As a Canadian who was rooting for Czechia because this team is just completely unlikable, top to bottom, this is a comment that makes no sense to me.
Who are fans supposed to blame, exactly? lol The refs were bad, but I don't think that's the reason Canada lost. IIHF reffing Is usually bad. Anyone who has ever watched an IIHF event knows this, including every player on the team who grew up watching this tournament. They should know better, especially since they had already been burned several times earlier in the tournament with undisciplined, bone headed plays.
Which leads me to my next point - the players. Not only were they incredibly stupid and bone headed in the discipline department, they were completely inept in terms of actually playing up to their skill level. Yes, Canada didn't field their best roster and Hockey Canada's poor decisions usually have detrimental consequences on the outcome for the team, but even with a poor roster, Canada should not be losing to Latvia, under any circumstance. They scored two more goals than Kazakhstan in the round robin. Do you really think that Kazakhstan has caught up to Canada in terms of developing forwards in ice hockey?
Lastly, the coaching. It was atrocious. Dave Cameron is one of the worst coaches in junior hockey and the reasons why were on full display throughout the tournament. Very stubborn and slow to make changes. The PP was atrociously bad from day one (even during the pre-tournament) and it took him halfway through the round robin to make any sort of personal change. Yes, that's only two games where the results count, but this is a 7 game tournament, not an 82 game NHL season. You have to make changes quickly if the results aren't there. His deployment of players, like playing Bonk on as a PPQB, which isn't a role he does for his regular junior team, is completely baffling. Not giving McKenna enough ice time, even though was one of the few forwards generating any sort of offensive output when he was on the ice. His complete lack of emotion behind the bench. His refusal to bench players who refused to stop taking dumb penalties. I could go on and on, but you get the point. Cameron sucks.
So yes, the refs were bad, the players performed poorly and the coaching was atrocious. Combine the three and this is the result you get. It's absolutely true that other countries are catching up. No sane person would ever deny this. And that's a good thing. Makes the tournament more intense and interesting. But to pretend like this team and result is indicative of where Canada stands currently in terms of player development as a nation is laughable.
