WJC: Whats wrong with Canada?

[qc14]

I simply won't blame it on roster composition, sure there's a factor there, but with any of the top 50 players in the country you should win, period.

This hasn't ever been true and it especially isn't now. Are Canada's 1-50 best u20 guys better as a whole than the US' or Sweden's or Czechia's 1-50s? Absolutely. A roster is 23 players though and the US and Sweden's 1-23 is absolutely better than Canada's 27-50. Czechia has multiple players that are better than a fair number of the guys Canada took this year, even Latvia you could argue that Mateiko and Osmanis are at least a similar level to Pinelli/Gauthier/Cataford.

It's this kind of hubris that lead to the HC brass way overthinking their roster. The rest of the world is too good now to not just take the absolute best players available to you.

 

[DuklaNation]

I wouldn't call it hubris, I call it incompetence. Reevaluate many of these people involved here from a neutral position instead of assuming a baseline of competence.

 

[Dr Pepper]

2015 - Canada Gold
2016 - Canada wins gold if they have McDavid, Ekblad, Bennet
2017 - Canada wins gold if they have McDavid, Marner, Crouse,
2018 - Canada Gold
2019 - Canada wins gold if they have Rasmussen, Vilardi, Robert Thomas
2020 - Canada wins gold
2021 - Missing Dach, Laf Canada got silver losing to US who was missing Jack Hughes so that’s a toss up.
2022 - Gold
2023 - Gold
2024 - Missing Bedard, Fantilli, Benson, Wright, Korchinski to the NHL or they win
2025 - missing Bedard, Celebrini, Benson to the NHL, or they win

Just looking at the last 11 WJC, including this year, of all players are there Canada wins at least 10 goals and 1 silver.


I would have said the same thing in 2016 and 2017 especially when they were missing the best hockey player in the world

You, sir, are the King of Assumptions.

 

[AUAIOMRN]

I just looked at the team stats and no player had more than three points in total. That is absolutely mind boggling when you get to play against both Latvia and Germany in the group stage (for comparison, in 18/19 they also only played five games but still had seven players had four or more points). You can talk about player selection, but even with the players they had they should still have done far better, and certainly should not have had as much trouble scoring as they did.

There is something fundamentally wrong with how they played; I can't say exactly what it is but I will say that they looked a lot like the Oilers did early in the season when they were struggling - lots of zone control time and perimeter shots but few actual scoring chances.

 

[Hallonbroder]

2015 - Canada Gold
2016 - Canada wins gold if they have McDavid, Ekblad, Bennet
2017 - Canada wins gold if they have McDavid, Marner, Crouse,
2018 - Canada Gold
2019 - Canada wins gold if they have Rasmussen, Vilardi, Robert Thomas
2020 - Canada wins gold
2021 - Missing Dach, Laf Canada got silver losing to US who was missing Jack Hughes so that’s a toss up.
2022 - Gold
2023 - Gold
2024 - Missing Bedard, Fantilli, Benson, Wright, Korchinski to the NHL or they win
2025 - missing Bedard, Celebrini, Benson to the NHL, or they win

Just looking at the last 11 WJC, including this year, of all players are there Canada wins at least 10 goals and 1 silver.


I would have said the same thing in 2016 and 2017 especially when they were missing the best hockey player in the world

This is one of the lamest post I’ve seen in a while. Grow up, dude.

 

[DuklaNation]

I just looked at the team stats and no player had more than three points in total. That is absolutely mind boggling when you get to play against both Latvia and Germany in the group stage (for comparison, in 18/19 they also only played five games but still had seven players had four or more points). You can talk about player selection, but even with the players they had they should still have done far better, and certainly should not have had as much trouble scoring as they did.

There is something fundamentally wrong with how they played; I can't say exactly what it is but I will say that they looked a lot like the Oilers did early in the season when they were struggling - lots of zone control time and perimeter shots but few actual scoring chances.

Your last paragraph describes what happens when you lack offensive talent. No need to over analyze.

 

[vaspa]

This Cameron fella is building quite a CV for himself. First Brexit and now Canexit.

 

[qc14]

I wouldn't call it hubris, I call it incompetence. Reevaluate many of these people involved here from a neutral position instead of assuming a baseline of competence.

They're certainly not exclusive! I think the particular way their incompetence manifested in the roster selections this year comes out of a generally inflated view of Canadian players and the Canadian junior system as a whole compared to the rest of the world.

You only worry so much about "who's going to be out there to protect the one goal lead at the end of the game" when you assume you're the one to have that one goal lead in the first place.

 

[David Suzuki]

In the post game, they spent more time blaming the officials and the players than management.

embarrassing especially since i don’t think the refereeing was particularly bad our team was just undisciplined and didn’t seem to care enough to stop being that

 

[57special]

Bad luck with reffing and injuries, no practices.

