TURIN, ITALY -- They adjusted immediately, even before the puck was dropped.
But it was not enough.
And today -- after last night's stunning 2-0 loss to Finland -- Team Canada will have to try something else. And quickly.
As head coach Pat Quinn said after Saturday's even-more-surprising 2-0 loss to little Switzerland, change the way they're playing hockey "or we'll be going home early."
Yesterday evening Quinn's patience had run even thinner, accusing his players of looking "dopey" -- a confused team now heading into its third hour of play without scoring a single goal.
If there is not quite panic in the streets back in Canada, there most assuredly is some going on in the Canadian coaches' rooms in Italy.
The first sign yesterday that Team Canada is now profoundly concerned with the way this Olympic tournament is progressing was the absence of Wayne Gretzky on the bench.
Not as a player or as a coach, but as executive director of the team during the pre-game warm-up.
This curious ritual began four years ago in Salt Lake City, when Gretzky and assistant Kevin Lowe came to the bench to watch the warm-up prior to Canada's third match of the Winter Games, against the Czech Republic, then the defending Olympic champions.
"We tried to change our luck," he said rather sheepishly at the time. But it worked. Canada had then, as now, played poorly in its opening matches. Against the Czechs, they came to life, tied the game, and never looked back. Ever since that moment, Gretzky has followed the same routine: Sit on the bench for the warm-up, high in the stands for the actual game.
Last night in Turin -- following Saturday's unexpected loss to the swift but unknown Swiss -- he stayed away.
The next time Gretzky was visible, caught on television during a first period that saw the fast, hard-checking Finns go up 2-0 to stay, he was burying his head in his hands.
Something is terribly wrong with the defending Olympic champion and pre-tournament favourite. The Canadians are so big they seem somehow too big. They could not skate with the Swiss -- as well as could not score, despite 49 shots, against goaltender Martin Gerber -- and against the Finns they simply could not keep up in either speed or creativity.
"We're not playing very much like a team," admitted Quinn. "We haven't made the kind of progress we'd hoped."
In fact, they've made no progress. Despite Quinn's extensive juggling of lines and defence pairings, he has yet to find anything that works. The power play is a disaster, lacking the one individual -- injured defenceman Scott Niedermayer -- who can run one and has the speed to both carry the puck up and get back in time to stop a counterattack. There seems no one, at least for the moment, who can finish a scoring chance.
Rick Nash, who failed to score on a clear breakaway against Finnish goaltender Antero Niittymaki, knows how quickly the concern is rising among Team Canada coaches and officials. "If you're not going to score on your chances," Nash said after the game, "you're not going to see ice."
Following Saturday's unexpected loss to Switzerland, Quinn had ripped his charges.
"We tried to rely on talent tonight and it wasn't good enough," he told a press conference. "If we don't learn from this, we'll be going home early."
The Swiss, on the other hand, were ecstatic, their fans spreading a flag as big as a small dairy farm across the stands as they sang and cheered their little-known heroes.
"Obviously," grinned Swiss captain Mark Streit, "little Switzerland is not that bad."
But the far larger question -- the one resounding around Canada this morning -- is exactly how bad big Canada is in the sport they are expected to rule.
"You look at our inability to score on the power play," said defenceman Chris Pronger, "and that's a telltale sign right there."
Quinn particularly fingered Pronger for taking a bad penalty against Switzerland during a penalty kill, which had the effect of giving Switzerland a five-on-three during which they scored.
Pronger took exactly the same penalty against the Finns -- cross-checking an opponent to the ice during a penalty kill -- and Quinn, already red-faced behind the Canadian bench, visibly darkened.
Canada has traditionally found a way to win, even when starting off weakly, but time is running out. The team plays the Czech Republic tomorrow and then heads into the final round, where a single loss would deny a repeat of the gold medal Canada won at Salt Lake City.
While goaltending has been the early story of this chaotic men's tournament -- Switzerland's Gerber and David Aebischer have been brilliant, as has Niittymaki, while the Czechs have lost superstar Dominik Hasek to a groin injury -- there has been no complaint about Canada's goaltending. Both Martin Brodeur, who lost to the Swiss, and Roberto Luongo, who lost to Finland, have been very solid, as they must be.
The problems, therefore, are elsewhere. Quinn is upset that his group has yet to come together as a "team." He is bothered by continuing sloppy play, particularly on defence, and by lapses in judgment by all the players.
"It looked like we wanted to play a European game," he said of the loss to Switzerland. ". . . The Swiss looked like they wanted to play a Canadian game.
"We didn't adjust."
The question remains, with so little time for a team to come together and games each day, is it possible to make such dramatic changes?
"We did it," said Daniel Alfredsson, assistant captain of the Swedish team.
The Swedes, an early favourite in the tournament, were stunned 5-0 by a much quicker Russian team -- but then came back yesterday to beat the Americans, 2002's silver medalists, 2-1.
"We looked back on the Russian game," Alfredsson said. "There was jet lag, but you can say what you want, they wanted it more than we did."
In the few hours between matches, the Swedes tried to change their attitude. They talked about getting the jump on their next opponent, and did. They decided to keep the third forward coming in back for a possible shot, and it worked.
For the Canadians, however, it may be a different story. How, for example, do you suddenly get faster?
Nothing, however, is impossible.
"A lot of crazy things have happened," said American star Mike Modano after his team's loss. The Americans, finalists in 2002, are having an even worse struggle with success than the Canadians.
"Time is of the essence," said Modano, "it's running out."
Not to worry, added Finnish star Teemu Selanne, who scored last night's winning goal against the Canadians.
"When there's a game on the line," Selanne predicted, "go home or go on, they're going to show up."
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