‘It was a gift’: France goalkeeper Junca’s birthday was memorable despite 10-2 loss to Canadian stars
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Chris Jones reports from Milan.
Imagine, for a few terrifying seconds, that you woke up as Julian Junca, France’s starting goalkeeper.
It’s your birthday. He just turned 28. You blink at the sun coming out of your window in the Olympic Village and head downstairs for breakfast. He tries to tell himself all the things that athletes always tell themselves.
Nothing is something predeterminedyou heard him say. Nothing is something inevitably. Compete with each other.
You arrive in Milano Santagiulia and take the ice for your heaters, still filling them with lies.
But then you see them. You see the Canadians.
You play hockey for your club Dukla Trencin in the Slovakian league.
Canada scored against France, winning 10-2 to seal top spot in Group A. Captain Sidney Crosby had a goal and two assists to become Canada’s leading Olympic scorer among NHL players with 16 points.
Now you look down on the ice and you see Sidney Crosby, one of the most competitive people on Earth. You see Nathan MacKinnon, who doesn’t understand why anyone would do anything for fun. You see Connor McDavid, who came to Milan before anyone else, because he wanted his body to be ready for this moment, for you.
When you can look at them, when you shake your head and hear your mask rattle and struggle to return to the joy of your denial, you see Mitch Marner, and Mark Stone, and Macklin Celebrini, and Drew Doughty, and, just for fun, Tom Wilson.
You watch them skate, and you’ve never seen hockey players so fast. You’ve never seen men that size look so fast. He hears pucks coming off their sticks, and it sounds like doors slamming, like gunshots.
And as if things couldn’t get any worse, they get worse.
Because Canada wants to enter the playoffs as the top seed, and because goal difference will probably come into it, and because the US won’t be playing Germany for five more hours, the Canadians want to do more than win.
They are looking to score as many goals as possible.
They are one of the greatest assemblages of pure hockey talent in the history of the game, and they have been given permission to attack, relentlessly and remorselessly, without the respect and compassion and Olympic spirit. They were told that there would not be enough today.
Try it to be bighe tells himself. Sit down it is concentrated.
Finally, the puck drops.
In the first 64 seconds, he faces three shots, from MacKinnon, Nick Suzuki, and Brandon Hagel. He stopped all three of them.
All right, Julian. A good start.
Your stomach starts to settle. The crowd starts chanting: “Allez les Bleus!” You play the game you love. You’re in the Olympics. Millions of people are watching. He made a great stick save on MacKinnon. He’s here, and he’s doing it.
But then, the inevitable comes. After a little more than eight minutes and more shots, Wilson hit a rebound.
Your colleagues go back to click your pads with glee.
Then, just 13 seconds later, they did one better: They scored!
wait Maybe that wasn’t a good idea. Crosby immediately leads a 3-on-1, feeding Devon Toews, who hits, too. The game was tied for 39 seconds.
Then with 3.4 seconds left in the period, Stone breaks shorthand and lifts a loose backhand over you.
Everything happened very quicklyyou think.
During the break, you try to catch your breath. Your mind starts to get confused, and your body starts to tense up. Even your hands are shaking.
He comes back and concedes goal after goal. Cale Makar scores on the power play with Crosby, MacKinnon, and McDavid on the ice, as if that’s okay.
Celebrini is called for a penalty with 2:44 left in the second period, which is a little unheard of.
You think you’re going blocker low, and you’re committed. You’re going up. After burying it, you turn to your net and take a long, long drink of water.
Macklin Celebrini took the penalty and did it well, putting Canada 5-1 in their game against France.
Crosby gets unlucky on a deflection 19 seconds later, and you’re good to go. Your coach pulls you out during the second half, an act of mercy rather than abandonment, and your save is beaten on the first shot he sees, before you even get a chance to sit behind the glass.
Now he looks, he admires. See don’t do it Miss a go throughyou think. All passes are on the blade.
You drink a lot of water from a bottle, trying to wash away your cramps. The trainer brings a bag of ice to your hands.
You watch your country lose, 10-2.
He walks a long way to the dressing room. The reporter stops you.
To ask how he thinks he will remember this act one day, he shared the same ice with these players, this night.
He takes a moment to answer.
“It’s my birthday,” he said. “And it was a gift.”
Despite losing 10-2 on his birthday, 28-year-old French goalkeeper Julian Junca celebrated the experience, including a sideline handshake with Canadian captain Sidney Crosby.
