The World Cup is almost over. Just like that.

With the round robin complete and the semifinals on tap for the weekend, here's what we learned:

1. North America forever

A World Cup featuring two select teams - North America and Europe - was a smashing success. So much that everyone's disappointed about a Canada-Russia semifinal. Yeah.

At least Europe's through to the semis, and is rallying together as "The Team the World Ignored," while North America put on a show, playing fast, incredible hockey that crowds at Air Canada Centre rarely see. The kids delighted - plain and simple - and the Europeans impressed. What's not to like?

The format worked. Europe and North America will be back when the World Cup returns in 2020. Can't wait.

2. Canada's so good it's boring

Canada's mastered hockey. Congratulations, Canada!

The Canadians picked up where they left off in Sochi. In fact, they're even better.

They won three round-robin games back in 2014, beating Austria, Norway, and Finland (in overtime) by a combined 11-2 margin. They're also 3-0 at the World Cup, having beaten the Czech Republic, the U.S., and Europe 14-3.

Better competition and a better goal differential. And it isn't even bloody close.

One more note: Canada's won 22 straight when some guy named Sidney Crosby's in the lineup.

The North Americans - with the second-best goal differential, what a shame - were so exciting because they were so good. The Canadians are a little boring because they're even better.

3. Make USA Hockey great again!

Twenty years after the United States shocked Canada - and the planet - by winning the World Cup, it fell flatter on its face than it's ever fallen.

It's safe to say John Tortorella's probably done as head coach. General manager Dean Lombardi may have to go, too. Nothing should be off the table, because this was an embarrassing showing by the Americans - winless, with only five goals in three games.

Ryan McDonagh led the way with two goals. Joe Pavelski, T.J. Oshie, and Justin Abdelkader scored the other three. Ironic, since Abdelkader had little business being on the team.

There's an easy lesson to be learned here: Take your best players. Don't overthink it.

And don't fixate on Canada. That's pointless. It'll always take a miracle against the guys in red and white. Focus on getting to the place where you'll need it.

4. No Finnish

What the hell happened to Finland?

Finnish hockey was on the rise in 2004 - at the last World Cup - when Suomi finished second to Canada. Finland followed up with a silver at the 2006 Olympics and bronze-medal finishes at Vancouver and Sochi. A hockey power, no doubt.

Until this past week, when it all fell apart. There's luck involved, for sure, as Finland took 82 shots on goal - a team-high 10 by Patrik Laine - in the tournament and yet scored just one goal. But Finland's best players, well, weren't.

Corsi For% 5v5

For the most part, Finland never had the puck, especially when its best players were on the ice.

While it was a winless, disappointing tournament, Finland's still in a better place than the U.S., but its got stuff to talk about, that's for sure.

5. Goaltending above all

Much like the NHL, where the best players face off, it's the goaltenders who influence the game the most.

The goalies from the four playoff teams were the best in the round robin:

Goalies have this whole goaltending thing figured out. Especially the best ones on earth.

The beauty of a short tournament is that a goaltender can win it. If Matt Murray finishes with better than an .886 save percentage in two starts, it's North America versus Canada in the semifinal Saturday - not Russia.

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The United States bowed meekly out of the World Cup of Hockey on Thursday night, losing its final - and meaningless - game 4-3 to the Czech Republic.

Adding insult to injury were fans in Toronto, who sent the U.S. on its way to chants of "Let's go Kessel!" (You have to listen closely, but those are "Let's go Kessel!" chants, yeah.)

For a guy who wasn't on the team, Phil Kessel got a lot of press during the World Cup. A lot of that was his own doing, but his return to USA Hockey, should it happen, will be a very interesting one.

Related: Kessel's 10 best tweets of all time

In the end, Kessel scored as many goals as 16 U.S. skaters who saw action in Toronto: None.

- With h/t to Puck Daddy

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TORONTO - The NHL has gotten almost everything it hoped for so far at the World Cup of Hockey.

In holding the first World Cup since 2004, the league and players wanted a festival of hockey that showcased the its best players. Two losses and an early exit by the United States isn't what anyone wanted for the sake of interest, but the 23-and-under Team North America put on a show and captured the attention of fans, coaches and players around the tournament.

Team North America and the U.S. are out, with Canada and Russia meeting in one semifinal Saturday night and Sweden and Team Europe in the other Sunday afternoon. The quality of play has already been Olympic-level high and should only get better with at least four and potentially five games left.

''The winners here have been the fans,'' North America coach Todd McLellan said. ''They've watched some really good hockey in September and that doesn't happen very often.''

The NHL was panned initially for the North American and European all-star teams, but the youngsters' speed, skill and scoring won so many people over that merchandise bearing the ''NA'' logo was almost entirely sold out at Air Canada Centre. Europe won people over by winning, beating the U.S. and the Czech Republic to advance.

Two-time Olympic champion Canada has rolled, going 3-0 and outscoring opponents 14-3 along the way, and Sweden has leaned heavily on goaltender Henrik Lundqvist. North America's games against Russia and Sweden were two of the most exciting end-to-end games in recent international history.

Commissioner Gary Bettman is proud of how the NHL and NHLPA ''revived the World Cup in world-class fashion.''

''It's been sensational. It's exactly what we expected,'' Bettman said. ''We wanted this to feel like and be a major event. We predicted that the competition would be better than any international tournament to date, that it would have a big-event feel.''

The World Cup achieved big-event status in Toronto, with a mostly full arena and buzz around the city. The same can't be said on U.S. TV, as ESPN reported that approximately 770,000 people watched Canada beat Team USA on Tuesday night, the most watched game so far.

