and breakout drill off a point shot. They worked on six-on-five situations in case they trail late in a game (it looks like it will be Mark Stone who will be used alongside the top power-play unit if Canada ever needs this). They worked on four-on-three situations in case they get a power play in overtime.
But the system stuff Canada worked on comes from issues the coaching staff had identified and seen as issues in three games they won by a combined score of 20-3.
“I think it’s great,” Celebrini said. “I mean, it’s all stuff that we’ve given up in games, or (the coaching staff) is not really happy with our structure in games. Especially going into this next game, it’s do-or-die now, so we have to make sure everything’s perfect.”
Cooper was asked after the game against France that if he had to nitpick, what would be an area he would like to see improvement in Canada’s game. He refused to answer.
“Honestly, you guys are the ones that nitpick,” Cooper said. “I try to defend our guys. You guys are the ones making this stuff up.”
As it turns out, Cooper does have the ability to nitpick. He showed it in practice Tuesday.
Tocchet flashback to ’87 Canada Cup
We wrote Sunday about Team Canada’s nuclear option when they move MacKinnon up with McDavid and Celebrini.
There’s some interesting Canadian hockey lineage to it all when you consider that assistant coach Rick Tocchet played in the 1987 Canada Cup when Mario Lemieux and Wayne Gretzky were put together rather famously in the final.
“I’ve talked to the coaches about it,” the Philadelphia Flyers head coach said Tuesday after practice. “It kind of gave me a little flashback. When those guys go out together, it gives the whole team a bit of a jolt. And you see the play pick up. Same thing happened with Mario and Wayne.”
It is rather amazing to think about, 39 years later, that Tocchet has a tie-in as a player on that ’87 Canadian team watching No. 66 and No. 99 work their magic and now seeing MacKinnon and McDavid, and don’t forget Celebrini, providing a spark when needed.
“I had a front-row seat to it in ’87,” smiled Tocchet. “It was unbelievable. It’s funny how it was almost like Wayne and Mario had been playing all the time together, but they never had until that tournament. It’s just the way they saw the game. Wayne had the puck and Mario would find the lanes; their instincts took over.”
And now, when the world’s two top players, McDavid and MacKinnon, play on the same line, it’s mesmerizing.
“At the end of the day, if you look at McDavid, he attacks as good as anybody, but he’s looking for Mack especially in the one-time slot, he knows he’s a shooter. I can feel that,” Tocchet said. “There’s a couple of times he could have probably shot it but he waited to give it to MacKinnon. So I think he knows there’s certain points where he wants to give it to him in a shooting position.”
Kind of like 99 looking to feed 66 …