PHILADELPHIA - For former members of Canada’s national junior team, it was a day to absorb some playful ribbing.
With Team USA having won the gold medal at the 2010 World Juniors with a 6-5 overtime victory over the host Canadians Tuesday night, Team Canada alumni such as Mike Richards and Chris Pronger of the Philadelphia Flyers were forced to give the Americans their due.
“It was a great game,” Pronger said at the conclusion of the Flyers morning skate at the Wachovia Center this morning. “It was another great comeback by the Canadians but the U.S. team showed a lot of heart and perseverence. They easily could have crumbled.
“You could see the first few minutes of overtime, 4-on-4, nobody wanted to take a chance. what ultimately happened was that Canada took a chance, didn’t capitalize, and the U.S. came down the other way and scored.”
Pronger was not surprised by the success of the Americans.
“It’s become a major sport, at least in the northern part of the U.S.,” he said.
“It doesn’t happen overnight. As we saw in Anaheim, there were some California kids drafted who were products of the Gretzky era in L.A. and even Anaheim’s entrance into the league. Those are the kids who followed it and are now becoming part of the U.S. development camp, World Juniors, things like that. It just takes time for the kids to evolve.”
At the same time, Pronger understands the U.S. victory would not go over well in Canada.
“(Canadians) take any loss hard. World juniors, Olympics, you name it. Intersquad game. We take all those defeats as hard as the next.
“With all the buildup to the Olympics, this was kind of a stepping stone. I’m sure it will put a little more pressure on us heading into Vancouver.
“It was a great game. Both teams laid it on the table.”
Richards agreed.
“It was a good game,” said Richards, who represented Canada at the World Juniors in 2004 and 2005. “I thought Canada was right there to win it.”
