Happily, it had no effect (this time)
my thinking as well. The Canadians won by executing a team-first plan. In a way, reminiscent of the Islanders way back when. The play did get a bit chippy at times, but the refs, being NHL refs, preferred to keep their whistles in their pockets as long as things didn't get out of hand. Things didn't. The Swedes weren't intimidated by a gang of thugs; they were out hustled by a team that competed harder, backchecked tenaciously, played a disciplined game, and a goaltender who didn't cough up rebounds. They were beaten by a better team.
I have a lot of repect for Forsberg. He's not just another home-side whiner, he's more than earned respect playing the Namerican game. In this case however it just didn't matter. Next time? Well...
BTW, I was impressed by the speed and tempo of the game. After watching so many Leaf games on HNIC, I didn't know hockey players could skate so fast. Did we steal some of those Dutch speed skaters?