Is this the greatest Canada team ever?

[LeafChief]

As many have mentioned, I think the 05 team had tougher competition.

 

[Auston Marlander]

We'll know in 15 years, but they are pretty damn close as far as the tourement goes. They could surpass 2005 career wise, but that's a huge task ahead of them.

 

[Channelcat]

This could be the best. There are about a dozen potential superstars on this team. We won't know for 10 years.

 

[Gold Standard]

I am looking forward to watching a lot of these players progress over the next 3-4 seasons, but am especially looking forward to Dach, Lafreniere, Cozens, Byram, Drysdale moving on up the Hockey Canada depth chart and playing a senior men's tournament sooner than later.

 

[Northern Avs Fan]

I kinda doubt they can go an entire tournament without giving up a 5v5 goal, but if they pull that off, that’s an exceptionally impressive feat. None of it will matter though if they don’t win the final game.

Either way the 2005 team was like the Harlem Globetrotters of World Junior teams.

 

[ijuka]

Maybe. Due to covid, some players are playing who normally might be playing with their NHL teams and Canada benefits from that quite a bit.

 

[The Podium]

The 0 ES goals against stat is absolutely insane. But the competition this year is pretty weak overall.

This is the weakest group of WJC teams that I can remember.

 

[The Podium]

Maybe. Due to covid, some players are playing who normally might be playing with their NHL teams and Canada benefits from that quite a bit.

Well, if that is true it would be the same for Canada as well.

How many players were held back by their respective NHL teams? Nick Robertson is the only COVID related one I can think of.

 

[Scandale du Jour]

Way too early to discuss that.

Win against the USA and then, MAYBE we'll talk.

Then again, 2005 is pretty much untouchable.

That 2005 team ended up having Crosby, Bergeron, Weber, Carter, Getzlaf and Richards on the 2010 Olympic team.

 

[86Habs]

Way too early to discuss that.

Win against the USA and then, MAYBE we'll talk.

Then again, 2005 is pretty much untouchable.

That 2005 team ended up having Crosby, Bergeron, Weber, Carter, Getzlaf and Richards on the 2010 Olympic team.

2010:
+ Perry, Seabrook
- Carter

2014:
+ Perry
- Richards

 

[snowkiddin]

Not if they don't win gold

 

[RobBrown4PM]

The competition this has been abysmal. So many teams and nations (Some a lot worse than others) have been impacted by COVID. I think this year is a massive outlier, and this team while great, should not be talked up as the GOAT due to the state of so many other teams.

 

[Asinine]

To me it feels more like the competition is weaker this year than it is Canada being "the best team ever".

 

[King'sPawn]

With all due respect, I really think this year is so screwy with COVID for a variety of reasons, we can't draw any comparable conclusions to any other team, past, present, or future.

 

[VVP]

Typical overreaction of a poorly educated hockey fan. Yes, very good team Canada and no, it is not the best ever and individually it is much worse than 2005.

 

[Zybalto]

In the end, we wont know how good this team really was for a few years and they still have to beat the US.

 

[86Habs]

Also a shoutout to the 1995 team, which was generally viewed as our best junior team ever until 2005. This was during the lockout, so several guys who would have been in the NHL were available for this tournament - most notably Daigle, Allison, and McCabe. In hindsight this team lacks the star quality of the 2005, but at the time they were rightfully seen as a juggernaut with a good mix of high-end draft picks (Daigle, Jovanovski, Redden, O'Neill, Smyth), top prospects at the time (Storr, Baumgartner, Allison, McCabe, Friesen, Harvey) and good ol' fashioned Canadian grit and experience that you typically saw in the bottom of the lineup with Canadian teams of that era. The level of competition was similar to other tournaments of the mid to late 1990s. The line of Allison/Murray/Daze absolutely wrecked their opponents (this was probably our best line ever until Bergeron/Crosby/Perry ten years later) and McCabe was dominant on the PP. Obviously many of these prospects didn't turn out as expected for a variety of reasons, but for the time period this was a really, really good team.

 

[novisor]

Part of the legacy of the 2005 team is the NHL and Olympic careers so many players on that team went on to have.

So despite the 2020 advantage in goal-differential, I think the names on the 2005 team will influence perception.

That being said, I think the quality of opponents the 2005 team faced was higher than the 2020 team.

Canada wrecked a Russian team in the 2005 Finals that had Ovechkin and Malkin on it. Not to mention players like Radulov and Emelin too.

I think some of Canada's other opponents in 2005 (Czech Republic and Slovakia) were also much stronger hockey nations 15 years ago than they are today, and provided a much more difficult test in 2005.

This is 100% correct. Part of our admiration of 2005 team comes from the vast number of players who had tremendous success in pro hockey. Crosby, Bergeron, Carter, Richards, Phaneuf, Seabrook, etc. all went on to have at minimum above-average careers. What happens with this team remains to be seen, however pretty sure guys like Byram, Drysdale, Cozens are going to be stars in the NHL but I don't know if there is enough of them to match the 2005 level of post-tournament success.

Also competition is a HUGE factor. Not only did the 05' team dust a stacked Russian squad (Podkolzin is no Malkin or Ovechkin), but countries have lost some serious talent due to over-bearing Covid rules including Canada's first opponent Germany, who they ran the score up on (Reichel, Seider sat out, role players quarantining for the start of the tournament, etc.). As you also mentioned, countries like the Czechs and Slovaks are not where they were in 2005 (this is evidence by the fact that 2005 was also the last tournament that the Czech's medaled) and between the two they have one since - a bronze for Slovakia in 2015.

 

[63 others]

Typical overreaction of a poorly educated hockey fan. Yes, very good team Canada and no, it is not the best ever and individually it is much worse than 2005.

Mmh im not sure about that, lets see in 15 years. There may be no crosby on the team, but i see more star players than 2005 when all is said and done

 

[novisor]

Honestly, it's pretty unfortunate that this group hasn't been tested at all. Would've been nice to see at least one great round robin game (the divisions were awful this year), or at the very least see Russia show up yesterday. Even as a Canadian I'm glad that the gold medal game should be a nailbiter - would've been kind of shitty having to beat up on a weak Finland team again

Agreed. The standings from last year did not help the division this year, as well as covid having a greater impact on those weaker teams which led to blowouts. This tournament has not had the excitment others have had (minus Cze vs Rus and Fin vs Swe). Though the most important games are still to be played so that could change our perspective. If (big if) Canada and Russia both win today, the group should be fairly balanced for next year.

 

[TimeZone]

This is the kind of thread that could look very silly later tonight,

Let's see how they handle the US

 

[McDrai]

Ask me after the game tonight

 

[ScaredStreit]

They need to win first before they're in the conversation.

 

[CantHaveTkachev]

no
the other countries have weak rosters IMO

 

[Finster8]

They need to win first before they're in the conversation.

Even with the win I still think it's hard to beat the 05 Team. Having all forwards being 1st rd picks on this years team will never be duplicated.