WC: Team Canada Roster Thread 2021

[JackSlater]

I'm curious about Power's performance though looking at that result I wouldn't expect that many players looked good. He did well against Latvia when he got minutes later on in the game.

 

[Jumptheshark]

The Airlift off European players has started--lets see if any Canadian players jump on the plane now

 

[Gold Standard]

The Airlift off European players has started--lets see if any Canadian players jump on the plane now

No, there are no A list Canadian players being airlifted in for 3 or 4 games for this tournament. It's just not that important.

No, there are no B list Canadian players being airlifted in for 3 or 4 games for this tournament. It's just not that important.

No, there are no C list Canadian players being airlifted in for 3 or 4 games for this tournament. It's just not that important.

I could go on but you get the point.

I made a comment a week before the tournament began. Hockey Canada has 3 extra bodies already named to the roster over what is required for a 20 game day roster, there will be no late additions. They'll play the 7 games. hope that it's good enough to play an 8th (a quarter-final) if not, then no big deal.

 

[Sens72]

Worst roster ever + terrible game plan = disaster. To even make the knockout stage at this point we would have to sweep Italy, Norway and Kazakhstan and probably take points from Finland. I’m not even sure they will beat Kazakhstan.

 

[jonas2244]

Worse roster ever + terrible game plan = disaster. To even make the knockout stage at this point we would have to sweep Italy, Norway and Kazakhstan and probably take points from Finland. I’m not even sure they will beat Kazakhstan.

Normally you need 12 points to proceed to Knockout-stage. So yeah, 4 wins after regulation are needed. It's doable, no question.

 

[Namejs]

Worse roster ever + terrible game plan = disaster. To even make the knockout stage at this point we would have to sweep Italy, Norway and Kazakhstan and probably take points from Finland. I’m not even sure they will beat Kazakhstan.

You need to win all of the remaining games with at least 11 points total, 12 preferred

 

[Johnny Tomala]

Luongo should be ashamed of himself. Really he couldn't make a better roster? He should told Doughty and other players on the bubble of Olympic team that playing this tournament will help them in regards of making Olympic team.

 

[ItWasJustified]

Is Gerard Gallant coaching his way out of a new NHL job?

 

[Johnny Tomala]

The worst ever finish by Canada at IIHF WC is 8th place. They might not make quarter-finals this time.

 

[garbageteam]

You need to win all of the remaining games with at least 11 points total, 12 preferred

Honestly I'm surprised people haven't written this team off QFs entirely already. I guess it's the typical belief that Canada always manages to gel and makes a tournament interesting even if their roster is trash. I don't see QFs unless they win out, and in regulation. Maybe an OTW against Finland would sneak them in, at best. But the USA, Finland and Latvia don't have walkovers either given the random results so far, so I guess tournament is still salvageable. Bizarre that Germany of all teams is now the team to beat in this group.

No, there are no A list Canadian players being airlifted in for 3 or 4 games for this tournament. It's just not that important.

No, there are no B list Canadian players being airlifted in for 3 or 4 games for this tournament. It's just not that important.

No, there are no C list Canadian players being airlifted in for 3 or 4 games for this tournament. It's just not that important.

I could go on but you get the point.

I made a comment a week before the tournament began. Hockey Canada has 3 extra bodies already named to the roster over what is required for a 20 game day roster, there will be no late additions. They'll play the 7 games. hope that it's good enough to play an 8th (a quarter-final) if not, then no big deal.

Not disagreeing due to COVID nature of the year, but even a D-list forward and defenseman is definitely an upgrade over their 12th or 6th dman on this roster. Hell they'd probably pick up an extra point if they had a better goaltender.

 

[therealdeal]

Oooooofff, tough year out there boys!

 

[JackSlater]

Is Gerard Gallant coaching his way out of a new NHL job?

I thought that Gallant would be a good fit for a team like this but even with such limited preparation time it doesn't seem that he's done much. To be fair to him and everyone else it is the worst roster Canada has sent in over 50 years. They'll still probably (maybe) pick up a couple of wins and what I saw today was better than what they showed against Latvia but sometimes a team just isn't good. Hockey Canada should try to use this as a learning experience and move on once this thing wraps up.

 

[ottawarenegader613]

Luongo should be ashamed of himself. Really he couldn't make a better roster? He should told Doughty and other players on the bubble of Olympic team that playing this tournament will help them in regards of making Olympic team.

