Why can’t we accept the notion that other countries now play hockey as well as Canadians? It happened in curling, too.
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Canada players show their disappointment as they stand together following their 4-3 loss to Czechia at the end of IIHF World Junior Hockey Championship quarterfinal action in Ottawa, Thursday, Jan. 2, 2025. Adrian Wyld/THE CANADIAN PRESS Photo by Adrian Wyld /The Canadian Press
Here’s some free advice for fellow Saskatchewanians Al Murray and Peter Anholt:
Don’t read the papers, listen to radio talk shows, check social media, open a podcast or turn on a TV. At least for a couple days, until all the whining and hand-wringing wind down, then it might be OK to see if thousands of dejected, angry Canadians have gotten over the home team’s poor performance in the under-20 men’s world hockey championship.
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Why do so many Canadians get heart-and-soul invested in an annual, made-for-TV hockey tournament? That’s a good question. And why can’t we accept the notion that other countries now play hockey as well as Canadians? It happened in curling, too.
But we’re an entitled bunch when it comes to “our game.” We evidently know everything about hockey and aren’t scared to say it in public.
We certainly understand team dynamics and recognize talent better than Murray, a long-time NHL scout who has won two Stanley Cups with the Tampa Bay Lightning and three world championships with teams he assembled for Hockey Canada. And, just as sarcastically, much better than Anholt, an executive-of-the-year winner who is now general manager of the Lethbridge Hurricanes, his fifth WHL franchise.
Murray is the team’s head scout. Anholt chairs the team’s management group. They helped pick the team.
So we can blame them for losing. Right?
Anyone with a remote control who watched Czechia eliminate Canada for a second straight year with a 4-3 quarterfinal victory Thursday in Ottawa wants to know why Michael Misa, Beckett Sennecke, Andrew Cristall, Zayne Parekh and Carter Yakemchuk weren’t on the team. People who have never even seen those players in action know they would have added instant firepower to an impotent offence.
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Fans who have never spoken to a junior hockey coach wondered why head coach Dave Cameron gave his players days off following their losses. Why didn’t he juggle his lines? Why didn’t he stop them from taking so many costly penalties? And why the $#&*@! was Cameron even the head coach?
The hatred spewing towards the head coach is merciless, unfathomable and ridiculous. Twice an assistant and four times the head coach, Cameron has won one silver and three gold medals in the world juniors.
Maybe Cameron wasn’t personable enough when TSN’s Kenzie Lalonde — one of Canadian sport’s best in-the-moment interviewers with her fair, not-too-emotional questions — quizzed him following losses. He’s got a pedigree, so Cameron can certainly be grilled about his strategies. But like everything surrounding Canadian hockey at an international level, this country goes overboard with its fire-him-immediately reactions.
The players simply didn’t meet expectations. Although they allowed the fewest goals among the 10 teams, they also took the most penalties, struggled on special teams and only one Canadian scored more than once in five games.
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Easton Cowan is being roasted for shooting when he should have passed. Andrew Gibson for taking a kneeing penalty (after a video review) that gave Czechia the power play on which it scored the game-winning goal. Cole Beaudoin for a controversial major penalty that got him tossed in the first period and defender Sam Dickinson for inadvertently gloving a bouncing puck into his net.
The officiating has been roundly criticized, particularly the discrepancies between three similar kneeing incidents that resulted in three different calls. And why Czechia players weren’t penalized for headlocking a Canadian forward or elbowing 17-year-old Gavin McKenna in the earhole are also questions worth asking.
The kids played hard; they were proud to represent Canada. They’re not getting paid. And the Saskatchewan players — Brayden Yager, Tanner Howe, Caden Price and Berkly Catton — turned in strong performances.
Simply losing a hockey game shouldn’t besmirch a country. Nor should it reflect badly on anyone who didn’t win.
Remember that current NHLers Connor Bedard and Macklin Celebrini are still young enough to play in this tournament, but didn’t. Canada still produces top-quality players. Sometimes they simply need to be mixed right to win gold. Having a superstar also helps.
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It’s not time for a national enquiry into Canadian hockey. There’s probably a federal election coming before Hockey Canada answers all the questions still bubbling on the back burners about sexual misconduct surrounding its 2003 and 2018 U20 men’s teams.
That’s a lot more important than wondering why Canada, for the first time in 50 junior championships, in back-to-back tournaments isn’t vying for a medal.
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