Keep juniors’ showing in proper perspective

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 04/01/2024 (727 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

The headline above The Canadian Press report says, “Canada crashes out of world juniors after Czechia’s late winner.”

Some will see that as an accurate description of Canada’s 3-2 loss to Czechia on Tuesday in the quarter-final round of the World Junior Hockey Championships in Sweden. Others, however, will view the headline as further proof of the excessive pressure and expectations that Canada’s coaches and players must shoulder at each year’s tournament.

For those who didn’t see the game, Czechia jumped out to a 2-0 lead, but Team Canada largely dominated the final two periods, tying the game at 2-2. With just 11.7 seconds remaining in the third period, however, Czech forward Jakub Stancl bounced a shot off of Canadian defenceman Oliver Bonk, which then deflected off the post of the Canadian goal and past goaltender Mathis Rousseau to give the Czechs the game-deciding 3-2 lead.

After the game ended, many Team Canada players were seen to be inconsolable in their disappointment. They are just teenagers, after all.

In a post-game interview with TSN, Team Canada captain Fraser Minten told the media that “It’s a horrible feeling, one you never want to experience. Yeah, it sucks to have an opportunity like this go to waste … It’s going to be a pretty sour taste for a while.”

Team Canada forward Matthew Poitras agreed, saying that “Gripped my stick a bit too tight … I feel like I kind of let some of these guys down, let the country down.”

In the hours following the loss, several hockey pundits pointed to Team Canada’s inability to score big goals at critical moments in the tournament as the reason for the team’s early exit from the playoff round.

TSN’s Jeff O’Neill, a former junior team member himself, told viewers that “I think the game-breakers for Canada couldn’t really break through and couldn’t have that sustained pressure … They had so many chances and so many opportunities, offensive zone cycles, and they couldn’t have a guy step up to take the lead.”

Longtime TSN analyst Bob McKenzie was less critical in his assessment, saying that “They got unlucky … Maybe a more deserving fate would have been to get it to overtime and let them decide it there, but at the end of the day, it’s just the luck. They got a bad bounce, and that’s the way it goes.”

Poitras and his teammates — including Brandon Wheat Kings captain Nate Danielson — may feel that they let the nation down by losing to Czechia and ultimately failing to win the tournament championship for Canada yet again, but some much-needed perspective is required.

Canada was missing five eligible professional players in Sweden, including rookie NHL phenoms Connor Bedard and Adam Fantilli, while two other players were sidelined due to injury or illness. If those seven players had been on the Team Canada roster, the outcome on Tuesday and in the tournament would likely have been far different.

Beyond that, give the other teams some credit. Team Canada won gold last year, but it was with a stacked lineup and an overtime goal in the final game against the same Czechia team that won on Tuesday. The American team’s lineup is full of first-rounders, as are the Swedish, Finnish and Slovakian teams.

With those facts in mind, we should never have thought that another championship for Team Canada was inevitable, or even likely. It was always going to be a tough fight, with an uncertain outcome.

Unfortunately, oversized expectations for Team Canada — win or bust — are part of the excessive Canadian media hype that surrounds the annual Christmas time tournament.

In the haze of all of that hype, it is too easy to forget that Canada’s players are just teenagers, playing against other talented teenagers from other countries for a title that really doesn’t mean all that much in the grand scheme of things.

From that perspective, it makes more sense to congratulate Team Canada’s players on being part of the team, thanking them for several entertaining games over the Christmas week, and wishing them well as they return to their home teams.