This lede was supposed to read: Canada’s Team Matt Dunstone is truly rounding into its best form heading into the playoffs at the men’s world championship in Ogden, Utah.

Instead, we now have to talk about the fact that the Canadians, specifically Dunstone, fell apart after the eighth end for the second straight day. 

The Canadian rink did pull out the 6-5 extra-end victory over Norway, which finished 0-12, but there never should’ve been an extra end to begin with. 

Up until the ninth end, the Canadian lineup of Dunstone, Colton Lott, E.J. Harnden and Geoff Walker, who was subbing for Ryan Harnden, were straight up dominating play against the Norwegians, and held a 5-2 lead.  

But just like in the game against Switzerland on Wednesday, Dunstone couldn’t make a key shot in the ninth end, helping Norway score two to cut the lead to 5-4. 

Even then, everything should’ve been fine. Canada was still in control, up 5-4 with the hammer and could finish the game in the 10th end. 

Dunstone was facing a double takeout on his last, but stuffed it and gave up a steal of one to the Norwegians to tie the game 5-5. In both cases, Dunstone softened the release and threw lighter than he wanted, causing more curl, and for him to miss the shot. 

The skipper did show poise, however, in the extra end as he was able to regather himself and make a nice hit to win the game.

There are still a lot of positives for this Canadian team, like the fact that it has looked amazing at times (all but two of the 16 ends played on Thursday) during this now eight-game winning streak, which it will take into the playoffs.

But with how the closing ends have gone in the last couple of games, there is reason to be concerned. 

Surprisingly, the Canadians’ 10-2 record wasn’t good enough for a top-two spot at this year’s world championship, with Sweden and Scotland beating them on the draw to the button tiebreaker. 

As a result, Dunstone’s Manitoba-based rink has to settle for third in the 13-team round-robin and will now face Italy, which finished sixth overall, in the qualification game. The winner will face Scotland in one semifinal, while Switzerland and the U.S. will battle in the other qualification game to match up against Sweden.

Even though Dunstone defeated the Italians 9-2 on day one, it will be a much different team the Canadians will go against on Friday. 

20-year-old rookie skip Stefano Spiller shot 60 per cent for Italy in that opening game after replacing Joel Retornaz, who decided to pull himself from the event, just a couple weeks before the championship began. 

That will most likely not be the case again. Spiller is playing with a lot more confidence and has a better understanding of how his teammates want to play now.

Need to force Whyte to miss 

The favourite as we head to the playoffs has to be Scotland’s rookie team led by skip Ross Whyte. After starting 0-2, the Scots have won 10-straight games.

Sure, we can look at the whole team made up of Whyte, third Robin Brydone, second Craig Waddell and lead Euan Kyle and say all four have been a key part to its success this week — as a team they’re first overall at 89 per cent.

But when looking at the playoffs, the other top teams aren’t going to be as worried about them, as they will be with Whyte. 

The Scottish skip has been a massive problem for every team he’s faced this week. He’s been the best skip in the field, shooting 89.4 per cent overall with no games below 81 per cent.

Most importantly, it’s been the clutch shots that Whyte has made to either get his team out of trouble without the hammer or just to score one. Just ask Switzerland’s Team Marco Hoesli.

In the 10th end on Thursday, the Scots were up 5-4 without hammer, and Hoesli had one sitting back button buried to score his one. 

Somehow, Whyte came through an incredibly tight port of three stones for an in-off to hit the Swiss stone and sit two. Switzerland ended up losing 7-4.

If any team is going to beat Scotland in the playoffs, the focus has to be on forcing Whyte into the hardest shots possible each end to hopefully earn a miss. If he makes them, then you live with it.

We’re talking angled double runbacks, triple raises, forcing a draw to only the pin, because if not, he’s probably going to make whatever the shot is with ease on the way to a world championship as a rookie.

Edin’s shoot touch is back

Through seven games at this year’s world championship, Sweden’s Team Niklas Edin was perfect, rebounding from the disappointing 2026 Olympics, where his squad went 2-7.

Edin himself was shooting lights out, and looked like he had the magic touch back that helped him become a seven-time world champion — the most of all time.

However, Sweden then proceeded to drop two important games to Switzerland and Canada on the same day, when Edin shot 57 and 75 per cent, respectively.

Edin lost his shooting touch and wasn’t able to get a handle on his draw weight, costing him both games.

Well, it seems that lit a fire under Edin, because the Swedes finished on a three-game winning streak, outscoring their opponents 28-6. Sweden also finished 10-2 on the week, good for first overall and a bye to the semifinals. 

In those three games, we saw the same Edin to start the week, or maybe even a better version, as he shot 100, 94 and 100 per cent. 

Looking at the playoffs, Edin’s shot-making ability will be the driving force for Sweden to have success and help him find world championship No. 8. All season, when Edin has been on, the team goes, and when he doesn’t seem to have it, the team gets blown out.