But most importantly the talent left off the roster were mostly the same type of (likely) ineffective player, there's no excuse for Sennecke, as well Hage and Misa should've had better shots at making the team but you can't have both of Catton/McKenna and Heidt/Cristall.

Why not? You really think they would've done worse?

Also needed more offense from the back end. Parekh and Yakemchuk. TC went overboard on conservative, defensive, lesser talented players in the name of team chemistry and team roles, but it looks pretty silly in retrospect, when nothing clicks, and the teram takes a bunch of penalties.

I don't want to single out any one player - the team was less than the sum of their parts, while teams like Latvia, Germany, CZE were the opposite. That points to an off ice problem.

 

[Heldig]

If Czechs got players from NHL like Pastrnak, Necas, Chytil etc they would also easily win, see how stupid your argument is? This thread is getting really annoying, you behave like sore losers.

Slight flaw in your post - none of those players are eligible for the world juniors anymore.

 

[NyQuil]

Obviously he can’t come out and say he brought the wrong players because it throws those kids he did bring under the bus.

But you can say something like:

“As Canadians, we always have expectations for Gold, particularly in front of our own home fans, and we are going to have to review what we can and will do better collectively next year.”

 

[wasup]

Hockey Canada can’t handle the ego hit when players go to the NCAA

Remember a few years back when they took Makar as their 7th D man and then to 6th d man only after an injury .
He was clearly their best D man but hockey Canada is the CHL and they want to promote the CHL . This has been going on for years but the whole reason for the World Juniors in the first place is to raise money for hockey Canada to finance itself .

The talent in Canada is still their so I don't sweat the loss , but the EGO problem at the top will always be there as well .

 

[Golden_Jet]

If Czechs got players from NHL like Pastrnak, Necas, Chytil etc they would also easily win, see how stupid your argument is? This thread is getting really annoying, you behave like sore losers.

Why would the Czechs get to bring a bunch of players that are too old for the tournament. See how stupid that argument is.

 

[mphmiles]

2017 - Canada wins gold if they have McDavid, Marner, Crouse,

lol

In 2017 the US was missing

Matthews
Tkachuk
Werenski
Hanifin

 

[Revansky]

I think all has been said about the roster composition that was questionnable.

But i think the worst part is that the best canada's team were always the one with relentless physicality and forechecking. It always what was creating havoc into other teams more structured play. The system in place until the last 25 min of the Czech game with perimeter shots and non-existent forecheck was so disjointed that we manage to have the worst shot % of the tournament. I don't know how a modern coaching team can adopt this kind of structure on a bigger ice and with a talented roster.

Our only good period was when the forecheck was two man deep and we were dumping the puck instead of fancy entry zone and perimeter shots. Anyone with eyes knew what could have been fixed. How a professionnal coaching team can't access and adjust is beyond understanding.

I wish we would have a dedicated coaching team with better experience next time and 4 week training camp with less game and more practices. Other teams are way better structure than us and we've been outcoached the last two years.

 

[vocks10]

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...

 

[Balthazar]

Remember a few years back when they took Makar as their 7th D man and then to 6th d man only after an injury .
He was clearly their best D man but hockey Canada is the CHL and they want to promote the CHL

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.

 

[scotian1]

My suggestion is that a group of scouts, as well as a management team be appointed that are free of any connection to any of the three junior leagues. Hopefully this would eliminate any favoritism or prejudice against the college players. Of course this would cost money which is probably why it won't happen.

 

[MikeGoods]

You are going to get used to it. Future czech junior teams have same deep D core but in forward group they are far far stronger than this team and its not even close. I though that silver generation is just flop, one strong year, but looking at future prospects it just never stops, there is not going to be a year without czech 1st rounder for at least 5 years in future and i am sure than at least 2 of those years will have MULTIPLE czech 1st rounders. At most 10 years from now czechs will be top3 nation in G and D part.

 

[Nogatco Rd]

I don’t understand the “we couldn’t practice because we were exhausted” rationalization by Cameron. Why was Canada any more exhausted than other countries? More grueling schedules for the CHL guys or something?

 

[MikeGoods]

Canada has won 2 of the last 3. Roster construction and bad coaching did them in this time around.

High end talent left off. Also Bedard and Celebrini could have been on this team amongst many others.

 

[94 Oil Drops]

Everything. Oh, wait you mean our world junior hockey team? Also everything.

 

[Colezuki]

Hockey canada needs an overhaul in how they do business, this reeks the same way that the Olympics in 2006 did, taking players because of "reasons" rather then ice the best team of the day.

 

[Takeahnase]

There was some poster who lashed out in the USA game aftermath who said something like the only thing “fat, couch ridden” Americans are good at is video games like there wasn’t just an Olympic summer games where the medal count was pretty darn good for the US athletes as usual.

You have to take your medicine and look at things root and branch after failures like this. The Germans did it and do it after early exits in international football competition and usually come back stronger. But it takes humility.

But you can’t just look internally. Give some respect to the competition as they aren’t sitting their hands either.