Luongo seems to be borrowing the page out of the playbook from his disastrous 1998 World Junior Hockey Championship experience where Canada finished a disappointing 8th place, two places away from relegation.

 

[DavidLamb]

When I said "Canada is always weaker on Euro sized rink". Ok it's an exaggeration, because exceptions have happened. What I meant by the reference "Canada" there was Canada's team in a tournament vs the expectations of the roster. If there is a superior Canadian roster and they under perform, then I would think in my mind "Canada plays weaker".

I think that Canada can play weaker on Euro rink and overpower through with the superior players, despite of that disadvantage of not being used to Euro rink. I don't understand why you take that offensively. Most of the time it's not natural for Euro players who have played their childhood in Europe to get accustomed to NA rink and it's same vice versa. That's not a jab to Canadian players. It takes time to get used to, which Canada usually doesn't have as they don't play as many warm up games for Worlds as the top European countries have. Usually Canada improves the longer the tournament goes though, but sometimes it's too late when the improvement of the game would've happened and they are already out of the tournament at that point.

In the recent 3 golds that Canada won. If I can recall that includes that one time when Crosby was there. Maybe MacKinnon as well. That was good playing on Euro rink. Nobody had a chance against that and it was scary. That was an exception, but the roster was insanely good, so I can't say it's purely Canada being good on Euro rink in that tournament either, but it was good play on Euro rink nonetheless. Also the one where Canada beat Finland in the final 1-0 with McDavid's goal was good play on Euro rink. Rather solid tournament overall by Canada. So if these two tournaments, other with Crosby, other with McDavid were played on NA rink instead, those would've been even more clear wins for Canada.

My apology to some European hockey fans, please continue to leave comments. Don't be mad at some overly hard-core Canadian hockey fans.
It is completely true that Sweden, Finland or Russian can win on the big ice with just 1-5 NHL players and mostly European professional players.

whereas Canada can bring a team comprised mostly NHL 4 or 3rd liners, Canada will surely not be able to win the WC on the big ice or have very small chance of winning the tournament unless Team Canada is stacked with NHL star players or 2nd and 3rd liners.

What do you think we should do? Please provide constructive and detailed comments. I understand many Canadian NHL 3rd and 4th do not skate and move the puck as well as European pro players. Canadian NHL 3-4 liners tend to play a much more simple and direct game designed for smaller NHL ice. For this year tournament, we brought over, perhaps, too many of these players. I will not name them as this will make things more frustrating. These players want to play at this tournament just in case in the next few years they are not playing the NHL and AHL. They would have some experience on the big ice. This is a good resume for the European leagues, just in case they want to play in the KHL, SWL, etc . Please leave some comment on what Hockey Canada should do!!

 

[PanniniClaus]

I've watched all 3 games and this is what i see..

1. Struggle with the basics...is the puck moving quickly and on the tape? First two games not at all. 3rd was better.
2. Goaltending was not good enough in the first 2 games
3. Team was built around youth and speed.. because we can't do what is required in bullet 1, we aren't taking advantage of transition opportunities , when we do get in the zone you see that we aren't doing the things that most NHL teams do now. recover the puck and cycle or find the safe zones by ringing the puck back to the d and get to the net.
4. Powerplay is running a ten year old breakout and because of bullet 1 its s struggle to gain entry.
5. Two empty 5 on 3 's for 2 minutes show where the confidence is.

I support anyone that answers the bell for Canada and it's not too late to rip off 4 straight and make the QF. Need to win 1 game and go from there.

 

[ViD]

Luongo should be ashamed of himself. Really he couldn't make a better roster? He should told Doughty and other players on the bubble of Olympic team that playing this tournament will help them in regards of making Olympic team.

In all fairness though, all big nations have very questionable lineups

 

[Mestaruus]

My apology to some European hockey fans, please continue to leave comments. Don't be mad at some overly hard-core Canadian hockey fans.
It is completely true that Sweden, Finland or Russian can win on the big ice with just 1-5 NHL players and mostly European professional players.

whereas Canada can bring a team comprised mostly NHL 4 or 3rd liners, Canada will surely not be able to win the WC on the big ice or have very small chance of winning the tournament unless Team Canada is stacked with NHL star players or 2nd and 3rd liners.

