WJC: 2025 Team Canada Roster Talk
- Thread starter LeProspector
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JackSlater
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- Apr 27, 2010
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They just seem random, or lazy in that one unit is their initial first line. The second posted unit makes some sense at least.
I was in the arena for that one. What a time to be alive. I am 2/2 in world junior gold medal games where Canada blows a lead to Russia in the third period.
TSN definitely seems to be overhyping him but there are a number of issues with those units. I could see Nadeau being over-utilized as well, as he plays PROFESSIONAL hockey... as we will be reminded many times. And of course Howe. Who knows though, they may be great. I'm also not sure that Minten deserves to be the namesake for that prestigious title over Joe Hicketts.
That's my one concern about him. This comes back to the Parekh situation in as much as when you REALLY need a powerplay goal, it's best to have an elite PP pointman.
Yakemchuk was carving up NHL guys in preseason plus has NHL caliber point shot. You take him for that reason.
SpoolCat
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- Mar 1, 2016
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There's been a lot of discussion of the grinder role and young players and its interesting to me. Every year around this time I read road to gold by Mark Spector and 30 years of the game at its best edited by Gare Joyce both obviously about the world juniors. Its just insane the emphasis both these books put on playing your role and grinding it out. They almost with glee talk about when stars aren't invited or cut Al MacInnis, Gary Roberts or Patrick Roy are mentioned. In the 1999 chapter they tell us about how the team wasn't the most skilled and then mention they cut 5 first rounders. Then 2 paragraphs later talk about being shut out by Slovakia. Like maybe they would have been able to score with a few of those first rounders. Keep in mind that team didn't even win. There's a quote from Barry Trapp a former Hockey Canada head scout saying he would much rather have a player with high character with less skill vs a highly skilled player with less character.
As for young players its mentioned over and over they don't play as already mentioned Scott Niedermeyer, Joe Thornton, Jason Spezza and Jay Bouwmeester. Meanwhile we have a whole chapter about how great Mike Zigomanis was as 13th forward.
It just goes show that these debates we've been having are old. Hockey Canada does things their way and it appears its very hard for them to change. In some ways we've seen this Nadeau being allowed to play despite missing camp is a big one. Finally making the roster larger is another one. I thought after Bedard and Celebrini we would continue to see young players having more of a chance but maybe or maybe not regarding Schaefer's usage vs McKenna.
Obviously Hockey Canada has won the most gold medals. But I just keep wondering about what Mathieuferkland said about did we win because of Bedard or the grinders? How many tournaments can we ask this about? With all that being said I'm rooting for the boys and hopefully they can pull out the gold.
As for young players its mentioned over and over they don't play as already mentioned Scott Niedermeyer, Joe Thornton, Jason Spezza and Jay Bouwmeester. Meanwhile we have a whole chapter about how great Mike Zigomanis was as 13th forward.
It just goes show that these debates we've been having are old. Hockey Canada does things their way and it appears its very hard for them to change. In some ways we've seen this Nadeau being allowed to play despite missing camp is a big one. Finally making the roster larger is another one. I thought after Bedard and Celebrini we would continue to see young players having more of a chance but maybe or maybe not regarding Schaefer's usage vs McKenna.
Obviously Hockey Canada has won the most gold medals. But I just keep wondering about what Mathieuferkland said about did we win because of Bedard or the grinders? How many tournaments can we ask this about? With all that being said I'm rooting for the boys and hopefully they can pull out the gold.
1Gold Standard
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- Jun 13, 2012
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It's the most wonderful time of the year.... (to make a billion dollars)
Pre-tournament games are starting...so, get comfy, get your snacks and settle in....for our favorite tournament like no other.
Pre-tournament games are starting...so, get comfy, get your snacks and settle in....for our favorite tournament like no other.
Mathieukferland
Registered User
I have a clear memory of all the tournaments 2010 onwards; the teams that have won since, I would put it down to these factors
2015
1. The best top 9 in the tournament that came at teams in waves, complimented nicely by a big 4th line that beat down the Werenskis, the Provorovs, etc.
