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WJC: Canada Roster Talk Thred Pt III

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I don't know if there's much that can be said about that last game or even this year's tournament for Canada. The team didn't provide many inspiring moments, but was also a fluke goal away from basically playing in the gold medal game. Too many attempts at a perfect play instead of just shooting from a quality spot and creating some havoc to generate the insurance goal. Too much of the passiveness that has been common these last few years, a trait that kills teams that can't overwhelm with talent, but that's probably here to stay. If Canada won't or can't go back to including physicality as an element of its plan then it at least needs to roll the lines and pressure the opposition as much as possible. This year the loss really can't be blamed on anyone or even a small group. DiPietro was quite good in net. Hunter seems a bit dim but his defensive system was fine and the team was reasonably disciplined at least - he doesn't belong with Spott or Lowry. Sometimes a puck banks in off a players leg and then a stick snaps with a wide open net in front of a player.

At least Canada should look competent on defence next year if Smith and Dobson are back.
 
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Game is fast and skilled now.
Too many big lugs on this roster, especially the D.
It's ok to have a few tho.
 
Some piss poor shot selection by these guys tonight, they'd constantly make one too many moves, or one too many passes.
 
ORRFForever said:
Inept, too. Bad in every way - minus DP.

Couldn't clear the zone.
Couldn't score.
Couldn't pass.
Slow.

We had a 4 on 1 and we didn't hit the net!

I am shocked how far Canada hockey has fallen in the last 10 years.
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I wouldn’t say we’ve fallen in the sense we don’t have the talent we used to.

Our players have become too arrogant and entitled and it shows. No need to play with urgency....we are Canada and therefore we are better. We can make any pass we want in the attacking zone which will result in “sick nips” because we are Canada and that’s what we do. Crash the net? Nah that’s for “talentless” teams.

Those teams from the 90s and mid 00’s weren’t anymore talented (with a few exceptions).....they just played gritty hockey and did whatever it took to score.
 
What did people expect?

This roster from the start was one of the worst of all time. If it wasn't for Dipietro this game would've been over after 2.
 
Don't know where to start with the terrible player selection and coaching. The team had no identity, Hunter wanted this team to be fast and skilled with the puck. They weren't even close to that. All the defencemen struggled overall at every aspect of defending and moving the puck. The forwards weren't close to quick enough, Suzuki, Hayton, Frost, Leason, Lafreniere, are not players that put the pressure on opposing defencemen. Suzuki, Hayton, and Frost are weak and small, they aren't quick or strong enough to make an impact on the forecheck. Leason and Lafreniere are slow, anybody can see them coming from a mile away.

The teams that won gold had a 4th line of Crouse/Gauthier/Ritchie and Comtois/Howden/Batherson/Gadjovich. These guys were puck possession monsters, while our guys were bumped off the puck way too easy. Speed + Skill + Size is the recipe.

Foudy, Dellandrea, Ratcliffe should have been on the team. They can keep possession of the puck and put pressure on. Half of the Canadian forwards couldn't.

Hunter said he took a "puck-moving" defence group, but in reality he took a bunch of one dimensional defencemen. McIsaac doesn't bring much offensively, the rest aside from Mitchell don't bring much defensively. Just terrible selection of players again. Joseph, big, athletic defencemen with good skating. That player would succeed here. Phillips over Beaudin for what? One's a 1st rounder, the other is a 4th rounder. Beaudin has 4x the skill Phillips has.

Anybody else notice how Hunter had 2 LHDs out on the ice at the same time during the tournament? Stick to coaching mediocre junior teams.
 
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Real unfortunate, looked like Canada had a route to the gold medal game once the last minute of play was announced in the 3rd. Some guys picked a tough time to have an off night while some others final found their games.
Poor DiPietro played his absolute ass off and proved the coaches right for sticking with him as the #1 guy.

On to next year I guess
 
4thlineduster said:
I wouldn’t say we’ve fallen in the sense we don’t have the talent we used to.

Our players have become too arrogant and entitled and it shows. No need to play with urgency....we are Canada and therefore we are better. We can make any pass we want in the attacking zone which will result in “sick nips” because we are Canada and that’s what we do. Crash the net? Nah that’s for “talentless” teams.

Those teams from the 90s and mid 00’s weren’t anymore talented (with a few exceptions).....they just played gritty hockey and did whatever it took to score.
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I disagree with some of what you said...

1) Look at our recent Drafts. The last decade hasn't been up to snuff.
2) This team was awful - I can't remember a team this piss poor.

I have said this before and I will say it, again, Canada needs to borrow a page from the U.S.'s playbook and put together a National Team.
 
PWJunior said:
Hunter rode the wrong guys plain and simple. No adjustments.
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Which shouldn't be that surprising, since he pretty much came out and said before the tournament his game plan was to lean on his "19 year old" players heavily.
 
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OGBobbyFarnham said:
Game is fast and skilled now.
Too many big lugs on this roster, especially the D.
It's ok to have a few tho.
Click to expand...

They needed more speed, skill AND more specialists.

It's easy to Monday Morning Quarterback it, but I mentioned in Pt 1 of this thread that I thought this team really needed to take a look at Pachal. It's not a glamorous pick but he skates like the wind, captains and plays big ice time on the best CHL team in the league, and along with Ian Scott was a big reason why the Raiders were so hard to score on. Canada needed someone like him who comes in, adds some toughness but reliability on the backend, but still has what it takes to chip in. They didn't have enough dependability on the backend, there was just so much bad d going on, it was frustrating. DiPietro really saved this team from embarrassment.
 
ORRFForever said:
I disagree with some of what you said...

1) Look at our recent Drafts. The last decade hasn't been up to snuff.
2) This team was awful - I can't remember a team this piss poor.

I have said this before and I will say it, again, Canada needs to borrow a page from the U.S.'s playbook and put together a National Team.
Click to expand...
The draft issue is a bit deceiving. We are falling off because the Americans are really stepping up their hockey.

Their population dictates they will have more elite players and now those elite players are actually playing hockey.

Matthews comes from Arizona. 10-15 years ago that was unheard of to have high end players coming from anywhere south of Illinois.

I do agree with your point that this team was awful though. Just a poorly picked team and it showed
 
I didn't think the D was that bad.

The forwards were slow and tried to be too fancy.

Again, we had a 4 on 1 and didn't hit the net. How the hell does that happen?
 
I hate Tim Hunter.

How the **** do you put Comtois out there for the penalty shot?
 
This team actually had more 1st rounders and top 10 picks than last year. I blame Hunter. The team should've been able to score with the likes of Glass, Suzuki, Frost, Tippett...
 
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