MONTREAL — Right here got here the return of best-on-best hockey and right here got here the wall of noise on the Bell Centre, crashing down in delirium over the ice.
They roared for Sidney Crosby.
They obtained louder with the introduction of legends for every of the 4 groups competing at this best-on-best renewal.
They misplaced it for Mario Lemieux. They belted “O Canada” so loud it drowned out the singer.
They watched Workforce Canada beat Workforce Sweden, 4-3, to open the 4 Nations Face-Off in a recreation that went 360 levels from blowout to blown result in ecstasy within the type of Mitch Marner’s additional time winner, then they misplaced it some extra.
“You inform 8- or 10-year-old Mitch that he scored an additional time purpose [assisted] by Sidney Crosby, a man he appeared as much as since Day 1,” Marner mentioned, “it’s fairly loopy. I’m positive my household’s gonna be actually enthusiastic about that one.”
The celebs right here have been Crosby, Cale Makar, Nathan MacKinnon and Connor McDavid. This was concerning the foursome that delivered a spellbinding energy play purpose 56 seconds into the match with McDavid feeding Crosby feeding MacKinnon into an open web.
And this was about Workforce Canada, in Canada, giving a loud reminder of what hockey supremacy seems like.
Sweden didn’t file a shot on purpose till 15:15 into the match, when Gustav Forsling’s wrister went harmlessly into Jordan Binnington’s glove.
By then, Canada had already scored twice, the group had already began singing “Ole” and McDavid had already put in a handful of shifts the place he appeared like a person amongst boys.
It appeared like this may be straightforward.
It was not.
It could take additional time ultimately, which means Canada took simply two of three factors, with Sweden getting one, and it could take Marner, ending a pulsating additional interval 6:06 into three-on-three play by ripping a shot previous Filip Gustavsson after Crosby charged up the ice and located him for his third help of the night.
“I believe for Workforce Sweden,” defenseman Erik Karlsson mentioned, “that was a bit little bit of a nut-kicker.”
This was the kind of recreation — and the kind of end — that left everyone within the neighborhood needing a cigarette.
“I believe individuals perhaps have this match confused for an All-Star Sport,” McDavid mentioned. “It’s not an All-Star Sport. It’s a aggressive occasion. Everybody desires to win. You noticed that tonight.”
Canada by no means turned this into the kind of blowout on the scoreboard that it appeared like on the ice for the primary 20 minutes, with the sport settling down, Sweden discovering traction and turning this into an actual recreation similar to that.
The primary signal of hassle got here halfway by the second interval when Binnington let up a short-side purpose from Jonas Brodin, making a recreation Canada had owned nearly utterly 2-1.
Certainly, the concerns about Canada’s state of affairs in web have been validated greater than a bit bit Wednesday, with Binnington lower than convincing till additional time, when he made an ideal 4 saves, together with on Adrian Kempe to arrange Crosby on the push.
A brand new one cropped up, too, within the type of Shea Theodore leaving the sport early within the second with an obvious proper wrist harm and never returning, coach Jon Cooper later saying he would miss the remainder of the match.
Crosby appeared to revive order when he delivered his second help of the night time at 17:28 of the second, feeding Mark Stone off the push after wheeling round on the backside of the circle to pick an ideal move.
However issues continued to get unsettling for Canada when Adrian Kempe strode into the slot and beat Binnington clear to make it 3-2 lower than two minutes into the third.
And when Joel Eriksson Ek adopted a Canadian icing by tying the sport at three off Jesper Bratt’s cross-crease feed on the 8:59 mark, a pall of silence briefly fell over the Bell Centre.
That was sufficient to ship it to additional time, the place the noise can be restored sooner or later.
“It was the whole lot I might’ve anticipated and much more than that,” McDavid mentioned of this return to best-on-best, his first time representing Workforce Canada at such an occasion. “To play right here in Montreal, the followers get off to an incredible begin like that, it was nice. It was actually, actually enjoyable.
“It was the whole lot I hoped for.”