Every story has two sides, so when Auston Matthews thrilled a Toronto crowd for the first time, somebody was bound to feel bummed.

Postgame, Erik Karlsson said the play touched off his most embarrassing two minutes in hockey. His Swedish teammate Niklas Hjalmarsson admitted feeling aged in the moment, even though he had yet to turn 30. Victor Hedman - well, take in what Matthews did to him on Sept. 21, 2016:

Matthews and his teammates were buzzing. Connor McDavid had juked four Swedes to set up Matthews' dangle, the Maple Leafs sniper rising from his knees to score later in the sequence. Johnny Gaudreau proceeded to sneak behind Karlsson, call for a breakaway pass, and turn on the jets to draw a penalty shot. Gaudreau missed high, but Vincent Trocheck forced a turnover on the next shift, and 95 seconds after puck drop, his backhand from the slot put Sweden down 2-0.

They were representing Team North America, the 23-and-under squad whose speed and razzmatazz wowed fans and staggered elite veteran opposition at the 2016 World Cup of Hockey. McDavid was a second-year pro. Matthews was weeks away from debuting in the NHL. They connected at Toronto's Air Canada Centre as part of an unprecedented experiment in roster building: bridge the Canada-United States divide and combine prodigiously skilled players who might not otherwise have appeared at the tournament.

North America's lineup featured five No. 1 overall draft picks. It included future Hart Trophy, Art Ross Trophy, Rocket Richard Trophy, Vezina Trophy, Selke Trophy, and Lady Byng Trophy winners. Not that it'll ever happen, but the thought of this group reuniting is awesome:

As it was, youth unburdened Team North America of expectations in group-stage matchups with Finland, Russia, and Sweden. Five years later, people remember the World Cup for the referee helmet cam; for Team Europe's surprise surge to the final; for Sidney Crosby and Carey Price leading battle-tested Canada to victory. North America's run was unforgettable, too, even as it ended short of the knockout round.

"That might have been the most fun 30 days I've had in hockey," Trocheck told theScore recently.

"(Icing a 23-and-under team) allowed those guys to come in and just focus on playing," said Craig Simpson, the retired NHL winger and TV color analyst who called the 2016 World Cup for Sportsnet.

"There's no standing back because you've got Sidney Crosby or Joe Thornton, an 18-year vet, that you're trying to defer to and show a little bit more respect to. I think it allowed them to galvanize each other and say: 'Hey, what have we got to lose?'"

The 2016 tournament was the first World Cup since September 2004, when Canada edged Finland in the final on Shane Doan's winning goal and the NHL locked out its players right afterward. Bit of a downer. Teams North America and Europe, a melange of NHLers from eight countries, were added to the field in 2016 to generate buzz and raise the overall caliber of play.

Dismissed as gimmicky by cynics and traditionalists, these new entrants dared to play watchable hockey, exuding an enthusiasm that some marquee teams lacked. Canada's structured style stifled opposing offense and risked boring people. The U.S. went winless against Europe, Canada, and the Czech Republic after leaving Phil Kessel, annually a 30-goal threat, at home.

Tellingly, North America's forward corps included the NHL skills competition's two most recent fastest skaters, Jonathan Drouin and Dylan Larkin - plus McDavid, soon to be a three-time winner himself. Given a few chances to practice together in Montreal and Quebec City, the young guns thumped Europe in back-to-back exhibition games, and then they flew to Toronto for every player's first taste of top-tier international competition.

They took to the challenge, Simpson remembers, as if "shot out of a cannon."

"Get out there and use your speed to your advantage. That's the game plan," Trocheck said, summarizing head coach Todd McLellan's instructions. "From game one, we jelled and figured out some line combinations early. It worked out. The transition from putting a random team together to having a lot of chemistry was seamless."

