After falling to Switzerland in an upset yesterday, Canada had to regroup quickly to fire themselves up for a rivalry matchup with the United States for bronze. Unfortunately, the Canadians didn’t seem to get the memo.

After losing to the Americans in a shootout during the preliminary rounds, Canada had to come back with a better effort if they were hoping to even the score and keep their medal streak going. You’d think that playing Team USA would be enough to get the boys fired up, right? Unfortunately, Canada almost looked like they were still a little bit rattled from yesterday’s loss (or something like that) because they didn’t have much jump to start the game or really throughout.

On the other side, Team USA played like they were pissed off about getting blown out by Sweden in their semi-final matchup (6-0 loss) and they took that annoyance out on Canada. Just like yesterday’s game against the Swiss, the Canadians struggled to cash in their scoring chances and the special teams ended up playing a huge difference in this game, especially with the Canadians handing the United States seven power play chances to play with.

Despite spending so much time in the box, the Canadians were seemingly fortunate to only allow two power play markers against but were unable to respond with any of their own, giving the Americans the edge they needed. Once Bonino scored the second power play goal for Team USA, the Canadians were left to scramble. Late in the game, with Canada down by a single goal, Bill Peters made a risky bet by pulling the goaltender with three minutes left in an attempt to find the equalizer but had it thrown back in his face with two empty net goals by Anders Lee and Chris Kreider. Canada was done.

With the empty netters cashed in and the Canadians down for the count, the Americans were able to run down what was left of the clock to close out a victory for their eighth bronze medal at the World Championships. Meanwhile, Canada finished the tournament in fourth place and without a medal for the first time in four years. I don’t think this was result anyone was expecting.

On the bright side, even though Canada lost in the finals and won’t win a medal at this year’s tournament, at least we know that Calgary’s new coach makes weird choices behind the bench and for that I’m grateful. That knowledge may not be the medal we were after, but at least it will help soothe the blow of another uninspired loss.