In 2014, if someone had told you that Germany would be the country to end Canada's reign as two-time Olympic champions, you probably would have laughed.

Sweden, the U.S., Russia? Maybe. Finland? Also possible. The Czechs, Slovaks, or Swiss? Long shots. After that, bring on the wisecracks.

But nobody was laughing in Canada after coach Marco Sturm's men hung on for a shocking 4-3 semi-final win and advanced to Sunday's gold medal game against the KHL-stacked Olympic Athletes from Russia. Even though Canada's 6-4 bronze-medal victory over the Czechs on Saturday provided a nice consolation prize, it's not the medal color that Canadian supporters demand.

A lot of what we talked about was past performances by Canadian teams and the history we have of maybe not showing up for the bronze because it's always been
gold or nothing, admitted veteran defenceman Chris Lee afterwards. "It's unfortunate that we looked at that as motivation but you gotta find something to pump you up."

First, let's be fair about what happened in the first German win over Canada in
Olympic history. The Germans may sit eighth in the IIHF World Rankings, at least before the new edition comes out, but they did their jobs to a T.

"We knew they were a good team," said Canada's Mason Raymond. "They got to the semis for a reason. You've got to give credit. They played well, but I don't think we orchestrated what we were hoping to do well enough."

Gold was potentially within Canada's grasp. And many Canadian fans thought playing Germany, which had just stunned Sweden 4-3 in overtime, was an easy pass to the final. After all, the last time a Swedish team succumbed to a massive underdog in the Olympic quarter-finals, Canada got the pleasure of pounding Belarus 7-1 in the semi-finals and then won gold in Salt Lake City in 2002.

Before Friday's semi-final, one longtime Canadian hockey writer opined that a German win might be a bigger upset than Belarus beating Sweden in 2002 - before
being reminded of the presence of Nicklas Lidstrom, Mats Sundin, and Daniel Alfredsson on that Tre Kronor roster.

Perhaps a little overoptimism about Germany hurt the 2018 Canadian team. In an Olympic semi-final, you don't fall behind 3-0 and 4-1 in the second period like
that unless you're mentally flat. The Canadians had a rude awakening.

Germany's Felix Schutz said: "I talked to some players after the Sweden game and that was the first time I think I played against a Sweden team where they had a couple of minutes where they looked nervous too. They realized: "[Expletive deleted]! These guys can play." Once you realize it, it's almost too late. You saw that with Canada too. They put everything out there after we were leading 4-1 and then they got a couple of lucky bounces, I guess, and they
were right back in the game. But we stayed mentally strong."

The Germans played with defensive structure and an offensive creativity that speaks to their familiarity with one another and the encouragement Sturm has given them to attack rather than play traditional kitty-bar-the-door Deutschland hockey. Eishockey News editor Michael Bauer said: "I have never seen something like that. Look at the 3-0 Frank Mauer goal. Between the legs. Wow."

But objectively, Canada did what it could with the roster it had, and winding up with a bronze medal is a respectable and not entirely unexpected result. This was a well-prepared team with good effort, but it was just one of several nations with a chance in Korea.

Factoring in NHL non-participation, these were Canada's best players. Even with
Barys Astana's Linden Vey sitting fourth in KHL scoring (17-35-52), is it fair to ask him to outgun SKA St. Petersburg's Ilya Kovalchuk (31-32-63)?

Some might argue that adding recent World Junior alumni would have cranked up the offence, but look at the Americans: even though youngsters like Ryan Donato
and Troy Terry lit it up, that didn't stop them from bowing to the Czechs in the quarter-finals. For Canada, there were no Connor McDavid-caliber talents available up front, and adding Victor Mete, as per speculation last month, would not have revolutionized the blue line.

Discipline-wise, Gilbert Brule's selfish head shot on German forward David Wolf
at center ice was an atypical reversion to the bad old Canadian habit of getting nasty when trailing by a big margin in international hockey. Even if the Germans didn't score on the ensuing major, it hobbled the hopes of a comeback that Brule himself had sparked five minutes earlier with his 3-1 power-play goal.

It was just bad karma - probably the most consequential penalty Canada has taken in Olympic competition since Todd Bertuzzi tripped Sergei Gonchar in the offensive zone in the 2006 quarter-final, enabling Alexander Ovechkin to score the go-ahead goal in Russia's 2-0 win.

