World Cup: Team North America faces a ‘tall order’ in Toronto

Imagine Team North America in the World Cup of Hockey 2016 like the United States in the 1980 Lake Placid Olympics, a group of kids trying to pull off a monumental upset and win it all.

Imagine Todd McLellan as Herb Brooks in the movie “Miracle,” a coach trying to unite players from different backgrounds — not rival states and colleges in this case, but rival countries and NHL teams.

“Who do you play for?” McLellan says.

Players respond with “Canada!” and “USA!” and “Edmonton!” and “Buffalo!”

And then some modern-day Mike Eruzione finally gets it.

“North America!” he yells.

If only it would work like that.

There will be no Brooks-like bag skate for Team North America when the NHL’s best players 23-and-younger from Canada and the United States gather for training camp in Montreal and Quebec City in September.

No rope courses or trust falls or other team-building drills, either.

“I think that stuff sort of has to happen organically,” Team North America co-general manager Stan Bowman said. “We don’t have any specific activities planned which we think are going to put everybody together. Hopefully it’s just going to sort of happen through the competitive spirit of these guys.

“They’re all elite players, and it’s a challenge. I think in a lot of ways we’re the underdogs. I think we’re sort of the wild-card team. We could do some damage, but we’ve got some really powerful teams in our own pool.

“So it’s going to be a tall order to even make the semis, but that’s our goal.”

No one knows quite what to expect from Team North America, including people involved with the team itself, because there has never been another quite like it in a major competition.

That …

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