Connor McDavid, left, celebrates with teammate Tom Wilson after scoring a goal for Canada in the third period against France on Sunday.Bruce Bennett/Getty Images
Even before the puck was dropped Sunday, French forward Louis Boudon knew it was going to be a long day.
“We know we’re the underdogs of the tournament,” Boudon said before France took the ice against Team Canada at the Milan Cortina Olympics.
“Canada is probably the best team of the tournament. They have the best squad on paper. … We’re going to have to come out even harder and just try to make it hard for them and see what happens.”
What happened was Canada’s star-studded men’s hockey roster scored goals. A lot of them.
Team Canada routed France 10-2 Sunday, leaving them undefeated at the end of the Olympic tournament’s preliminary round with three wins.
It wasn’t quite the 11-0 pounding that Finland laid on Italy the night before, but it was a lopsided affair nevertheless. The problem for France was this: Canada wasn’t playing them as much as the Canadians were playing the scoreboard.
Canada needed to stockpile goals just in case first place in their group came down to a tie-breaker with the United States.
Both teams were undefeated coming into Sunday, with the Americans playing Germany later in the day. At stake was first place and a more favourable matchup in the playoff rounds.
If both teams finished undefeated, goal differential would be used as a tie-breaker. Entering Sunday, Canada’s differential was nine goals, after beating Czechia 5-0 and Switzerland 5-1.
The American’s differential sat at seven after two games, having beat Latvia 5-1 and Denmark 6-3.
In the event the two teams were still tied based on wins and goal differential, the next tie breaker would be total goals for.
So, nothing personal France, but Canada needed to fill the net.
Early on things didn’t go exactly as planned.
Canada got out to an 8-2 lead in shots before Tom Wilson opened the scoring just under nine minutes into the first period, depositing the rebound off a Drew Doughty point shot.
But before that goal could be announced in the arena, the French tied it 13 seconds later on a goal by Floran Douay. That may have awoken Canada.
Less than 40 seconds after the French evened the score, Sidney Crosby broke in on a three-on-one with Mark Stone on his flank and Devon Toews trailing. Crosby dropped the puck to Toews who put it past French goaltender Julian Junca.
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Canada extended the lead to 3-1 when Stone scored on a shorthanded breakaway with seconds remaining in the first period.
Cale Makar made it 4-1 in the second period before 19-year-old Macklin Celebrini was awarded a penalty shot, scoring Canada’s fifth.
At that point, the floodgates were open. Canada pushed its total to six when a Crosby pass deflected off a French defenceman and dribbled into the net just inside the post.
The goal gave Crosby the most points among NHL players in Team Canada history at the Olympics, with 15.
Canada's Macklin Celebrini in action against French goaltender Julian Junca.Mike Segar/Reuters
Junca made several spectacular saves during the game, including a goalmouth stop in the second period that robbed Wilson of an open-net goal. By the end of the second period, Canada was outshooting France 33-7 and France replaced Junca with goaltender Antoine Keller.
Keller’s day was no better. About 20 seconds into the third period, Connor McDavid took a pass from Celebrini, and put Canada up 7-1.
The French got one back about a minute later when Sacha Treille put a slapshot under the arm of Jordan Binnington. It was only the eighth shot of the game for the Canadian netminder at that point.
Goals by Bo Horvat, Brandon Hagel and Celebrini pushed the score to 10-2.
Team Canada’s head coach said after the game that he was less concerned about securing the tie breaker than he was Canada executing its game the right way.
“Talking to the team, it had nothing to do with where we’re going to finish, what we’re going to do, how many goals we’re going to score. It was about, ‘Are we getting better as a team,’” Jon Cooper said.
“You want to win this tournament, you better be giving up one or two goals a game. Anything more than that, the game’s in jeopardy.”
Crosby said the team is now focused on what it needs to do to get better as it heads into the quarter-finals, where they’ll need to win to advance.
“There’s still areas we want to clean up. Every game is so important,” Crosby said. “In a short-term event like this, you’ve got to make sure you get wins. You’ve got to make sure you get better with every game. So that’s what we’ve been trying to do.”
The game turned physical in the third period after Pierre Crinon connected with a high hit on Nathan MacKinnon, which led to a scuffle with Wilson.
Canada's Tom Wilson and France's Pierre Crinon are separated by referees as they fight in the third period.Bruce Bennett/Getty Images
The French goalies have faced a barrage in Milan. Canada outshot France 46-14 Sunday. In its first three games, France has been outshot by a total of 127-52, including a 4-0 loss to Switzerland and a 6-3 defeat by Czechia.
France has a few players with NHL experience, including Alexandre Texier of the Montreal Canadiens, and Pierre-Édouard Bellemare, who played 700 games with five teams including the Colorado Avalanche and Tampa Bay Lightning, where he played for Cooper.
Speaking before the game, Boudon, who plays professionally in Finland and was a prospect in the Minnesota Wild system, knew the odds were against them.
“We know a lot of these teams don’t respect us. We don’t really care,” Boudon said. “We try to show up and do our best, and prove to them that we can play with them.”
Between Canada and the U.S., whichever team secures first place in the group likely gets a better playoff scenario, with the second-seeded team probably facing Sweden in the quarter-finals.
Canada finishes the preliminary round with three wins, a goal differential of 17 goals, and 20 total goals.
The U.S. beat Germany 5-1 Sunday night, but couldn’t match Canada’s goal differential. Canada finishes in first place in the group, and would play the lowest ranked team.
“Now let’s just see where the chips fall and go play hockey where you’ve got to win it to survive and advance,” Cooper said.
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