EDMONTON — There are two things hockey players have always told us:

You can’t expect to just “flick a switch” when March rolls around and suddenly start playing the brand of game that can win in April and May. “This league’s too good,” we’ve heard at least 1,000 times.

And, home ice advantage means something. First place is everyone’s goal, every season.

Well, meet the Edmonton Oilers — a bunch of switch flickers who really don’t care much about where they finish. As long as it’s in the playoffs.

This is your captain speaking:

“Just putting the X beside our name is the main thing. Just getting in, that’s our main focus,” said Connor McDavid, after Edmonton’s season-high fifth straight win, a 3-1 cruise past Chicago. “Where we’re seeded, I’m not too concerned about it.

“We can start a series on the road, we can start a series at home. We’re pretty comfortable either way. We just have to get in.”

Edmonton floated through the first half of the season, and then kept it on cruise through the Olympic break before finally hunkering down and putting together some semblance of the game that took them to the past two Stanley Cup Finals.

They’ve gone 11-6-1 since the Olympics — that’s a .639 points percentage that is tops in the Pacific. Edmonton has reeled in its goals against with the help of a settled down D corps, which is centred on Connor Murphy-Darnel Nurse pairing that has been rock solid of late.

And here’s something you don’t hear every day: The goaltending has been excellent in Edmonton, with Tristan Jarry surrendering just a single rebound goal on 18 shots Thursday, while the Oilers rifled 38 shots at the Blackhawks net.

Suddenly, with the playoffs in sight, the Oilers are playing quality, competitive, defensive hockey.

“You want to be as consistent as you can and sometimes that’s hard in this league,” hemmed and hawed Adam Henrique, when asked about a team that found the light switch just in time. “As a group, we’ve found (their game)— and there’s no better time to do that than now.

“With the schedule you’re playing every other day. It’s a playoff mentality and we know what that takes.”

With the Anaheim Ducks idle on Thursday after coughing up two late goals to lose in regulation on Wednesday, the Oilers pulled even atop the Pacific with 87 points. The Ducks have seven games left, Edmonton six, but the Oilers have the edge in the first tie-breaker, with six more regulation wins.

The Oilers haven’t won a Division since 1987 — the longest drought in the NHL — but good luck finding anyone on this team willing to convince you that home-ice advantage really matters.

“I don’t know if it’s absolutely necessary,” said head coach Kris Knoblauch. “It would be nice to finish first and put a banner up next fall, but this team — whether at home or road — it responds well. If we get into a Game 7, maybe. But we’re just trying to play as well as possible.”

You’ll recall a year ago when the Oilers did not have home advantage in any of the first three rounds, and tore through the West with a 12-4 record. Then in the Final against Florida — a series that opened in Edmonton — they lost in six games.

So you’ll have to forgive the Oilers for not being fixated on first place. Honestly — and they’d never say it out loud — if Edmonton continue to build their game from where it’s at right now, they wouldn’t be overly concerned about whomever they get in Round 1 or 2.

“You want to give yourself the best opportunity and a lot of times that’s finishing first,” said Henrique, who banged home his first goal in 50 games on a breakaway, then breathed a huge sigh of relief. “We know in the past that it doesn’t matter.”

In the first game he ever played against the Vancouver Canucks, Quinn Hughes was understated.

Nearly four months since his trade to the Minnesota Wild, the Canucks’ ex-captain had only one point and was plus-four Thursday as his new team beat his old one 5-2 in St. Paul, Minn. At five-on-five, shots were 20-10 for the Wild, and scoring chances 14-8 when Hughes was on the ice. He finished with 24:48 of playing time.

That would be a career game for some defenders but considering Hughes’ dynamic capabilities and dominance with the puck, he was quiet.

With two goals, three points and six shots, Matt Boldy was the big star for Minnesota on Thursday. Ryan Hartman also scored twice and Kirill Kaprizov hit the 40-goal mark for the fourth time in five seasons as the Wild pulled away from the Canucks, who were playing the second of challenging back-to-back games after stunning the National Hockey League-leading Colorado Avalanche 8-6 on Wednesday.

The Wild had been resting and practising since Saturday.

Unlike with the needy Canucks, the Wild don’t require Hughes to launch 12 shots per game, be a one-man breakout and challenge defenders one-on-one on each possession in order to generate offence. They just need him to skate and pass and be himself.

Hughes’ first game against his former teammates was subdued. And in a post-game interview with Sportsnet’s Dan Murphy, so was he.

“Yeah, I mean, definitely a little weird,” Hughes said of facing the Canucks, with whom he shattered all franchise scoring records by a defenceman during his 6 ½ seasons. “But I think that, you know, you move on and I’m happy to be here right now. Probably being in Vancouver would be a little bit weirder than this. But yeah, like I said, it was nice that we got the win, and we have a big weekend coming up.”

