Canada is seeking a net upgrade after loss to U.S.

BEIJING Eddie Pasquale stared blankly into space and shook his head in the universal body language of a goaltender who just allowed his second stinker of a two-goal hockey game.

For Pasquale and Canada’s men’s hockey team, Saturday’s 4-2 defeat at the hands of the United States was not exactly a banner follow-up to a tournament-opening win over Germany. But at least the loss clarified a couple of important points.

For one, if there’s an aspect of Canada’s game that would have been a hot-botton storyline both with NHLers in the tournament and without them, it’s goaltending.

And without NHLers — well, two games into the Olympics and head coach Claude Julien was clearly kicking tires on the best option among the other three other netminding options in Canada’s closed loop. It goes without saying that Pasquale, currently playing in the KHL after a three-game pitstop with the Tampa Bay Lightning a few years back, could probably use a rest. Not that a lack thereof was to blame for Pasquale allowing the goal that made it 4-2, this with Canada making a compelling push for the tying goal in the game’s latter stages.

It was the kind of slapshot NHL goaltenders stop 100 times out of 100, launched by former Leafs forward Kenny Agostino from a step inside the blue line with no distracting traffic in the frame. Alas, the simplest of saves somehow eluded Pasquale. As the puck seeped through him, the energy simultaneously drained from Canada’s previously buzzing attack.

“No doubt that fourth goal kind of took the wind out of us a little bit,” said Julien.

It wasn’t all Pasquale’s fault. Canada also benefited from not-quitetextbook goaltending from the game’s get-go, when Mat Robinson made it 1-0 on a bad-angle gift of a goal from the right half-boards that somehow found its way through Strauss Mann’s five hole.

Still, while Mann righted his particular ship, making some big saves as Canada peppered him late, Pasquale was also largely responsible for the U.S. goal that made it 3-1, on which a behind-the-net misadventure with puck handling led to a turnover and an unsuccessful scramble to return to the crease, which allowed American forward Brendan Brisson to deposit an easy backhander into a gaping net.

“I have to make those saves,” Pasquale said. “If I make those two saves it’s 2-2 and we’re in OT.”

He wasn’t wrong. Which is why Swedish leaguer Matt Tomkins figures to be up next in net.

For the north-of-the-49th crew, it was a tough loss. But at least it settled a debate. It was on the eve of the Olympic opener when it was pointed out that Canada not the betting favourite to win the gold medal. The team from Russia, which won gold in Pyeongchang four years ago, was the heavy chalk. Depending on which bookmaker you consulted, both Finland and Sweden had slimmer odds to stand atop the podium than the team wearing the Maple Leaf. And rightly so. The last time there were no NHLers at the Olympics, four years ago, Canada’s cast of Euro-pros took themselves out of the goldmedal running with an egregiously soft semifinal loss to Germany. And where was the evidence that Hockey Canada, under newly installed general manager Shane Doan, had things figured out this time around?

“Guys know we’re underdogs,” said Jason Demers, the veteran defenceman.

Don’t get it wrong: Canada still has every chance to prove it has the best team. But as it sits, with a 1-1 record heading into Sunday’s game against China, no one’s particularly impressed.

Julien, for his part, pointed to a 20-minute stretch of action that included the latter 10 minutes of the first period and the opening 10 minutes of the second frame, wherein the U.S. turned a 1-1 tie into a 3-1 lead.

“I think that’s where a lot of the damage got done,” Julien said.

There was no arguing with that. Four years ago it was a space-cadet start to the Germany game that put Canada in a hole from which it couldn’t extract itself. On Sunday it was an inexplicable lack of intensity for a long stretch of an important game. In short-tournament hockey, the margin for error simply isn’t big enough for such intermittent effort.

“We can’t sit around now and be sad for ourselves, be sorry,” said defenceman Max Noreau. “We kind of — at least I did — lived it four years ago in that Germany game (in the Olympic semifinal). We had to regroup. So this one’s not as bad. It’s not a do-or-die like that one was. We’ve just got to learn and get better.”

Learn, and learn fast. Unless the goaltending gets upgraded, Canada’s an underdog here. It better start playing with the 60-minute ferocity of one.

United States 4

Canada 2 Next: Today vs. China

‘‘ No doubt that fourth goal kind of took the wind out of us a little bit.

CLAUDE JULIEN CANADIAN HEAD COACH