Alter: Similar in style, Russia teaches North America valuable lessons

In many ways, it was a perfect storm.

North America, yet to face adversity at the World Cup, got a dose of reality when Russia scored four goals on four shots in slightly over six minutes Monday.

"We just turned it into a track meet. It's not what we needed against them," said Connor McDavid. "We kind of opened it up. We let them swing and build speed. We had way too much gap in between our forwards and our defense in the middle there.

"They had all kinds of time coming through the middle and in our defensive zone. That’s not the way to play the Russians.”

Similar styles

Russia and North America have much in common.

North America, full of speed and talent, took on a Russian team that isn't afraid to flaunt it. Ask Evgeny Kuznetsov, who celebrated his goal by posing like a bird.

"It was emotional,” Kuznetsov said, when asked about the animated celebration. "I played 'FIFA' a lot."

To beat the young guns, you have to play like the young guns, and the Russians did what they're known to do to younger North Americans.

Flashback

At the 2011 World Junior Championship, Canada was up 3-0 over Russia after 40 minutes in the gold-medal game. Russia scored five in a row in the third period, three in just under five minutes, to shock Canada 5-3.

Artemi Panarin, Vladimir Tarasenko, and Kuznetsov were all on that team, and they reaffirmed their identities Monday - back off for a second, they’ll pour it on, and you'll pay the price.

Opportunity lost

"They were quicker, they were stronger," said North America head coach Todd McLellan. "They stripped us a number of times. We looked slow, and that's not the way we play. Slow reading, slow reacting, and you know, slow to the scoreboard, I guess. It took us a while."

North America had many chances to either put the game away before Russia's four-goal outburst, or come back in the third period.

McDavid had a breakaway with his team up 1-0, but Sergei Bobrovsky made one of his 43 saves, keeping his team in the game until it awoke from its mid-game slumber.

North America fought back to make it a one-goal game, but couldn't find the equalizer, even on a late 5-on-3 power play.

In the end, the North Americans felt like they let the game get away, and not that they were necessarily bested.

"They're really fast and they’re really skilled up front," Artem Anisimov said. "They're still young and they still make some mistakes, but their speed and their quickness in the offensive zone, they create so many chances."

Creativity, for one night

Both teams made mistakes, and that's expected from squads overflowing with offensive skill. Each tried to counter speed with speed and neither was able to shut things down defensively.

It was old school.

The creativity Pavel Datsyuk said is fading from the NHL was on full display, back for 60 minutes, at least. The defensive, shutdown-hockey fundamentals that are hammered into players was forgotten momentarily, by both teams.

Russia simply made fewer mistakes, and Bobrovsky had the stellar game his team needed with its backs against the wall, needing points to stay alive in the short tourney.

For North America, it's lessons learned. Fly to close to the sun, and you're going to get burned.