Boston Bruins Score All Goals In World Cup Final

The Boston Bruins have a way of making themselves be seen in international competition.

The Boston Bruins know how to make an appearance in international play. At the Sochi Olympics, the Black and Gold were only one of two teams to have players sweep the medals in Men’s Hockey. Patrice Bergeron won the gold for Canada, Loui Eriksson (now with the Canucks) won the silver for Sweden, and Tuukka Rask took home the bronze for Finland.

The Bruins continued their winning traditions Thursday night in the final game of the 2016 World Cup of Hockey in Toronto, Canada. While Team Canada clinched the cup in a 2-1 victory, the only three people who scored goals were members of the Boston Bruins.

Bruins captain Zdeno Chara looked and played better than expected for Team Europe this tournament. He was able to get a goal through a screen and Carey Price to give Team Europe an early 1-0 lead. Team Europe was able to hold that lead for almost the entire game.

Sadly, Team Europe (like every other team in the tournament) had no effective counter to Bruins forwards Patrice Bergeron and Brad Marchand.

Patrice Bergeron tied the game up with just three minutes in regulation remaining. Well, that’s just Bergy being Bergy. It doesn’t have the game seven against Toronto feel to it, but it’s still pretty close to perfect anyways.

While so many people have come to love and respect Patrice Bergeron, they usually feel the other way about his linemate Brad Marchand. Marchand has spent most of his career being the pest that drove other teams to riot. Over the last two or three seasons, Marchand has evolved his game. Now he’s one of the elite wingers in the NHL.  His 37 goals got him an invite to play for Team Canada, and Marchand repaid that faith with a patented Marchand short-handed goal with under a minute to play in the game.

That turned out to be the difference in the game, and naturally Brad Marchand was certainly happy.

There were several good things about this World Cup of Hockey. Most of Team Canada (essentially some of the best hockey players on the planet) now understand how good Marchand and Bergeron are together. They’ve also come to realize that Marchand has turned the corner on his game and has earned a place beside them. (If Gary Bettman and company can find a way for the NHL to play in the Olympics in 2018, Marchand is now a shoo-in for the Canadian team.)

There is one more good thing about the World Cup. Zdeno Chara exceeded expectations. The Bruins captain was able to play 20-25 minutes of solid NHL level hockey in each game of the tournament. If the Bruins can find a way to juggle his time responsibly, then the Bruins may not be in as deep a hole as the naysayers have predicted.

Congratulations to Team Canada on their World Cup win. Congratulations to Patrice Bergeron who once again showed the hockey world what ‘clutch’ means. Also, congratulations to Brad Marchand, who can truly be considered an elite player in the NHL.