We've now had five games between legitimate teams. As often happens, the losing teams have outshot the winners in the aggregate:
| Shots | G | Close | G | Far | G | |
| Winners | 208 | 16 | 112 | 13 | 96 | 3 |
| Losers | 239 | 7 | 126 | 6 | 113 | 1 |
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:
| TM | RATIO |
| CAN | 2.42 |
| RUS | 2.14 |
| SWE | 1.60 |
| FIN | 1.44 |
| CZE | 1.22 |
| SVK | 1.18 |
| USA | 1.15 |
| GER | 0.87 |
| SUI | 0.79 |
| BLR | 0.49 |
| NOR | 0.43 |
| LAT | 0.31 |
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.