2. A top 4 defence that is amongst the best Canada has ever had, and could take the puck from back to front and keep chances to the outside. As much as I can remember, the only real way to get to this team was to score off the rush
3. Benoît Groulx took the chains off and trusted his best players to win puck battles; it led to rush opportunities against, but 3 guys hard on the forecheck below the dots is extremely aggressive but Groulx trusted the skill of his players to possess the puck and win stick battles low
2018
1. Truth be told Canada lucked out this year with an easy path to the gold medal game (Switzerland, Czech). This was not a very good team and they got fortunate to avoid any of the big countries until the final
2. Carter Hart played the best I think I’ve seen from a Canadian goaltender in this tournament. Under siege at times against the US and Sweden, his explosiveness and acrobatics really shined through and kept Canada in the gold medal game.
3. For all his failings, it’s clear Dominique Ducharme knows how to get mediocre teams to finals in tournament settings. His team collapsed in the defensive zone and held on against a barrage of shots, yet with Hart in net he probably knew that if they could keep most of the shots to 20 feet out or more, that he wasn’t going to let in any muffins.
2020
1. The brilliance of Lafrenière in the games against the USA and the quarter and semifinal was a big reason why Canada was able to get to the final. Extremely physical for a skilled player, he set the tone with his skill and physical play.
2. Joel Hofer replaced Dawes after the Russia game and played extremely steady. Nothing brilliant, but stopped all the shots he was supposed to after Dawes put Canada into full panic mode after his collapse against the Russians.
3. Cozens and McMichael provided Canada with a secondary scoring matchup nightmare for other countries, as teams game planning around Lafrenière did not really have the personnel further down the lineup to deal with these two.
2022 summer
1. I’ll give Cameron where credit is due, he rode McTavish into the ground in the medal rounds. Had him out in every situation and had him playing every crucial minute. McTavish rewarded his trust with an MVP performance
2. A power play that was unstoppable. Between Johnson, Stankoven, Bédard, Zellweger and McTavish, this group was mercurial. Came up with big goals throughout the tournament.
3. Secondary scoring that came up clutch in the medal round. Stankoven and Johnson upped their play noticeably from thr Switzerland game onwards, their most notable contribution being of course their combination on the golden goal.
2023
1. The best performance of all time by a Canadian at this tournament, Connor Bédard quite literally won the Sweden and Slovakia games by himself and carried Canada on his back to a final. Dennis Williams played him heavy minutes in the last period and overtime against Slovakia and was rewarded
2. After Gaudreau’s disastrous effort in the opener against the Czechs, Milic came in and played extremely well. Standout performance against the US that was crucial to Canada winning that game.
3. A power play that was clicking at an extremely high rate, huge goal in the final.
The point I’m trying to make, apart from maybe 2015, you can’t really make the point "we took 2 lines of matchup players and it was the main factor in us winning". If you lose putting your best players forward like in 2021, fine, that can be accepted. But hopefully going forward more disasters like last year are avoided. There’s a lot of talent this year even with all the snubs, but I hope the put the best players in a position to win the games (IE McKenna) this year instead of relying on inferior players because of "grit"
landy92mack29
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Captain but not on either PP unit atm...also your leading scorer returnee
dino200022
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Seems strange to not have Dickinson on any of the PP units seeing as how he is the top OHL PP dman statistically.
Maybe they are just trying things out, who knows.
Maybe they are just trying things out, who knows.
Stud Muffin
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therealdeal
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- Apr 22, 2005
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True, but one of my biggest peeves about this whole thing is how reactionary this staff is (and always has been) to a couple scrimmages and doesn't focus as much on the body of work that a player has.
