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TORONTO -- The last team standing in the way of juggernaut Canada winning the World Cup of Hockey was a figment of the NHLs imagination.Oh, but theyre for real, all right.Team Europe shockingly faces Canada in the best-of-three final after upsetting Sweden in the semifinals.Flash back to Sept. 11, when after four periods of pretournament play, Europe was down 9-1 to the North American kids. Can you possibly imagine the reaction of the European players in that very moment had you told them theyd be in the World Cup finals two weeks later?It was a turning point for our group, star defenseman Roman Josi of the Nashville Predators said after Europes dramatic, 3-2 OT win over Sweden. [W]e just told ourselves, we either try to come together and play as a group or pack it in now. We showed a lot of character. I think we played really good the rest of the pretournament period and we carried that into the tournament.Canada beat Europe 4-1 in round-robin play, so it has an idea about the new outfit.You put all those countries together, theres lots of good players there, Team Canada head coach Mike Babcock said immediately after Sundays 3-2 overtime win by Europe over Sweden in the second semifinal. I like their back end, I like the goaltending, I think theyve done a real good job through the middle of the rink with their team. Theyve got a good-looking team. Thats why you play these games. All the experts can predict what they want, but you got to play the games and decide.Made up of veteran players from eight countries, Europe plays a very patient game and limits its mistakes. The team is no pushover.They are a great story, said Canada GM Doug Armstrong, Shame on us if we dont take them seriously for what theyve done to this point.Lets not kid ourselves here, Europe will still be massive underdogs in the World Cup finals. Since Sweden won Olympic gold at Torino in 2006, Team Canada has gone into cruise control, winning gold at Vancouver 2010 and Sochi 2014 while carrying a 14-game win streak in best-on-best hockey heading into the best-of-three, World Cup of Hockey championship finals.Game 1 goes Tuesday night here at Air Canada Centre (8 p.m. ET, ESPN).This is a powerhouse Canadian side that has outscored the opposition 19-6 in four tournament games and trailed for only 2:41 in total. But Europe has nothing to lose, right?Best playersEurope: Europes solid blue-line play leads to the crux of the narrative for this final as Canadas four-line forward attack has left the opposition in shambles with its forecheck and puck pressure. If Europes veteran blue-line corps led by Josi and Zdena Chara can swiftly navigate out of their zone without coughing up the puck constantly like Russia and Team USA did against Canada, then thats a major plus toward Europe trying to produce the upset.Up front, Anze Kopitar must take on either Sidney Crosby or Jonathan Toews and play the hockey of his life. Kopitar has been one of the top-five centers in the world while winning two Stanley Cups with the Los Angeles Kings, but this is a monumental challenge for him.Canada: Crosby is playing at a whole other level from the rest of the tournament, the front-runner for tournament MVP honors. Just like his most recent playoffs when he led the Pittsburgh Penguins to a Stanley Cup, Crosbys impact has been felt as much on the defensive side of the puck as his obvious offensive talents. His line with Brad Marchand and Patrice Bergeron has been out of this world from the get-go.Ryan Getzlaf and John Tavares have been a pairing up front since Day 1 of camp and their chemistry has grown impressively; on a line with Steve Stamkos, they were awfully impressive in the semifinal win over Russia. And, as always, whenever Canada seems to get into a bit of a lull, Toews does the heavy lifting. His engine never stops.Matchup to watchRalph Krueger versus Mike Babcock. For my money, these are the best two coaches in the tournament. No surprise there with Babcock, the NHLs highest-paid coach while leading the Toronto Maple Leafs and Canada to back-to-back Olympic gold medals. Once again, hes sold a very specific game plan to his star-studded squad and gotten a complete buy-in from every single player. Thats not easy. Krueger, a longtime former Swiss national team head coach, has a brilliant hockey mind. He was part of Babcocks staff in Sochi, helping Canada adjust to the bigger ice, so there are no secrets between them.Ive known Ralph since 04 world championships, Babcock said. Ralph and I are good friends. We talk a lot. Hes a very, very intelligent person. He was a good head coach in the National Hockey League. Hes been around a long time, a good coach in Europe. ... He has these guys believing and prepared and in the finals. From where they were at one point when they got lit up a couple of times early to now where they are, hes done a heck of a job.PredictionHaving been with Team Canada since camp opened Sept. 5, and watching this team bring its total game to a whole other level, even from the team that went a perfect 6-0-0 in Sochi, I just cant see how Canada will lose a period, let alone the series. Canada is absolutely humming on all levels.Team Canada will win each game by at least two goals and sweep the series 2-0. Air Jordan 1 Sale . Most important, perhaps, it went off without a hitch. Organizers poked a little fun at the now-infamous opening ceremony gaffe that saw only four out of five snowflakes open up into rings, leaving the Olympics logo one ring short. Wholesale Shoes Adidas . Bjorn, who had a 36-hole total of 8-under 134, made a testing six-foot putt to save par on the 16th and a birdie on the 17th before bogeying the final hole after a misjudged approach shot. American Kevin Streelman was in second place after shooting a 69. https://www.wholesaleshoesforcheap.com/ . -- Sergey Tolchinksy scored his second goal of the game 3:56 into overtime as the Sault Ste. Vapormax Sale . -- Edmontons Val Sweeting is two wins away from a trip to Winnipeg to play in Canadas Road of the Rings in December. Air Max Plus Sale . - The Oakland Raiders re-signed offensive lineman Khalif Barnes on Friday. The magnitude of Tim Duncans contributions over his 19-year career are every bit as remarkable as the announcement of his retirement on Monday was understated: Duncan collected five titles with the San Antonio Spurs and 1,001 regular-season victories, all with the same team in a small basketball outpost