Whatever the reasons are, wherever the blame is, at the end, as a result, this is extremely disappointing for me, and for canadian hockey.
As many pointed out, the loss is good for the future. Can't really tell where the mistake was, but even I don't find Lowry's choaching exactly great. I think he did some good things though. I mean, you have to give him some credit, I think the first period was very good and very well coached and players seemed very responsbile, and the team played a very, very good overall game. You have to give him the credit for that I think.
Unortunately, it didn't last, and as the game continued, everything was just getting worse and worse, with less and less of the performance we saw in the first twenty minutes. This team was definitely good enough to win the gold. I think they even played that way in some parts of the games against the US, Sweden, or Finland.
I think Hockey Canada should look into this and try to understand what was wrong and why, which, at the end, should only make us stronger in the future.
As for the coach, you can make all the decisions you want, as long as you have results, which was not the case this year. I think we should also try to bring the last golden coach if he's available. As long as I don't want to disrespect Lowry, I find it hard to believe that he is the best coach in three major junior hockey leagues in Canada.
I think that in terms of effort, the team played a solid game and can't blame anyone for not giving their best, definitely not.
One obvious thing comes to mind that should have been done imo, and that is, when Finland tied it 3-3 and then a few moments later they scored again and made it 4-3, Lowry should have pulled Blackwood. Another opportunity to do that was when Finland scored 5-4. I don't understand why this wasn't done.
I feel bad for the players, they really played at least 30-40 minutes of an excellent hockey game imo, but unfortunately, the rest was what cost this team this QF game, the first QF loss since 1998? I think everyone will agree that some things need to be changed. I am always positive and optimistic, and I believe that this team had it all to win this tournament at least, if not to dominate. But some things got in the way of making that possible, which should lead HC to understanding of what was wrong and how to change it. I don't think there's a problem with some hockey development. The team is clearly strong enough to be a world champion, let alone to beat Finland, who I don't consider to be among TOP3 teams in this tournament paper-wise. (Canada, US, Sweden imo). No. The talent was there, the skills, the effort and also more effective physicality than, I think many, expected.
Again, I feel bad for the players. It's not easy in Canada with the pressure to win gold, and you lose the QF game instead. It has to be hard now. Especially for a player like Virtanen, who tried, but didn't probably match his own expectations. I hope that it will only help to our players in their future careers, and also in our future in, not only, junior hockey.
I was impressed by Strome, Marner and Barzal, and I think they will all be NHL super-stars. I will probably never get it how Barzal was drafted so low.
As for the next year, I'm expecting definitely a very strong roster with Barzal, Gauthier, and Marne, and that could be a huge boost. I was impressed by Gauthier as he looks to me like an absolute copy of Ryan Getzlaf.
