CALGARY - Brett Connolly?s body language and what it meant has been a Team Canada leitmotif throughout the 2012 World Junior Hockey Championship.
The sharpshooting winger, on loan from the NHL?s Tampa Bay Lightning, responded by scoring in all five of Canada?s games so far. He has been a rock-solid leader for a team aiming to win a bronze medal today against Finland, a team Canada defeated 8-1 in the championship opener.
On Wednesday, the morning after the heartbreaking 6-5 semifinal loss to Russia, reporters were reading the body language of the entire 21-man roster, assaying the mood of the team.
In a country hard-wired to demand gold from its teams in elite hockey championships, could Canada regroup and go for bronze with the same zeal?
To ask that question says more about the attitude of Canadian society, really. And to pose it to teenage boys hurting from a tough loss is somewhat unseemly, a scab-picking exercise.
Canada, after all, has won a medal for the last 13 straight seasons at the World Juniors, including five straight gold from 2005-09.
The only other country that approaches that performance record is Russia, which today will go for its 11th medal in the last 14 years, its fifth gold in that stretch.
No other country comes close to the top two. The Czech Republic has won 14 medals in the history of the tournament, while Finland has won 12 all-time.
The United States, Canada?s supposed key rival, has won seven medals overall, just two of them gold. If Sweden beats Russia today, they will win their 15th medal overall, their first gold since 1981, just their second gold ever.
Canada cannot add to its record total of 15 gold all-time this year, but it can win its 28th medal. That?s something special, right?
?Well, it?s not what Hockey Canada is about, they?re about gold medals,? said Brendan Gallagher, the feisty forward for the WHL?s Vancouver Giants of the WHL, who scored in Canada?s comeback effort against Russia. ?But, they?re also about playing hard every time you?re on the ice.?
Prodded to ponder what any medal, including bronze, might mean to his kids, perhaps his grandchildren somewhere down the road, Gallagher understood the perspective.
?That?s the message they?re coming across (with),? Gallagher said. ?It may not seem all that important now, but 10 years, 20 years down the road that bronze sounds a lot better than fourth place.?
This team can learn valuable lessons from a game in which Canada came unglued early in the face of an all-out Russian assault, then rallied furiously, only to fall just short.
?I don?t know if the best word is regret, disappointment, bad decisions,? said goalie Scott Wedgewood, still sore in his upper and lower back after being bowled over by a Russian forward in the second period. ?I think (it is) probably going to be the biggest learning experience of my career because, it?s probably the first time I felt pressure at that circumstance in front of a crowd like that, in front of a nation and you?ve just got to able to handle it.
?I thought I?d be ready for it. I was for the most part. But there are some things you can?t be ready for until you experience it.?
Wedgewood said Canada, which ran up a 4-0 won-lost record and outscored its opponents 26-5 in the Group B round robin, might have benefited from a tougher game or two in the preliminary round.
But that?s the luck of the draw.
?Russia came at us early and I don?t think we were expecting that,? Wedgewood said. ?We had to be more prepared for what they had.?
?I think they got a couple of breaks early that helped them get ahead of us and then we kind of didn?t know how to deal with it.
?It was the first time we got scored on first in the tournament and we were down by two at a point. Everyone wanted to win, it?s not like we were going to give up, but to be in that circumstance for the first time in the tournament, kind of caught us by surprise, is the best way to put it.?
Wedgewood said he and his teammates have adopted the mindset that now ?you?ve got to win to get a medal now, you can?t go to the gold medal (game) and lose and get a silver.?
Win and they?ll finish 5-1. Win and they?re bronze medallists.
Win and their body language should be that of a good and proud team that came up a little short.
jmackinnon@edmontonjournal.com
Twitter.com/rjmackinnon
Check out my blog, Sweatsox, at edmontonjournal.com/blogs
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