
Skating on Thin Ice
It’s the second time they have left the World Junior Championship in the quarter-finals, and again, they lost to the same team, Czechia. Truth be told, Canada was playing without two of its most important players, Macklin Celebrini and Connor Bedard. Would it make any difference, though?
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Diagnosing the Problem
As soon as a painful defeat comes up, the blame games begin. However, it would be short-sighted, let alone unfair, to blame it all on the players despite their disappointing performance. The unprecedented twice-in-a-row elimination before the semifinals raises questions across the board.
Indeed, nearly every stance of Hockey Canada has something to answer for. Scott Salmond, Hockey Canada’s Executive, rightly did so, owning his share of the results since he hired coaches and players. Here are some of the problems that plagued the junior team.
Inability to Score
Somehow, some of the most promising players in the sport struggle to find their way to the opponent’s goal. More importantly, the team has failed to play consistently, sustain pressure, and give plenty of rebound opportunities.
The tragedy can be translated into numbers: only two players in the team scored more than two points over the campaign. Indeed, this season was even worse than the previous one, which the team has finished 10 points ahead of this year’s.
Poor Coaching Decisions
Dave Cameron is a very successful coach with titles in the NHL, OHL, and World Juniors. However, he failed to keep up with his own standards this year. Cameron claims to have no regrets regarding the competition, but fans and analysts think he should have some.
Indeed, the coach made some very questionable decisions, like keeping Gavin McKenna on the bench for far too long or using Oliver Bonk in a position he wasn’t used to. Additionally, the squad waived three training opportunities, which could have made the difference.
Management Missteps
When a team suffers a historical blow, the players aren’t the only ones to blame; the burden must also be shared among coaches and managers. Hockey Canada wanted a more physical team for this campaign, thinking that the previous squad was perhaps “too soft.”
It seems that the issue has been “overcorrected,” and some very talented scorers were inexplicably left off the roster. Andrew Crystal and Beckett Sennecke are some of the names that were left out, even though they scored quite a few goals in the previous campaign.
Lack of Discipline
How to Fix the Problem?
Now that the damage is done, Hockey Canada executives, specialists, and veteran players scratch their heads about how to bring the junior team back to its former glory. According to veteran Don Cherry, one of the country’s main hockey celebrities, all it takes to fix the problem is hiring full-time coaches to take care of the team. Inconsistency in coaching led to some glaring mistakes on the ice, for which the players aren’t the ones to blame.
Don Cherry also criticized the political disputes involved in the draft, where the players’ NHL teams or agents spoke louder than strategic thinking. It has led to poor choices that not even a full-time coach would be able to fix. Sports journalists like Damien Cox also noticed that the star-studded Canadian team didn’t play collectively. Instead, each player had their own agenda and career goals, and many of them played arrogantly throughout the competition.
The fact that the team barely practiced during the competition didn’t go unnoticed. Worse still, they weren’t performing that well to justify so many cancellations. Indeed, the squad didn’t practice at all between the defeat against the US squad and the ill-fated game against Czechia. So, it’s not surprising they weren’t prepared, and the Czechs demonstrated it clearly, scoring the first goal in only 43 seconds and less than 3 seconds before the end of the first period.
The result of such a lack of preparation is that the team was not only completely disjointed on the ice but also unable to adapt its gameplay to the situation. Team Canada played bravely towards the end of the game and nearly scored a tie. However, when the squad found the guts to react, it was already too late.
Maybe that’s why Don Cherry believes a full-time coach could solve the issue; team-building takes time. Additionally, the squad seems to need a coach who can keep players on the field and make them practice regularly. It’s time for Team Canada to regroup and fix such mistakes to find the way back to its former glory.