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WJC: Whats wrong with Canada?

Heldig said:
Curious - do you have a roster you would put together if you were naming the team?
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I would have included Sennecke, Misa, Cristall, Hage, Greentree, and Wood up front. The first three for sure.

Yakemchuk and Parekh should have been there on the backend.

They left off too much skill for the fear of possible defensive issues. If they had taken at least 5-6 of these guys, they would have done better because they're simply superior players. Having too much of the same in Pinelli, Cataford, Howe, and Gauthier never gave them a chance to have that "wave after wave" type offense Canada is known for.
 
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When Canada won gold 2 years ago I checked out the team.

The two goalies were Thomas Milic, who was only drafted in his draft +1.

The other goalie was Ben Gaudreau.

Gaudreau is in the ECHL.

Milic played in the ECHL, but he's in the AHL now struggling there and probably should be sent back to the ECHL

Canada's lack of developing goalies is really hurting them.
 
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Team Canada tried to emulate their 2006 Olympic team selections, like taking their versions of Rob Zamuner.
 
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Nogatco Rd said:
lol “and then the Finnish referee decided to call a penalty” you can’t make this stuff up
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They can't criticize Hockey Canada. They would probably be fired. TSN bosses should be reaming out HC managment and pay less to broadcast it.

Gaylord Q Tinkledink said:
When Canada won gold 2 years ago I checked out the team.

The two goalies were Thomas Milic, who was only drafted in his draft +1.

The other goalie was Ben Gaudreau.

Gaudreau is in the ECHL.

Milic played in the ECHL, but he's in the AHL now struggling there and probably should be sent back to the ECHL

Canada's lack of developing goalies is really hurting them.
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Not at this WJC. there was nothing wrong with the goaltenders.
 
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The players play the game so they should get the majority of the blame, but when you leave the best PPQB in the CHL at home and don't even invite him (Parekh) and you play Bonk as the #1PPQB when he doesn't even QB his own PP on his own team it screams complete and utter incompetence, massive ego and straight up stupidity.

When they don't even invite guys to camp like Misa, Cristall, Hage, etc. and have Easton Cowan as your star player up front, that's not on the players, again that is on the stupidity of Team Canada's management. If Misa, et al. look like shit in camp that's one thing, but to not even invite them screams politics, ego, incompetence and again sheer stupidity.

It's not going to get better, the dipshit who put this team together was the CHL exec of the year, so I doubt he's going anywhere because Team Canada is just a group of old men who think they know better, but don't.
 
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Boss Man Hughes said:
They can't criticize Hockey Canada. They would probably be fired. TSN bosses should be reaming out HC managment and pay less to broadcast it.


Not at this WJC. there was nothing wrong with the goaltenders.
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Yeah, George wasn't bad. He was alright.

The goaltenders sucking is part of why Canada is declining.

That and it costs a full-time just to out your kid on AAA hockey.
 
Balthazar said:
The funniest thing is Makar finished 3rd in scoring on that team despite being their 7th/6th dman with almost no ice time. He wasn't just their best dman, he was their best player and it wasn't close.
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Same story that year - all fans screaming to play this guy and they still refuse.

It’s like hockey Canada acts like the NCAA is some B division in a far away foreign country
 
vocks10 said:
Reading through the replies it seems there are bits and pieces of every reply that identifies underlying issues, all of which are right to various degrees.

Canada could have had a stronger roster, some omissions were questionable at best. But ultimately there is still plenty enough skill on the players who participated they could have had success. I haven't dissected the rosters but I imagine if you looked at average draft position or something along those lines Canada is top 3, if not higher? The skill was still there, so blaming it completely on roster/omissions is disrespectful to the other participants. It's not the 1990s or 80s or whenever, for the most part anyone can beat anyone nowadays. While it might be an upset for a Latvia (for example) to beat Canada, it shouldn't be the jaw dropper that it used to be. These things happen, especially in one game elimination events. As Canadians we can't say "if Canada entered a B team it would still be a threat to medal" in one hand then also whine about not winning because the team we did enter wasn't good enough on the other.

Which then leads to coaching decisions. It's definitely curious about the practices, or the lines, etc. In sports we are quick to throw people under the bus, especially coaches being the easy scapegoats they are. I imagine most were happy with the job Cameron did in 2022? It's not like he forgot how to coach hockey.

Lastly, the players themselves underperformed. Going back to my earlier point, there was enough skill on the team to win, but they didn't play up to expectations. They're kids, that happens and hopefully they learn from it and become better. Ultimately the fans who are up in arms and calling for everyone's head will get back into the daily grind within a week and not give a crap over what happened in the 2025 WJC...
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Latvia still basically loses every game. Yea it’s still a jaw dropper beating a team of first round picks
 
Agree with a lot that has already been said, but I just don't understand the lack of practices. Like these aren't minor hockey scrubs, they can handle skating once a day
 
Probably nothing, but my one question is this: How much better are their players that get picked 25-55 and end up being the Nadeau, Howe, Cataford, Pinelli or take your pick of some crappy 19 year old from Canada's team this year that didn't do their job well, than those players on the other nations? You have players on some of these other teams that aren't even getting drafted or are re-draft guys or late round picks, and they seem to not perform so much worse than the Canadian players that would virtually all have some of the highest pedigree if they played for these other nations.

It makes you question if some of these Canadian players are overrated for their draft pedigree. Are they getting overdrafted? Maybe not. I don't see a widespread reason to believe so. If anything, some of these other countries might see their players a little under-drafted (Czechia, Finland, Slovakia, Switzerland, etc, even to a lesser extent USA, Sweden, and Russia). And I guess a byproduct of that may make the Canadians slightly over-drafted when you factor in a correction for those other nations, but I think there might be something to that NHL teams are a little too insular and there might see some benefit from recognizing the game is going more global and some of these nations that can't compete with Canada for draft picks really aren't as much worse as the NHL draft indicates and maybe the correction needed is with NHL teams when they make their draft selections.
 
