For a team. For a country. For a legacy.
“Just couldn’t believe it, really,” McDavid says, after the champagne sprayed. “Just excited for our group. Honestly, everybody was so dug in. It starts months and months ago, with management going out and picking the team, coaching staff coming together, and then obviously the players doing what we do. It’s been a big production, and it’s just sweet to have it all come together.”
A storybook ending for the good guys back home and the villains here in Boston, where Team Canada’s 3-2 comeback victory over the deepest and most talented Team USA in history felt not only scripted but necessary.
“I just hope Canada is proud, because every player in that room is proud to be a Canadian,” says head coach Jon Cooper, between sips of the Canadian suds sloshing in his Styrofoam coffee cup.
“Did we need a win? Not only our team, but Canada needed a win. The players bared that on their shoulders, and they took it seriously. This one was different. This wasn’t a win for themselves. This was a win for 40-plus million people, and the guys knew it, and they delivered.”
McDavid’s top line, which was so lethal in Monday’s win over Finland, didn’t have it. He bobbled passes and spent too much of the game’s first half in his own end.
“I was not very good all night,” McDavid says. “All that was going through my mind was: Keep going.”
“Just to see the reaction. Just to know what it means to us. I know it’s a quick tournament, and it’s not an Olympic gold medal or anything like that, but it means the world to our group,” McDavid says.
https://www.sportsnet.ca/nhl/article/means-the-world-connor-mcdavid-plays-canadian-hero