Playing loose, Team North America pounded 50 more shots on net (138-88) than its three Group B opponents. The kids handled Finland 4-1 on Sept. 18, the day after Matthews turned 19. They lost 4-3 to Russia the next night, but dusted a few opposing superstars on the opening goal. Resisting Alex Ovechkin's slashes as he circled the North America net, Colton Parayko got the puck to McDavid, who escaped Pavel Datsyuk in the neutral zone and fed Matthews at the foot of Sergei Bobrovsky's crease. The ref cam recorded his tap-in from up close:

Against Sweden's vaunted defense, Gaudreau atoned for the missed penalty shot by slipping free for a second breakaway, this one 14 minutes in, and fooling Henrik Lundqvist with a sweet deke. Sweden rallied to tie the score, but toward the end of three-on-three overtime, Nathan MacKinnon was left alone by the Swedish net, stickhandled in a phone booth, and roofed a backhand over Lundqvist, relieving the goalie of his stick in the process.

Up in the Sportsnet booth, Simpson and broadcast partner Jim Hughson had already pointed out the lone problem: North America needed to win in regulation to reach the semifinals. McLellan and his staff didn't tell the players this, and when the Russians blanked Finland 3-0 the next day, they clinched a tiebreaking edge and advanced alongside Sweden at North America's expense.

"That was disappointing," Simpson said. "(But) I don't think it was any surprise at all that that group would be as competitive and explosive as they were back then. Because they still are today. Look at the names on the list. So many of them are at or near the top of the game."

No doubt about that. Five NHL seasons have elapsed since the World Cup ended, and North America's collective production has been prolific.

Different numbers contextualize how these players have impacted the league. Seven of them - McDavid, Matthews, MacKinnon, Gaudreau, Sean Couturier, Aaron Ekblad, and Connor Hellebuyck - have combined to win 16 major NHL awards. Twelve players, more than half the North America roster, are part of a team captaincy group. Brandon Saad was a two-time Stanley Cup champion before the tournament, and now Matt Murray is, too. Parayko won the Cup in 2019 with the St. Louis Blues.

Even though the World Cup is in limbo - the NHL and NHLPA failed to strike a deal to hold one last year - the 2016 tournament was the last true best-on-best event played on the international stage. Skipping the 2018 Olympics delayed McDavid and Matthews' chance to star for their respective national teams until this coming February. As many as 10 of their World Cup teammates (MacKinnon, Couturier, Ekblad, Mark Scheifele, Jack Eichel, Larkin, J.T. Miller, Seth Jones, Hellebuyck, and John Gibson all come to mind) ought to expect to join them in Beijing.

Their North America experience was unique, but Simpson sees a historical parallel.

He was Mario Lemieux's Pittsburgh Penguins teammate in September 1987, when Lemieux skated on Wayne Gretzky's line at the international Canada Cup. Lemieux was a dominant young pro before Canada won that showcase, but he returned to Pittsburgh ready to elevate his game even further. He upped his career high in points from 141 to 168 to claim the 1988 Hart Trophy, denying Gretzky a ninth straight win. Two Stanley Cups and two more MVP nods soon followed.

"He came back a completely different guy. He was around guys who were winners. Guys who have been champions. (He saw) how they respond, how they interact. To me, it catapulted him to be the greatest that he was," Simpson said.

"I think the young guys (in 2016) got the taste of each other and how they could bond together. How they could compete," he continued. "But they also got a chance to watch and play against the best guys in the world. Any time you get a chance to do that, it speaks volumes about the experience that you can gain, and how much you can grow and be a better player going forward."

Time to broach the inevitable comparison: What would Team North America look like if the next World Cup was about to be held? Forget that the future of the tournament is uncertain and get to judging the merits of players born in or after October 1997, a cutoff that mirrors the 2016 event's eligibility rules.

Here's one proposed roster and set of line combos. Sound off in the comments about the decisions you like and hate, and predict how this team would fare against the 2016 crew.

Six quick-hit notes about this lineup:

• Man, that right side of the defense. Fox won the Norris Trophy last season and Makar and McAvoy placed high in the voting, affirmation that they're redefining what it means to be an elite blue-liner. Fleet of foot, creative, and savvy with the puck, these defensemen are liable to dominate any shift.

• The Tkachuk brothers in the same top six? Yes, please. On that note, the Ottawa Senators' full first line gets second billing among this forward group, with Brady Tkachuk and Batherson flanking Norris.

• Robert Thomas, Jordan Kyrou, and Kailer Yamamoto were close exclusions at forward, as were Ty Smith and Noah Dobson on the back end and Jeremy Swayman in goal.