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Outdated approach. While I understand why they went with the blue-collar approach, they overdid it. You still need a PPQB and you still need guys to create.

Canada also suffers from lack of chemistry that other countries don’t. These other kids have all played together growing up. Canada has too many good players for that to be a reality. And the CHL is an offensive league with little structure.

And the Canadian players face more pressure than any other team, by far.
 
Criminal Negligence how bad the coaching was

"We get our media schedules and I see canada's practice schedule..........and cancelled, cancelled, cancelled, cancelled, 4 days in a row"
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"They weren't playing in Japan for crying out loud, they play 24 minutes a night on their primary teams and they didnt travel, and we are talking about maintenance, and staying fresh, THEY'RE 19 YEARS OLD"
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"What do you think a 19 year old is doing with that much time off.......... social media and video games"

Mike Johnson (TSN Hockey analyst and commentator for the WJC)
 
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Moose Head said:
The deepest issue at the Canadian junior level is the goalie development pipeline, and ironically, that wasn’t the issue at this tournament.
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I'd argue they lost the goaltending battle in all three losses, and probably had like the fourth best goaltender in the tournament overall (could say fifth if you want to count the USA backup).

So no, it probably wasn't the biggest problem, but I wouldn't say goaltending was a distinct strength either just because George put up a decent SV%.

And it seems like scoring is down across the board at the tournament this year.
 
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JackSlater said:
That cracked me up, credit to Mark Masters.
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This is funny as Dave Cameron said he has no regrets about any of the decisions:

1. There was nothing wrong with the virus that he instilled on the team, 6 roles players, and they could not score. Slower players cannot create offense. This puts stress on the 2 top lines, hence everyone is pressured to play overly aggressive, causing more penalties.

2. Taking so long to realize there was something wrong with the PP.

3. His role players did not do good jobs on PK, so why picking so many role players. He must thought that his role players were equally as offensive as others who were left off like Crystall and Sennecke.

4. Lack of line chemistry.

5. It is amazing that they do not even practice when there were so many things that were wrong with the team and the way that they played.

6. Peter Anholt refused to acknowledge that there was need to practice. Team USA did practise for short period as there were scientific evidence that they may help players.

7. Dave Cameron and Peter Annholt are too old for this job. Get better and more intelligent people for coaches and GM.



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Nogatco Rd said:
What’s the deal with that? Punishing players who “defect” and play in the states?
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When has this 100% happened? People said that was why Savoie didn’t make the team at 18 but he sucked at WJC at 19 so maybe there’s other reasons he didn’t make it at 18

Eternal Leaf said:
I would have included Sennecke, Misa, Cristall, Hage, Greentree, and Wood up front. The first three for sure.

Yakemchuk and Parekh should have been there on the backend.

They left off too much skill for the fear of possible defensive issues. If they had taken at least 5-6 of these guys, they would have done better because they're simply superior players. Having too much of the same in Pinelli, Cataford, Howe, and Gauthier never gave them a chance to have that "wave after wave" type offense Canada is known for.
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Yeah there was too much of it. Bring 1 guy like that plug him in where you need a spark. Pinelli was absolutely flying around and looked really good parts of last night… Can’t have a bottom 6 of guys who can’t create goals though
 
wickedwitch said:
TSN (very passive aggressively) asked a bunch of Americans (including Carle) about why they practice during the WJC and posted those clips along with clips from the press conferences: https://www.tsn.ca/hockey-canada/video/why-did-canada-stop-practicing-at-world-juniors~3055688

It's interesting what Carle has to say about managing practice intensity/duration based on sports science.
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Thanks for posting... definitely a strange decision not to practice as even if the coaches felt like their guys were fatigued, it's pretty well established that a short low intensity workout on an off day aids recovery more than just doing nothing.

Listening to Overdrive today the guys brought up another good point - having even more downtime away from the rink means just more opportunity to absorb the outside noise/negativity via social media and tournament coverage. Seemed like the pressure definitely got to a few guys.
 
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How hard would it be to say something like:

“In hindsight, it is clear that we could have prioritized assembling a roster more focused on skill and offensive capabilities to meet the demands of today’s international game. This reflection is not a critique of the effort, passion, and dedication shown by our selected players, all of whom represented Canada with pride and commitment. Rather, it is a recognition of how the game is evolving and the need for us to evolve alongside it.

As we move forward, we will re-evaluate our selection criteria and processes to ensure we are putting together the most competitive team possible, balancing skill, versatility, and team chemistry. We owe it to our players, our fans, and the tradition of Canadian hockey to continuously learn and improve.”

When you essentially say “the team selection was done well. It’s not our fault” all you’re doing is avoiding taking any accountability.
 
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WarriorofTime said:
How hard would it be to say something like:

“In hindsight, it is clear that we could have prioritized assembling a roster more focused on skill and offensive capabilities to meet the demands of today’s international game. This reflection is not a critique of the effort, passion, and dedication shown by our selected players, all of whom represented Canada with pride and commitment. Rather, it is a recognition of how the game is evolving and the need for us to evolve alongside it.

As we move forward, we will re-evaluate our selection criteria and processes to ensure we are putting together the most competitive team possible, balancing skill, versatility, and team chemistry. We owe it to our players, our fans, and the tradition of Canadian hockey to continuously learn and improve.”

When you essentially say “the team selection was done well. It’s not our fault” all you’re doing is avoiding taking any accountability.
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That's the plan
 
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