Really don't think anyone should be saying the roster wasn't good enough, cause on paper it absolutely was (although goal tending probably is a legitimate weak spot for Canada).
The problems lie in a few major issues, first of which is that other teams have caught up to Canada's development process. This was unavoidable, as many of the top team's players go through the same development leagues (or similar skilled leagues). Saying that Canada is doing something wrong because we don't win a single game elimination style tournament every year is crazy.
Second, the undisciplined play. Lets be real here, how this team didn't adjust to the officiating by the quarter finals is beyond me, and probably cost them a chance at winning, which leads me to my last point...
The coaching. I know people are going to state that these players are potential future elite athletes, and should get the job done no matter what, but lets get real, that's not realistic. Players need to be held accountable for their actions, as well as put in a place to succeed. Virtanen being able to run undisciplined and ineffective all over the ice (on the top line no less) for a majority of the tournament is one example of just plain poor decision making from player to coaching staff. The lines were all over the place, and there was no legitimate answer from the coaching staff to real-time game events.
The skill was there guys, this is a small sample tournament, and when you make mistakes as glaring as Canada did and fail to adjust to them all of the skill in the world is not going to put you on the right side of such high variance. You can't take 18 penalty minutes in a junior game and then say that there wasn't enough skill on the roster. It's things like Virtanen's constant dump penalties, or Marner's retaliation penalty that end up costing you games.
The problems lie in a few major issues, first of which is that other teams have caught up to Canada's development process. This was unavoidable, as many of the top team's players go through the same development leagues (or similar skilled leagues). Saying that Canada is doing something wrong because we don't win a single game elimination style tournament every year is crazy.
Second, the undisciplined play. Lets be real here, how this team didn't adjust to the officiating by the quarter finals is beyond me, and probably cost them a chance at winning, which leads me to my last point...
The coaching. I know people are going to state that these players are potential future elite athletes, and should get the job done no matter what, but lets get real, that's not realistic. Players need to be held accountable for their actions, as well as put in a place to succeed. Virtanen being able to run undisciplined and ineffective all over the ice (on the top line no less) for a majority of the tournament is one example of just plain poor decision making from player to coaching staff. The lines were all over the place, and there was no legitimate answer from the coaching staff to real-time game events.
The skill was there guys, this is a small sample tournament, and when you make mistakes as glaring as Canada did and fail to adjust to them all of the skill in the world is not going to put you on the right side of such high variance. You can't take 18 penalty minutes in a junior game and then say that there wasn't enough skill on the roster. It's things like Virtanen's constant dump penalties, or Marner's retaliation penalty that end up costing you games.
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