2013 Canada’s most disappointing world junior team?
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The 1998 team had Lecavalier, Luongo, Alex Tanguay and Eric Brewer. They lost the 7th-place game to Kazakhstan.
The Kazakhs had mismatched skates. They had to borrow extra sticks. They had one water bottle for the entire team. They won 6-3.
The Kazakhs had mismatched skates. They had to borrow extra sticks. They had one water bottle for the entire team. They won 6-3.
novisor
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Since I've been watching (circa 2005), 2013 would rank up there as one of the most disappointing tournaments. After the domination in 2015, the 2016 tournament and loss to the Finns in the quarters - with a team that included Marner, Koenecny, Point, and Barzal, was a big letdown. Also, the 2019 quarter-final loss to the Finns on home ice stung.
JackSlater
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It probably is. Really that's the only year when Canada had no NHL interference when making a team (even the other lockout years had NHL interference) and the only player who would have made the team but missed due to injury was Murray. The team never gelled though, Nugent-Hopkins got hurt, Spott was a fool, and the team deservedly lost in the semi finals. I'm very comfortable with Spott as the worst Canadian WJC coach ever.
ORRFForever
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There's a lot of high quality names you didn't include. In hindsight, it's a shocker.
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ORRFForever
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SpoolCat
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2012 Might be up there they really only had two bad periods (the first two against the Russians) other than that they walked through that tournament fairly easily beat the Americans undramatically and crushed the 4th place team in Finland in the Round robin.
ORRFForever
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Was that the year when Russia jumped out to some crazy lead and we fought our way back only to come up short?
SpoolCat
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Yeah that was it. I remember Duthie saying nothing went right for two periods and then everything went right.
ORRFForever
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Gold Standard
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2013 Team Canada is the most disappointing.
HM to the 1992 Eric Lindros Fussen, Germany tournament.
HM to the 1992 Eric Lindros Fussen, Germany tournament.
JackSlater
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Ah yes, that one is way up there too. A sixth place finish sandwiched between two gold medals on one side and five gold medals on the other side. 18 year old Lindros coming in to lead the team. Yet things were mismanaged, people got sick, and the team stunk. The WJC Hockey Canada book had a decent explanation for part of why that team was so poor.
86Habs
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1992 was an interesting failure because of Lindros (in his 3rd WJHC), Kidd, and a very strong defensive group (Niedermayer, Sydor, Matvichuk, Cullimore, Dykhuis), but in reality the forward group lacked depth and while every Canadian WJHC team includes a bunch of names you'll never hear again (either because they busted or fell into the "19-year old, good CHL player but poor prospect" category), there seemed to be a preponderance of that type of player in 1992. Looking through the roster, there are a lot of players who never made a mark in the sport after Fussen. Also, Kimbi Daniels, who was counted on to produce offensively, was a total wildcard and team chemistry unsurprisingly became an issue with Lindros coming in late. 1992 was a big letdown after winning gold in 1990 and 1991.
I agree. I rank 1998 as the most disappointing. Coming into the tournament, everyone I recall had Canada along with a couple of other nations as a favorite for Gold. If not Gold, they were picked at a minimum to be a medal favorite. The team just never got on track and just quit in the Kazakh game. I rank 2013 the next disappointing. Spott was a terrible coach.
Canada4Gold
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I could have did without thinking of Steve Spott for the rest of my life. Dave Nonis was impressed with him however, hiring him to be the coach of the Marlies and eventually assistant coach of the Leafs. Must have been for his expertise in utilizing Morgan Rielly.
novisor
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Yeah, this team will be tough to beat. They’re basically the reverse of the ‘05 roster.
ORRFForever
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Gold Standard
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ORRFForever
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You'll have to forgive me but I'm not too bright and I still don't understand.
JackSlater
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Feel the excitement as the 1998 hopefuls come together. Legault and Cleary didn't really need to worry about it though. You can also get a sense of how much more uncomfortable the players were on camera at that time.
I didn’t want to admit it, but I didn’t get it either!
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That was a bit rough to watch. So full of promise, and completely unaware of the horrors to come.
The funny thing is that we lost in OT to Russia in the quarters before a couple of embarrassing losses in placement games after the team essentially gave up. In an alternate reality, with maybe a lucky bounce or one more made play in that QF, this team could’ve been a gold medal winner instead of the black sheep of the family. Such is the fine line between winning and losing.
I look at this event as an important lesson about what happens when your team gives up, and thankfully I’ve seen many teams that heeded this warning and were able to regroup a bit better.
Oh and one interesting side note; Nik Antropov had three points in that Khazakstan loss. Canada helped put that guy on the hockey map!