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JackSlater
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- Apr 27, 2010
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It's not a bad analysis of those teams. A strong power play is often very important at these events. Good goaltending is too, but how much of that is a consequence of the team in front of the goaltenders playing well? I think that the view of Canada having essentially role players is something from basically the beginning of this tournament, as it comes from the NHL where talent is more scarce and role players are more necessary. Certainly in the 1990s it was claimed that Canada had a "shadow roster" with certain roles like shutdown forward and so on, Draper being the most famous example of that for his work against Bure. In the 2000s we know that Canada focused on having one shutdown pair as well.
It also has to be noted that it is not a crazy idea - sometimes those players play really well and sometimes skill players do nothing in depth roles. But for the most part, picking the best players is the best strategy.
NordiquesForeva
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- May 30, 2022
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Scratching Pinelli makes sense.
Cameron selected 3 RHD and 5 LHD (which is appropriate, I might add...was it Cameron that selected 7 LHD a few years ago?) so it makes sense that one of those LHD is #7D and the other is scratched. I'm a little surprised its Dickinson, but I would expect him to see game action on Saturday evening.
Cameron selected 3 RHD and 5 LHD (which is appropriate, I might add...was it Cameron that selected 7 LHD a few years ago?) so it makes sense that one of those LHD is #7D and the other is scratched. I'm a little surprised its Dickinson, but I would expect him to see game action on Saturday evening.
NordiquesForeva
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- May 30, 2022
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Honestly, if I'm ranking the reasons why Canada doesn't do well in certain tournaments, it goes:
1. Coaching
2. Goaltending
3. Special teams
4. Player selection
Sometimes, like in 2017, we just lose to a better team. No shame in that so long as we're competitive. Anything less than a bronze can be seen as a catastrophic result at this tournament though, imo.
My personal view is selecting a few extra bottom-6 guys instead of a higher-skilled, top prospect doesn't move the needle between winning and losing. Sure, its annoying for us fans. But evidently the coach who made the decision wouldn't have deployed the higher-skilled prospect, so what's the difference?
hockey20000
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- Dec 23, 2018
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dickinson being scratched is stupid if cameron has him on the 3rd pair or scratched in tournament i might legit have to come to ottawa so climb over the boards and slap that moron 
mid game
mid game
landy92mack29
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JackSlater
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Coaching is probably number one, hard to rank other factors. I find that the fans are pretty good predictors of team success, at least when looking at how well a team is coached. In the last 20 years I'd say that people were most furious about coaching in 2013, 2016, 2019, and 2024, and I mean during the tournaments before those teams were eliminated. And even in retrospect those are the teams that were clearly coached the worst in terms of organization, player usage, etc.
I agree that sometimes you just accept the loss. Ducharme was a good WJC coach (regardless of his improper usage of Makar in 2018) and his 2017 team losing the final was rightly seen for what it was, and he was brought back in 2018 when he coached a fairly mediocre entry to the gold medal. I do not think that Tourigny is a very good coach, but he isn't terrible either and people can accept that his 2021 team lost in the gold medal game. That was a team that was very well picked.
The unacceptable situations are those we saw in the teams mentioned above (2013, 2016, 2019, 2024) as well as years where a goaltender costs Canada the tournament like Fleury in 2004 or Visentin, with definite help from Cameron, in the gold medal game in 2011. There are also times where the team just loses, which is inevitable in hockey. It is hard to think of many years where Canada has obvious players left unselected who likely would have changed the outcome of the tournament. Sometimes the team is crippled by the NHL, but that is not an issue every time. Probably the best "easy" fix for Canada at the WJC is being smarter with coach selection - going with proven winners at the junior level, not just whoever signed up to coach at the Hlinka where Canada can usually sleepwalk to a victory.
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TheBeastCoast
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hockey20000
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- Dec 23, 2018
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it they win its gonna be a miracle it almost seems there trying to sabotage the team at this point lol
TheBeastCoast
Registered User
It is still a very talented group with what they have. But they do seem to be trying to do it with a hand tied behind their back for whatever reason.
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