When Sidney Crosby said he’d play for Canada, followed by Nathan MacKinnon, Marc-André Fleury and others, it was supposed to be 2015 all over again … or, at the very least, the team was supposed to be playing for a medal this weekend. Instead, Crosby was left trying to figure out what happened at the end of Thursday’s 2-1 quarterfinal loss to Denmark.

“Disappointed,” the Canadian captain said. “I mean, we got better as the tournament went on. I don’t think tonight was necessarily our best but we still found a way to give ourselves the lead. Trying to play a road game with the lead, I liked where we were at but … disappointing. We had a great group here.”

The Canadians outshot Denmark 30-11 through two periods but the game remained scoreless.

“They did a good job of keeping us to the outside,” Crosby said of Denmark’s defensive-zone play. “We had a few bounces, pucks lying there that we couldn’t get sticks on. We’ve gotta find a way if we want to win games like this one here.”

Denmark came out strong to start the third period, outshooting Canada 6-1 early in the frame but when Crosby set up Travis Sanheim for the game’s first goal with 14:43 remaining, it felt like that might be what turned the game in Canada’s favor. But the Danes kept coming.

Nikolaj Ehlers: Denmark Beating Canada ‘One Of The Biggest Things I’ve Done In My Career’ “I don’t have any words for this,” Nikolaj Ehlers said after the game, almost in disbelief. “To beat Canada at home and go through is one of the biggest things I’ve done in my career, so it’s amazing.”

With the goaltender pulled for an extra attacker late in the third, Nikolaj Ehlers shot long shot beat a screened Jordan Binnington to tie the score with 2:17 remaining. And then …

“Obviously they got some momentum from that tying goal and … just a broken play,” Crosby said of Nick Olesen’s game-winner with 49 seconds remaining. “They pressed pretty hard in the third and it turned pretty quick.”

Crosby has won a lot of big games, both for the Pittsburgh Penguins and for Team Canada, so this isn’t going to be a defining moment in his career. In 10 months, he will embark on a quest to win a third Olympic gold.

Asked what he’d take away from this tournament, he answered, “Just the group of guys, like I said. I think we had all the things to make a deeper run than we did, we got better as it went on, built off that game against Sweden, but it’s unfortunate we couldn’t get it done here tonight.”

Photo © Eric Bolte-Imagn Images

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