You don't get this opportunity very often, said head coach Willie Desjardins. "I didn't want to just leave with our mark being walking in the opening ceremonies. I wanted something for us more than that. At least we got a bronze."

Post-mortem conversations in Canada, of course, will center less on who was on the ice when the four German goals went in than on who was not.

History is being made in PyeongChang right now, and there are apparently a few well-known Canadian players who aren't here. They instead have been forced to inhabit a world dominated by questions like "What, really, is goaltender interference?", "Can a top-flight defenceman get by on $12 million a season, or
will $10 million do?", and "How many angels can dance on the head of a pin?"

If you are an elite player who regrets not being able to help Canada three-peat
in Korea, let your voice be heard. And that means something more substantial than, "Obviously, it's unfortunate. But I'm not too focused on that right now."
Let the powers that be know that ensuring Canada has the best possible representation at the 2022 Winter Games is a priority for you.

Asian Olympics have not been kind to Canadian hockey. Both in Nagano 1998 and this year, the women lost the gold medal game and the men failed in the semi-final. At least this year Desjardins and his captain, Chris Kelly, got the
bronze that eluded Marc Crawford and Eric Lindros in '98, so Canada's medal streak extends to three Olympics. What will Beijing look like?

We've all seen that when Canada sends most of its absolute best available talent, such as at the 2014 Olympics and the last three Worlds, it excels. While losing to Germany in the semi-final does mark the end of a golden Olympic
era, it doesn't mean Canadians couldn't be laughing with joy again in four years.

Lucas Aykroyd

http://Canada's
--- SBBSecho 3.03-Win32
* Origin: TequilaMockingbird Online - Toms River, NJ (1:266/404)

One day before the men's gold medal game and closing ceremony the IIHF and the Korean organizers from POCOG met the press to wrap up the ice hockey tournaments.

After an earlier press conference for the women's ice hockey tournament, IIHF President René Fasel, IIHF General Secretary Horst Lichtner and Jae Youl Kim, the Executive Vice President of the PyeongChang Organizing Committee for the 2018 Olympic & Paralympic Win;er Games (POCOG), met the press in the mountain cluster at the Main Press Centre.

Fasel thanked the organizer for setting up excellent tournament conditions in Korea.

"We are very happy in ice hockey. Not being in a hockey country and having plenty of hockey teams here we were facing some challenges and managed them together," said Fasel. "I also want to thank all the volunteers. They are exceptional, always friendly and smiling. We are very pleased to be here and are looking forward to great medal games.

"Having ice hockey here, we had great results despite not having the NHL here, which is a disappointment. We're going to Beijing in 2022. It will be another opportunity to promote hockey in Asia and we will discuss again whether the NHL
will participate or not."

"We had perfect ice rink conditions. All teams said thank you to the organizer and they are quite honest with us. We had a long transfer-of-knowledge concept that paid off. We have perfect team facilities. Our teams felt very well serviced," added Lichtner. "We have great TV production and for the gold medal game we will have 46 cameras for the production. We are thankful that we get this high-quality production and promotion for ice hockey."

From the organizer side the ice hockey tournaments were a success and will leave a legacy in the country.

"I'd like to thank the IIHF for their incredible support and the knowledge and knowhow they gave to the ice hockey community in Korea, and to invite the host country to play in the Olympic Games. With this motivation our ice hockey players worked very hard and made great progress in the last seven years. Thank
you for the support," said Kim.

To questions whether the decision about NHL participation will be known soon, Fasel answered that this depends on the NHL and NHLPA and their discussions about the Collective Bargaining Agreement: "They have to give notice for the CBA by September 2019. As long as they are not in negotiations, nobody will take the risk to say anything about participating or not. Participating in the Olympics for them is not the first item on the agenda. I hope in the period after we will have some discussions so we can make a decision on Beijing 2022."


Despite not having the NHL players here, Fasel doesn't see the men's ice hockey
tournament being diminished.

"Our game is living from the emotions. If you saw the Canada-Germany game and saw the special atmosphere and emotions, and all Germany sitting in front of the TV… You don't need caviar every day. You can also live with leberkase and
weisswurst, and that was such a day," Fasel said. "The fans were there. The fans were also there when the Olympic Athletes from Russia played the Czechs. I'm honest, I miss the NHL here but we have to do the best to promote hockey and the Canada-Germany game was one of these games with the unique emotions we only have in our game. Also the women's gold medal game that went over 80 minutes."

