Canadian Olympic men's hockey team backed by a worried nation

As happens like clockwork in Olympic tournaments, the nerves are setting in for supporters of the Canadian men’s hockey team, as its Friday morning showdown with Team USA ticks closer.

Strange, isn’t it, how a lineup as stacked as the one now captained by Sidney Crosby could create such a seasick feeling of uncertainty. Strange how so many hockey fans across the country are struggling with the sense that their side—flush with talent to the point that it couldn’t find room for the likes of Claude Giroux or Joe Thornton, and had to ponder over whether to include last year’s Norris Trophy winner, P.K. Subban—is in fact some kind of underdog going into this semifinal match with its most bitter rival.

Team USA is rolling. Team Canada, in many ways, is not. They threw all the hockey they had at Latvia yesterday, and eventually wore their opponent down with ability and experience. But, hell, that was Latvia. The goalie that gave them such nightmarish fits is a fifth-round NHL draft pick who plays for the Syracuse Crunch. He has never won a Conn Smythe Trophy. I’m pretty sure the USA’s Jonathan Quick has.

How is it that the Americans have looked so cohesive and composed, while Canada’s coaching staff has constantly juggled its roster in search of the right chemical recipe? Does the USA simply have more “team guys” on their squad than Canada does? That would be a tough argument to make when you look down the Canadian list and see names like Crosby, Toews, Perry, Weber, and Keith, none of whom has a reputation as a prima donna or solo artist in his approach to the game.

Still, there’s always something in the initial stages of an Olympic tournament that makes Team Canada seem smaller than its parts—something that doesn’t seem to bother other teams. Let’s just call it the weight of the world, which every Canadian player carries with him over the boards for every shift. Tomorrow is a must-win game for both teams, but it’s a should-win game only for Canada, where anything less than a gold medal is considered an insult to national history and myth.

It’s not so much the players themselves as the fans who think this way, but the fans outnumber the players by about a million to one. If you squint, you can see each member of Team Canada dragging this burden around during every race for a loose puck, every cross-ice pass and shot-block.

The three other sides left in the competition want to win it all as badly as Team Canada does. But only Team Canada feels that it has to.