• As was the case in 2016, close to half of these players are 23 years old. The October birthday cutoff renders Matthews ineligible by a couple of weeks, but Matthew Tkachuk, DeBrincat, and McAvoy were born late enough in 1997 to be included.

• None of these players are teenagers - unlike in 2016, when McDavid and Eichel were coming off standout rookie seasons and Matthews was Team North America's lone NHL unknown. An impetus to win now squeezed Alexis Lafreniere, Quinton Byfield, Jamie Drysdale, and Owen Power out of consideration. Better hypothetical luck next year.

• For what it's worth, this team features 16 Americans and a mere seven Canadians: Dubois, Batherson, Suzuki, Dach, Makar, Girard, and Hart, who'd tentatively start in net over Oettinger despite his recent season to forget.

Nick Faris is a features writer at theScore.

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The 2020-21 season was the year of the Fox.

After joining Bobby Orr as the second defenseman to win the Norris Trophy before his third NHL campaign, New York Rangers dynamo Adam Fox is ready to juggle higher expectations for himself and his young team as a new season looms.

The first item on his checklist? Make the playoffs.

"You can only say you're a young team for so long, or you're only in a developmental phase for so long," Fox said, according to NHL.com's Dan Rosen. "We have pieces and a lot of really good players, so I think it's probably playoffs or it's a disappointing year for a lot of guys. It starts in camp and gelling together."

Fox didn't go so far as to say it was playoffs or bust for the Rangers. However, he said the squad needs to start moving out of the rebuild phase that the franchise first announced in 2018.

"We should definitely take a step forward," Fox said. "We've been a young team for the past few years and it only gets better with more experience."

Fox will lead New York's youthful defense corps this season - three of its top-four defensemen are aged 23 and under, with 21-year-old Nils Lundkvist vying for a spot on the third pair. The Rangers' forward group is a bit more balanced, with veterans like Mika Zibanejad, Artemi Panarin, and Chris Kreider evening out the inexperience of Alexis Lafreniere and Kaapo Kakko.

At the helm of it all is new coach Gerard Gallant, who Fox is "definitely excited" to play for.

"I've heard nothing but good things about him," he said. "I can't speak too much to the systems. We haven't gotten going with that. But you see the success he's had with Vegas, and I haven't heard someone say a bad word about him."

The puck drops on the Rangers' season on Oct. 13 against the Washington Capitals.

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Jacob Markstrom is looking to bounce back after a disappointing 2021 season, and possessing one of the coolest masks in the NHL is a good start.

Mask artist Jordon Bourgeault shared his design for the Calgary Flames goaltender's new headgear Wednesday. It prominently displays a flaming skull, includes nods to some of the team's past netminders, and has an "inside joke" that presumably pokes fun at current Flames defenseman Chris Tanev.

Markstrom wore the mask seen below last season in his first campaign with Calgary.

The 31-year-old went 22-19-2 with a .904 save percentage while starting all 43 games he played in 2021. Markstrom's minus-5.83 goals saved above expected and minus-0.99 goals saved above average at five-on-five ranked 70th and 53rd in the NHL, respectively, according to Evolving Hockey.

The Swedish puck-stopper signed a six-year pact with the Flames carrying an average annual value of $6 million in October 2020.

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The Arizona Coyotes named veteran executive John Ferguson Jr. assistant general manager, the team announced Wednesday.

Ferguson spent the past seven seasons as the Boston Bruins executive director of player personnel and general manager of the AHL's Providence Bruins. His duties with the Coyotes will include running their farm team, the Tucson Roadrunners.

"We are very pleased to name John as our new assistant general manager," GM Bill Armstrong said. "John is extremely knowledgeable about the game and with 20-plus years in the NHL, brings a tremendous amount of experience to our hockey operations department. We are thrilled to have him join our team and I am looking forward to working with him."

Ferguson's executive career has included stints with the St. Louis Blues, San Jose Sharks, and Toronto Maple Leafs, where he was vice president and general manager for four seasons.

The 54-year-old also helped guide Team Canada to a gold medal at the 2007 world championship.

