We've now had five games between legitimate teams. As often happens, the losing teams have outshot the winners in the aggregate:

Indeed, the losing teams are doing a better job of getting the puck to the net - they just aren't scoring. And I think you know what I say when a team made up of NHL-caliber players shoots 4.8% on close-in shots (as the losing teams did): luck. If Russia played the Czechs 100 times, they'd probably win 55% of the time; if they played the Slovaks 100 times, they'd probably win 65%. But that doesn't mean they'll win 100% of the time if they play them each once.

Here's the overall ratio of close-in shots for and against for each team:

A lot of good it does Canada to be #1! But, as you can see yet again, there are seven teams that belong in a world hockey tournament...and that's it.