TORONTO — The luxurious existence of being Team Canada means awaking after a half-hour snooze with unblemished skin, perfectly coiffed hair and little to no eye gunk. It means allowing two scoring chances and committing one penalty on the opening shift, yet still leaving Tuesday one victory away from snatching the 2016 World Cup of Hockey. It means having the globe’s best goalie as a safety valve, and its best player as a sparkplug. It means getting the decisive goal from its second-line right-winger, who’d previously been held scoreless this tournament, and having that person be Steven Stamkos.
It means finally accepting the truth that, despite winning by double digits for the fifth time in five games at Air Canada Centre, as coach Mike Babcock put it, “You’d like things to be perfect every night, but it’s just not real.