No one had a better chance to prevent Team Canada’s 2-1 overtime loss to the United States than Nathan MacKinnon, and it seems like he’s having issues with that.
After the game, MacKinnon sounded a bit salty when he told reporters, “You be the judge of who was the better team today.”
Now, before levying any criticism at MacKinnon, it’s important to note that he has a point.
For the final two periods of regulation, Canada was absolutely the better team on the ice. They outshot the U.S. 42-28 and registered some of the better hits of the game.
Still, as the saying goes, goalies are people too.
U.S. netminder Connor Hellebuyck put ona virtuoso performance, stopping 41 of 42 shots. Not to mention that Canada failed to score on a 5-3 man advantage. In addition to failing ot capitalize on numerous other opportunities. Including the best opportunity of all, when MacKinnon himself had a shot at anopen net and missed.
Was Canada the better team during regulation? Yes. But the better team doesn’t always win. The difference maker was that the United States had the best goalie in the world, who delivered the best performance in Olympic hockey history and gave his team a chance to win it when the game went to 3-on-3—a chance they never would have had if MacKinnon had just done his job.