held over from the ABA-NBA merger.In an era defined by athleticism, Duncan was a master of mechanics. While contemporaries built careers on defying gravity, Timmy deked opponents with jab steps, shoulder fakes and line-drive bank shots, with both feet on the ground. He didnt captivate fans or sponsors with his exploits or charm them with charisma. He was wholly uninterested in the salesmanship required to build a personal brand and didnt give the NBA and its marketers much to work with as the league harnessed its star power to expand its global reach.For Duncan, the postgame podium wasnt a platform, but a sentence.Yet something improbable happened while he was slinking out of the Spurs locker room and dodging the spotlight:Inside the league, Tim Duncan became the most influential player of his generation. Though he had little public appeal outside central Texas over his two decades in the league, Duncan ushered in cultural change in NBA practice facilities, locker rooms and executive suites.The present-day NBA has become singularly consumed with the adoption and implementation of organizational culture. Forever looking for competitive advantages, franchises have turned to workplace culture as a bulwark. We might not be able to attract a top-line free agent, or hit the jackpot in the draft, but there are 44 games in an NBA season that can be won if we value the right things.This is the leagues guiding principle in 2016, from Atlanta and Salt Lake City to Oklahoma City and Brooklyn, where disciples of the Tim Duncan era learned the art and science of team-building in San Antonio. Theyve applied the findings and sculpted them to suit a particular roster or market. Some have enjoyed modest success while others are just getting started. But try as they might to replicate the Spurs recipe, all of them are forced to concede at a certain juncture that theyre missing one essential ingredient:They dont have Tim Duncan.We walk into our houses and thank Tim Duncan, Atlanta Hawks head coach and longtime Spurs assistant Mike Budenholzer says. You think about all the coaches and all the GMs and even the assistant video guys who are now assistant coaches, all the people who have climbed the NBA ladder -- we all owe our success, our place in the league to Timmy.The magnitude of that, the number of people in this league who have enjoyed opportunity or found fortunate spots in the league, you can trace it back to this one guy -- to the way Timmy played ball and the conducted himself. The culture is Timmy.Kevin Durant was a credible leader during his tenure with the Thunder -- a founding father of the program, in the words of general manager Sam Presti. Begrudging a first-rate star like Durant the opportunity to forge his own professional path is unwarranted, but his departure from Oklahoma City underscores a truth that owners and execs learn sooner or later. An organizations culture can shield it from disaster, but that culture is only as strong as its leading player.Thats why more measured voices in the Golden State Warriors wince when they read about their owner taking a victory lap for an organizational structure thats light yyears ahead.dddddddddddd Its why every Spurs alum now in a senior managerial role elsewhere understands theres a limit to what infrastructure can do for a team absent a transcendent leader on the roster.And its why Gregg Popovich said a couple of years ago, Before you start handing out applause and credit to anyone else in this organization for anything thats been accomplished, remember it all starts with and goes through Timmy. As soon as he [retires], Ill be 10 steps behind. Because Im not stupid.Theres an ethic of reticence in San Antonio, where Duncan managed to shroud himself in mystery for 19 years. I dont feel comfortable putting myself out there, he told me in 2013. Im just a basketball player. I play the game. I go home. Confidants describe the public relations part of the job as torture for Duncan, an affront to the game. The periphery of the NBA life, everything outside the practice facility, is nonsense.Trying to be something that youre not gets you out of your comfort zone, Duncan said then. Im not that guy. I did a little bit of that. Ive done my share of it, but Im just not that guy. I dont think of myself in that respect. I love playing basketball and thats what I want to do. I dont need the extra stuff.But in the Spurs day-to-day operations, Duncans emotional intelligence was the connective tissue that held together Popovichs disciplined structure. Duncan would readily pass the mantle to Tony Parker and Manu Ginobili, then celebrate their success as if it was his own.The thing that amazed me about how Timmy built relationships was how subtle it was -- the touch, the arm around the shoulder, the thing that would look like little or nothing to outsiders, Budenholzer says. It affected people, maybe because it was subtle and under-the-radar.Blake Griffin, who has admired the way Duncan carries himself, sought out Duncans counsel a few years back. Griffin was part of a Los Angeles Clippers team that now had several loud voices and wanted to glean how quiet leadership could make a difference. The thing I took away the most was this idea that a leader isnt the guy whos pounding the chest, or huddles or giving motivational speech, Griffin says. It was really reassuring to me as a younger guy, that you dont have to be something youre not. Of many things you can say about him, thats the thing that sets him apart -- he never tried to see who wasnt. And it works.At any time, theres always the one guy theyll use as an example. Maybe its Russell Wilson for a year or two. Then they move on to Tom Brady or [Kevin Garnett]. But [Duncan] has been the guy you constantly hear about whos constantly doing it right. Hes the guy who deserved the shine, but was riding underneath it.For a man who was so inaccessible to those looking in from the outside, Tim Duncan was an everyman. Most of our lives and careers emulate Duncans: We do the work quietly and diligently and dont have much cause to glory-hound. The job is the job, and if youre lucky, you do it because you love it, but not for any external affirmation, other than you want your partner, family and friends to be proud because its nice to be admired by the people in the world you care most about.Tim Duncan invented the NBAs modern vision of team culture. Now the rest of basketball is trying to imitate the guy nobody found fashionable. ' ' '