Executive vice president of programming and scheduling Burke Magnus called the Americans' disappointing showing ''a lost opportunity.''

''That's the beauty of live sports,'' Magnus said by phone Thursday. ''That's what makes sort of the unscripted nature of what we do so much fun. We obviously were counting on them to get out of pool play, but they weren't able to do it. But this is the best players in the world.''

Canada looks like it still has the best collection of players in the world, even without North America's Connor McDavid and Nathan MacKinnon, who orchestrated a magic show on ice. Even the most grizzled old-school fundamental hockey people had to appreciate the way McDavid, MacKinnon, 2016 top pick Auston Matthews and Co. played.

McDavid said North America ''definitely turned heads.'' Canada coach Mike Babcock called it ''a great way to showcase the NHL'' of the future.

''The North American kids have been a home run for the NHL,'' Babcock said. ''This North American team is a pump in the arm for hockey. It's fantastic.''

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After being bounced in the first round of the playoffs last season, the Philadelphia Flyers know there's plenty of room for improvement.

The biggest offseason goal - securing the services of emerging forward Brayden Schenn for the foreseeable future - was achieved, as the 25-year-old restricted free agent signed a four-year, $20.5-million pact in late July.

Still, several questions remain for Philadelphia pertaining to all three facets of the game.

Here are three questions the team faces heading into the new season:

Can they get better at both ends?

The Flyers allowed the eighth-most shots on goal in 2015-16, but their leaky defense was bailed out by a solid goaltending duo that posted the 12th-best goals-against average in the league.

Philadelphia wasn't a strong puck possession team, ranking 16th in the NHL in 5-on-5 Corsi For percentage (50.59), according to Corsica.ca.

They did generate 31 shots on goal per game - good for fifth in the league - but only averaged 2.57 goals, which put them 22nd in the NHL.

The Flyers need to convert more of their offensive opportunities and tighten up on the back end if they hope to make a deeper playoff run.

Can Voracek bounce back?

After putting together his best NHL season two years ago, Jakub Voracek underachieved in 2015-16.

Coming off an 81-point campaign, the winger registered only 11 goals and 55 points. It was his worst season from a points perspective since 2012-13, and his worst goal output since he scored nine goals as a rookie with the Columbus Blue Jackets in 2008-09.

Voracek notched a goal and an assist and while firing 11 shots on net in three games for the Czech Republic at the World Cup of Hockey.

Those are encouraging signs, but the Flyers need him to produce consistently over a 82-game slate if they hope to improve their offense as a whole.

What does the future hold for the goalies?

Both Steve Mason and Michal Neuvirth are scheduled to become unrestricted free agents after this season, and Philadelphia only has about $1 million in cap space at the moment.

Neuvirth outplayed Mason last season, albeit in 22 fewer games.

Mason's cap hit is $4.1 million, and Neuvirth is on the books for $1.625 million.

If Flyers general manager Ron Hextall wants to sign one of them to an extension, he'll likely either need to deal the other netminder or make another move to free up space.

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The World Cup of Hockey's preliminary round is over, and not a second too soon for Team USA.

Czech Republic handed the Americans their third loss of the tournament with a narrow 4-3 victory on Thursday night.

The game was meaningless in the standings, as both teams were eliminated from contention earlier in the week, and with nothing but pride on the line, a sparse Air Canada Centre crowd took in a less than spirited affair.

Zbynek Michalek got things started for Czech Republic, firing a point shot past Ben Bishop, who made his first start of the tournament.

USA quickly answered with a power-play goal from Joe Pavelski late in the first period, and after Milan Michalek and Justin Abdelkader traded goals in the second, Czech Republic found the net twice in 39 seconds to ultimately seal the deal.

Ryan McDonagh scored his second goal of the tournament to make it 4-3 at 2:22 in the third period, but it was as close as the Americans would get, as Czech goaltender Petr Mrazek made 33 saves in the victory.

Thus ends a disastrous, much-publicized failure for the United States, which amassed just five goals through three games.

The Czechs, meanwhile, end their tournament with a record of 1-1-1.

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Canada and Russia will write another chapter in their storied hockey rivalry Saturday, as the Russians earned a spot in the semifinals with a 3-0 win over Finland on Thursday.

The two countries haven't met in a best-on-best tournament since the quarterfinals at the 2010 Vancouver Olympics, a 7-3 win for Canada.

It might not be the North America-Canada matchup so many fans desired, but Russian forward Evgeny Kuznetsov can't hardly wait for puck drop.

"It's a dream game," Kuznetsov told Greg Wyshynski of Yahoo Sports after Thursday's win. "Most guys don't get a chance to play against Canada. The whole world knows that the best players play here. They're always the favorite in every tournament."

The winner of Saturday's contest goes on to play either Team Europe or Sweden in a best-of-three final.

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Some key members of the Boston Bruins have been given the green light.

Defenseman Torey Krug and centerman David Krejci have been cleared to participate in the club's training camp, which opens Friday.

"Both are fully good to go, to be integrated into practice doing drills," general manager Don Sweeney said Thursday.

"We'll call it a modified contact situation that we can control a little bit before they get fully ramped up, and then we'll just monitor their progress and how they're feeling throughout, and game by game as to whether or not they play."

Krug underwent shoulder surgery in April, while Krejci underwent an operation on his left hip.

Both players are on track with their recovery schedules, and are aiming to be in the lineup opening night in Columbus.

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