Fasel is looking forward to having an unusual pair of teams going for gold with
the Olympic Athletes from Russia, for many the tournament favourite from the beginning, and Germany, the unexpected finalist.

"We have Germany making the final. It's a ‘kleines Wunder'. Everybody can beat everybody. Whether it will be a miracle on ice we don't know," he said. "I'm happy to see an unusual final. We will have million of peoples watching in
Germany and in Russia. There's no better promotion for ice hockey in a football
country than this."

The exciting women's final also brought up the traditional question whether tied playoff games should be decided in a shootout after a scoreless overtime period, or whether the game should be continue until a goal is scored, which in
some cases has taken extra hours.

"Canada had 80 minutes to score one more goal than the U.S. The mentalities in Europe and in North America are obviously different. In the FIFA World Cup a gold medal game tied after overtime is also decided in a shootout and it works," said Fasel and also points out a major difference between the schedule of an international tournament and of a Stanley Cup series. "I will never convince North America to accept the shootout. But in a tournament like this you cannot play unlimited overtime when you have the next games coming up and when a team plays the next day."

Although the Korean men's and women's national teams lost their games, the players won many hearts for their dedication and the men's team even fought back and was close to tying the qualification playoff game against Finland.

"The Korean teams performed well. The women's team was very special. At the opening ceremony when you see the North and South Korean players giving the torch to Olympic champion Kim, that was very special. The message of these to hockey players was very special and emotional to us," Fasel said.

The IIHF answered questions about injuries and concussions where new technology
was in place. "We had several incidents but only two concussions. We followed the protocol thoroughly and had for the first time concussion cameras," Lichtner said.

Also new in place was the coach's challenge. "I want to congratulate the officiating teams for their work. We introduced the coach's challenge just shortly before the Olympics on request of the participating teams for goalie interference and offside," said Fasel.

Fasel updated on the attendance. 85,000 spectators came to the women's tournament and so far 128,000 for the men without the medal games. "So we can expect around 150,000," Fasel said. It was attendance figures never seen in Korean ice hockey before.

On the question why the numbers went down a bit for the quarter-finals, Fasel said: "It's a non-hockey country and the pricing was relatively high for the quarter-finals and with the pairings not known before. I'm happy with the attendance and especially that so many came to watch women's hockey too," said Fasel.

"Overall in the ice hockey program we sold over 80 per cent of the tickets and expect much more spectators for the final games," added Kim and explained: "During the quarter-finals we had many other events including Koreans competing
in curling and speed skating."

Next are today's bronze medal game followed by the OAR-Germany final tomorrow. Asked about the IOC's discussions whether to re-allow the Russian flag or not tomorrow and whether the Olympic Athletes from Russia will respect the rules, Fasel replied: "For me what is going on on the ice is much more important. We have a final and focus on this and everybody has to respect the rules," he said
and mentioned that the last few weeks with the uncertainness about the two Russian ice hockey teams and the last-minute decision on integrating North Korean players for a unified Korean women's ice hockey team created some extra challenge."

"It was a difficult time for us since 5th December. We didn't know whether no, one or two Russian teams would participate, then you have the selection process, the approval and invitation of the athletes from Russia, you need a new uniform, do the accreditation and everything. It was an intensive time but we never complained about that. We are here to play our sport and promote it and we respect and follow the rules. We have had many doping tests, more than in any other sport."

Once the gold medal game and the closing ceremony are over, a new Olympic cycle
will begin with Beijing 2022 on the horizon.

"Beijing will be different than Korea. We intend to qualify the Chinese men's and women's teams like we did with Korea. That will need a congress decision. They have now the Kunlun Red Star team playing in the KHL with the men's team and in the CWHL with the women's team," Fasel said and mentioned the additional
teams playing in minor and junior leagues in the Russian system with male players and in North America with female players.

"They are really working hard on having competitive teams. And I'm sure they will have concepts to fill the arenas like it was done in Sochi.

"The biggest challenge is to be sustainable. They are preparing to have competitive teams within four years but we would like a sustainable program so they can have a strong domestic league or have several teams playing in the KHL
to stay competitive," Fasel said. "That's something we want to work on."

MARTIN MERK

http://pyeongchang2018.iihf.hockey/men/news/looking-back-and-beyond/
--- SBBSecho 3.03-Win32
* Origin: TequilaMockingbird Online - Toms River, NJ (1:266/404)