TORONTO _ Toronto and the World Cup of Hockey was the center of the hockey universe the last few weeks.
At least that's how the NHL had imagined it. And while the U.S. crashed in spectacular fashion out of the tournament early, the league at least had the host Canadians playing in the finals of the event, the first of its kind since 2004.
But you wouldn't know from the atmosphere inside and outside the Air Canada Center that a world championship was on the line, a championship Canada clinched with a 2-1 victory over Team Europe to take the three-game series 2-0.
Air Canada erupted when Brad Marchand scored the winning goal with 43.1 seconds remaining in the game after lasering home a shot on the penalty kill. Blackhawks captain Jonathan Toews set up Marchand's shot with a pretty drop pass.
The atmosphere at the Air Canada Center resembled that of a regular season game for the struggling Maple Leafs _ plenty of empty seats and an atmosphere as flat as a days-old soft drink. The NHL had a watch party outside the arena for Game 1, but nobody attended, which begs the question, is it really a watch party if nobody is watching?
The league canceled a watch party outside the arena for Game 2, citing the on-and-off rain in Toronto as the cause, but if demand was high enough the rain might not have been a problem.
Perhaps the dominance of Team Canada in the last several years lulled the crowd into a collective malaise. Canada had rolled through this tournament, so maybe its expected title didn't excite throngs of people.
Canada certainly played like it was expecting a blowout in the early going but fell behind 1-0 when Europe's Zdeno Chara shot one past Carey Price from the left circle 6 minutes, 26 seconds into the first period.
Canada also squandered two power-play opportunities, allowing Europe a pair of breakaway chances on one.
It got more torturous for Canada in the second period. Canada got another power play and John Tavares had a shot cued up from the bottom of the fight circle with Europe goaltender Jaroslav Halak out of position. All Tavares had to do was bury the easy shot. Clang. Off the post, leading to the biggest reaction of the night up until that point from the listless crowd.
Then toward the end of the period, center Steven Stamkos was lining up an open shot from the high slot, only to slip on an imaginary banana peel and fall over before getting his shot off. The horn sounded and Canada went into the third still trailing.
Europe, the team made up of players from eight different countries, proved it was legitimate regardless of the outcome Thursday. It's a temporary team made up just for this World Cup, but it stood skate-to-skate with the Canadians and dictated the pace of play in Game 1 and Game 2.
It made the fans at the Air Canada Center nervous _ at least those who were there.
