Bummed out in Buffalo

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 02/01/2011 (5587 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Buffalo, N.Y. — There’s a line in the 1962 movie Requiem for a Heavyweight, when the battered boxer played by Anthony Quinn sighs: “I’m in Pittsburgh… and it’s raining.”

In other words, rock bottom.

Well, it was raining in Buffalo on Saturday. The city on New Year’s Day morning was grey and hung over. The streets were nearly deserted.

Not only had the Canadians lost a 6-5 overtime shootout to Sweden the night before, forcing the Canucks into a quarter-final match against a dangerous Swiss outfit today.

Then Swedish head coach Roger Ronnberg had poured salt in the wounds at a post-game press conference by uttering: “Actually, I think we had tougher games against the Czechs and Russians. I think they play better offensively than Canada did tonight. Those games were tougher for us to control.”

Cameron was sitting just next to Ronnberg at the time.

Happy New year, Dave.

That drizzling morning after, your humble agent asked Cameron about his thoughts on Ronnberg’s blunt assessment. The Canadian junior coach paused for a split-second.

“I’ll answer that in two parts, is that fair?” he said. “The first part is, they beat us. He’s the king of the mountain right now and he can say what he wants.

“The second part is I wish part of this tournament was a shinny game between coaches, with no media.”

The irony is that the Canadians’ best hope of winning a gold medal now — they have to beat the upstart Russians just for a chance to play tournament favourite Team USA in the semifinal — might be one-on-ones with the coaches. At least Cameron had a cup of coffee in the bigs as a third-line grinder.

That’s how these international affairs work: One minute you’re cruising along with a perfect 3-0 record, having thumped the Russians and Czechs, and with just one overtime shootout loss to end the preliminary round it’s like you’re trailing 3-1 in a best-of-seven series.

Worse, Cameron sounded very much like a guy about to pull the trigger on a goaltending switch entering the medal round — possibly one of the last decisions any head coach wants to make so late in the game.

Canadian starter Olivier Roy looked out of his depth in surrendering a five-spot against the Swedes, then going 0-2 in the shootout. The 19-year-old member of the Acadie-Bathurst Titans of the QMJHL let in a couple of softies in previous tournament outings.

“We re-evaluate our team all the time from line pairings to defence combos to goaltending to specialty teams. That’s something we do on a daily basis,” Cameron allowed. “There’s not enough napkins sometimes in this profession.”

Canada’s other option in goal is Mark Visentin, an 18-year-old stopper with the Niagara IceDogs, who has only seen tournament action in a 10-1 rout of Norway.

Interestingly, Cameron said improvisation is a must at the world juniors.

“If you think you’re going to come into this tournament and draw up your plan in the summer and the try-outs and the tournament and nothing changes, it don’t work that way,” Cameron said. “These are teenaged kids and there’s going to be inconsistencies in their game and there’s a ton of pressure.”

And now zero margin for error.

Team Canada is in Buffalo… and it’s raining.

And their requiem will soon be at hand unless the heavyweight gets off the canvas and starts swinging back.