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Connor McDavid expressed a sense of urgency when asked Tuesday about his patience level amid the Edmonton Oilers' retooling process.

"Definitely thinking the time is now," the reigning Hart Trophy winner said. "(I'm) 24 years old, (Darnell Nurse) and (Leon Draisaitl) are 25, 26, (and Ryan Nugent-Hopkins is) 28, so the old excuse (that) we're young guys is no longer."

McDavid credited Oilers general manager Ken Holland for his offseason transactions and said the onus is now on the players to win.

"Kenny's done his job, gone out, and gotten pieces and added some things ... it's on us now to put the thing together," McDavid said.

Holland acquired forwards Zach Hyman, Warren Foegele, and Derek Ryan over the summer, along with defensemen Duncan Keith and Cody Ceci.

"More veteran guys ... some older voices, some guys that have been around and played in some big scenarios and games, and I just noticed that right off the top," McDavid added.

In June, the superstar center became the first player since Wayne Gretzky in 1981-82 to unanimously claim MVP honors. He led the NHL with 105 points in 56 games, and Draisaitl finished second with 84. McDavid also ranked second in the league in goals (33) and finished first in assists (72), racking up 19 more than Draisaitl, who placed second in that category as well.

The Oilers made the playoffs in each of the last two campaigns but lost in the first round in April after falling in the qualifying stage of the 2020 postseason. Edmonton hasn't reached the second round since 2016-17, when the Anaheim Ducks defeated the Oilers in seven games to advance to the Western Conference Final.

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Edmonton Oilers general manager Ken Holland believes his club will blossom from playoff hopefuls to Stanley Cup threats this upcoming season.

"The time is now," Holland said, per Sportsnet's Mark Spector. "In my mind, the time to try and take a step. We've been 12th in the league, 11th in the league. But the aspirations are far greater than that."

He continued: "The Stanley Cup doesn't just happen. You evolve, you grow. You have multiple chances. You have disappointments.

"In '93, '94, '95 we couldn't get it done in Detroit. By '98 we had the blueprint and the recipe."

The Oilers finished second in the North Division last season, but were stunned in a first-round sweep by the Winnipeg Jets. A year prior, Edmonton was eliminated in the play-in round by the 12th-seeded Chicago Blackhawks.

Holland had a busy offseason trying to rectify the club's playoff woes, bringing in Zach Hyman, Warren Foegele, Duncan Keith, and Cody Ceci to reinforce the lineup. He also re-signed Ryan-Nugent Hopkins as well as Tyson Barrie and gave Darnell Nurse a lucrative eight-year extension.

"I wanted to bring in some people who have won before," Holland said. "(Zach) Hyman is 29, Foegele is 25 - they're in the prime of their careers. Duncan Keith is going to have a lesser role (than Chicago), but he's bringing in his resume. He's played in lots of situations at the international level and National Hockey League level. He's been brought in for what he can do on and off the ice."

NHL training camps open next week. The Oilers' regular season commences Oct. 13.

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Turner Sports revealed its full talent roster Tuesday for its coverage of the 2021-22 NHL season.

Paul Bissonnette, a former NHL enforcer who rose to fame with his humor on Twitter, is joining the network as a studio analyst. Bissonnette has served as a color analyst for the Arizona Coyotes' radio broadcasts and co-hosts the popular "Spittin' Chiclets" podcast.

Joining Bissonnette as studio analysts are former NHL 30-goal scorer Anson Carter, Stanley Cup champion forward and ex-Coyotes head coach Rick Tocchet, and, as previously announced, Wayne Gretzky.

Liam McHugh will work as a studio host, Brendan Burke will do play-by-play, and former NHLers Darren Pang and Keith Jones will serve as color analysts. Jackie Redmond, Tarik El-Bashir, and three-time Olympic gold medalist Jennifer Botterill were hired as reporters.

Kenny Albert and Eddie Olczyk, as previously announced, will serve as TNT's lead broadcast team as they did this past season with NBC.

Turner Sports signed a seven-year contract reportedly worth $225 million per season for the "B package" of the NHL's media rights. ESPN, whose talent roster can be seen here, secured the "A package."

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