Thanks for that, I just watched this game. I don't think I've ever seen this one, actually. (I think I had my poetry class the night this game was played live... How "hockey" can you get?)
Very lucky win by Canada. Sweden came perversely close to winning this game twice in the shift prior to the Shanahan goal (which itself was rather improbable), and generally I think Sweden played the smarter game. It's staggering how awful Canada looked on the PP in the first period. You would also think a defence-core with their line-up would not have trouble clearing the puck from their zone, but they did... repeatedly.
Messier and Graves looked good, despite Graves' ridiculous 1st period penalty (elbow to the head off a face-off) which very nearly led to a Sweden PP goal. The same cannot be said for their line-mate, Claude Lemieux, was did nothing of note the whole game (well, he did beat one icing call in the third). Lindros was poor in the 1st until he scored, and then was better, but faded again in the third and in OT. Sakic was pretty good, as usual, but I never felt he and Lindros connected as line-mates. Shanahan and Fleury were very good. Gretzky was just okay, but again the combination of he and Damphousse just leaves me scratching my head -- at no time did they ever show
any chemistry, and Linden just looked completely out of place.
The Team Canada defence looked shaky, except for Coffey, who was quite good, and maybe Neidermayer. Speaking of, Niedermayer's 2nd period goal was fantastic, and did he ever school Lidstrom on that one! (Is it fair to say that Lidstrom's international reputation is far, far exceeded by his NHL one?) Rob Blake threw some big hits, but generally looked out of position a lot. Foote was pretty good, I guess.