Kukla's Korner Hockey

Kukla's Korner Hockey

Team Europe Has Proved Doubters Wrong

09/27/2016 at 7:17am EDT

from Lance Hornby of the Toronto Sun,

If Team Europe is ‘Cinderella’ as their World Cup fairy-tale run is being called, Canada is the Big Bad Wolf.

As they prepare to meet each other in the first game of their best-of-three final Tuesday, don’t expect a happy ending.

Yet even if the Euro pucksters are swept, which became a greater possibility when Marian Gaborik pulled out of the tournament Monday with a leg injury, it has been a pretty good story.

Almost a year to the day since Franz Reidl stood at the ACC with no team or hierarchy and said how great it would be for 200 million non-traditional hockey fans in Europe if his unknowns made some noise, they’ve now made it past the U.S., Czech Republic and Sweden.

“At the beginning, the belief was not there,” team president Reidl agreed. “It was all about (coming here), maybe having a couple of good games and c’est la vie. So now the impact is great. I’m receiving messages from small (hockey) countries; Georgia, Portugal, Mexico. The smaller nations have this hope that somebody can do with a united group what we did.”

continued

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Paul Kukla founded Kukla’s Korner in 2005 and the site has since become the must-read site on the ‘net for all the latest happenings around the NHL.

From breaking news to in-depth stories around the league, KK Hockey is updated with fresh stories all day long and will bring you the latest news as quickly as possible.

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