With the Wild pretty much locked into a first-round heavyweight tilt against the Dallas Stars, Hughes made it clear his focus is already shifting to the Stanley Cup Playoffs, something he experienced only twice with the Canucks.

The Canucks’ focus, since the moment they traded him to the Wild on Dec. 12 for three talented, younger players and a first-round draft pick, has been on a rebuild.

To that end, players reluctantly guaranteed the franchise the best draft-lottery odds by clinching 32^nd place with seven games remaining.

At 22-45-8, the Canucks are 16 points behind the next poorest team and incapable of climbing out of last place overall. Despite a lot of lean seasons in their 56-year history, the Canucks have never finished at the bottom of the NHL standings. The Wild are 44 points ahead and clinched a Western Conference playoff spot with their win.

For the Canucks, although there was a sobering finality to their freefall with yet another loss, there was certainly no shame in Thursday’s performance.

Despite the difficult early-morning arrival in the Twin Cities after the post-game charter across time zones from Denver — and playing their third road game in four nights against Stanley Cup contenders — the Canucks actually led 2-1 after the first period.

But the Wild took over the game in the second period and directly capitalized on unforced errors by young defenceman Zeev Buium and Elias Pettersson (Junior). Still, down 4-2, the Canucks had their goalie out and sustained offensive-zone pressure late in the game before Hartman iced it with an empty-netter.

“We competed,” coach Adam Foote told reporters in Minnesota. “(The Wild are) a big heavy playoff team built to go. They’ve got some explosive offensive players, but powerful as well, and they’re just heavy throughout. And I thought the guys competed to the wire with them. I really thought we played hard and didn’t back down.”

Tom Willander and Jake DeBrusk scored goals for the Canucks, who play home games Saturday against Utah and Tuesday against Vegas before travelling again for a three-game tour of California.

Hooked in his last start after surrendering four goals on 11 shots Saturday in Calgary, minor-league callup Nikita Tolopilo was probably the best Canuck, finishing with 34 saves and little culpability on the four goals that beat him, which were: breakaway, breakaway, backside one-timer from a cross-ice pass, and a tip from the top of the crease.

A lot of people have been clamouring for more starts for Tolopilo. But the Canucks have so much invested in Kevin Lankinen, and badly need him to build back his game and some confidence heading into the summer, that Foote’s decision to lean heavily on his NHL veteran really shouldn’t be surprising.

But Tolopilo makes it harder on Foote when he plays like he did Thursday. In five starts in March, the undrafted 25-year-old was beaten 21 times on 123 shots for a save percentage of .829. April has started better. With seven Canuck games left, Tolopilo should get at least a couple of more starts.

Mistakes have been part of the learning curve all season for the Canucks’ young defencemen. In Minnesota, Buium whiffed on the puck on one goal and Pettersson passed it straight to the opposition before another. And as television analyst Ray Ferraro superbly broke down for Sportsnet viewers, Willander was far too passive in allowing Hartman to stand uncontested in front of him to tip in the Wild’s fourth goal. The first Minnesota goal came from a giveaway by experienced defenceman Pierre-Olivier Joseph, so it’s not only the young guys who make mistakes.

But they’ve got to learn. Especially in the defensive zone. They’ve got to box out and, as Ferraro said, make opposition forwards uncomfortable in front of the Vancouver net. 

Hughes was excellent with the puck from the day he stepped into the NHL from college — as Willander and Buium have done — but didn’t become an elite defenceman until he started devoting his summers to improving the defensive side of his game. This is hockey.

Canuck enforcer Curtis Douglas thought he’d scored in Calgary but the goal was ruled off upon review due to a whistle. In Colorado, the six-foot-nine winger had a mind-blowing five shots on net (and three hits) in 6:18 of ice time. Imagine if he’d played 16 minutes. And Douglas was noticeable again in Minnesota, with one shot and two other attempts in 8:44 of TOI.

The 26-year-old waiver pickup has now logged 38 NHL games with no goals (and nine fights). Douglas scored 57 times over his final two seasons of junior hockey in Windsor and his shooter instincts are still evident. We’re predicting Douglas will have an NHL goal before this season is over.

Douglas, of course, needs to play and the Canuck lineup got a little more crowded Thursday with the recall from the minors of centre prospect Ty Mueller, who wasn’t scored against during his 9:55 of playing time against the Wild. . . Nils Hoglander came out of the lineup — again — to make room for him while a highly motivated Aatu Raty was moved to the wing and registered four hits in 12:03 of ice time. The Canucks’ faceoff ace, Raty still took draws and went 11-3. . . Rested the last two contests after managing an injury while making it to 1,000 games in the NHL, winger Evander Kane is expected back in the lineup on Saturday so his achievement can be honoured by the Canucks before the faceoff against the Mammoth.