What do you think we should do? Please provide constructive and detailed comments. I understand many Canadian NHL 3rd and 4th do not skate and move the puck as well as European pro players. Canadian NHL 3-4 liners tend to play a much more simple and direct game designed for smaller NHL ice. For this year tournament, we brought over, perhaps, too many of these players. I will not name them as this will make things more frustrating. These players want to play at this tournament just in case in the next few years they are not playing the NHL and AHL. They would have some experience on the big ice. This is a good resume for the European leagues, just in case they want to play in the KHL, SWL, etc . Please leave some comment on what Hockey Canada should do!!

This covid season is a weird one and surely gave team Canada more invitation declines as the players don't enjoy bubble conditions. Same thing with most other nations with NHL players.

In the past Canada with stronger rosters didn't need that good preparation, as in playing as many warm up games as the Euro top nations did. Canada would treat the first WHC group stage games as their warm up games. It brought good enough results for Canada quite often, but this time the roster doesn't seem to be strong enough for this strategy.

Finland before this tournament pretty much always had camps that could last 6-8 weeks even. They would fine tune the team and drop out players that didn't seem fresh and replace them with NHL players or players from other leagues' playoffs. That's always been a disadvantage for Canada that they don't do that. At the same time it's not as easy for North-American teams to do, because of logistic problems for example. Canada should perhaps have like 3x practice games against USA on North-American soil before coming to Europe and eliminating some players from the roster after seeing their current form in those games. That however wouldn't prepare Canada or USA for Euro ice/big ice though, unless they would actually play in big rink in North-America. I'm not sure if Canadian leadership would ever take this tournament seriously enough to do these things. Canada's and USA's preparation has been similar and look at USA. Last time they won WHC gold was in 1960. Sure there was an era when pros weren't even sent to the tournament but that's another story. You probably get my point though. USA has been sending good rosters for a long time to this tournament, but they suffer from same things as I pointed out are Canada's problems.

I also would like to see Canada being the host nation of WHC more often, but I guess that IIHF prefers Europe as a location due to sponsors' wish. At the same time I want to see crowd in the stands, so I'm not sure USA is as ideal host nation as Canada is.

 

[Rob]

The worst ever finish by Canada at IIHF WC is 8th place. They might not make quarter-finals this time.

Safe to say this will probably be the worst Canadian team in the tournament's history. Feel bad for the players. It has to be embarrassing.

 

[BullLund]

Didn't think it was possible for Canada to come up with such an awful roster. You could call it a Z-team.

I think there are Canadians playing beer league hockey who would be better than this. They should call the Zamboni driver who beat the Leafs and ask him if he's available.

 

[Peiskos]

Luongo has quite possibly put together the worst Canadian men's national team ever. I understand its a pandemic but for this roster to have been the best we could ice this year is horrendous. Spengler Cup Team Canada rosters are better than this.

 

[HabsCowboysOwn]

This has to be the worst team we’ve ever sent to that tournament by a mile right? That depth chart is puke-worthy.

 

[Gold Standard]

Despite being the worst team Canada has sent in...well, quite a long time, I can't remember when...there's nothing wrong with the team/players selected that 2 weeks of prep/practice time couldn't fix. The team is just poorly prepared and generally not all that motivated...it skews a little too young and inexperienced for a WHC, but generally there's nothing worse than an unmotivated hockey player. The plan was always play the 7 and hope for the best.

So, set your sights on next year's roster...but don't expect much there either...remember it's an Olympic year.

 

[LKI]

Unofficial info (I think): Andrew Mangiapane has joined team Canada. Should be at least 1 more player already in Riga.

 

[A Bundy]

Maybe Canada would be better off by adding some more of the KHL / European based players to the initial roster, rather than these bottom half / borderline NHLers - and then spice it up with whatever top-end players who becomes available from the play-offs as usual? Just a though.

 

[Gold Standard]

Maybe Canada would be better off by adding some more of the KHL / European based players to the initial roster, rather than these bottom half / borderline NHLers - and then spice it up with whatever top-end players who becomes available from the play-offs as usual? Just a though.

Shoulda coulda, woulda...too late this year to add anything that could right the listing ship.

And I certainly don't think Hockey Canada should adopt a Spengler Cup type team to the WHC annually. I like the way Hockey Canada handles the WHC for the most part. This year was always going to to a tough year.