Before this year's World Juniors I wrote a column talking about how Canadian hockey faces its ultimate test this winter when the World Junior team headed to Malmo, Sweden prior to the Olympic Ice Hockey tournament. I spoke about the challenges of the international ice surface and how Canada will once again have to accept the fact that in order to beat countries on the same level as you in their natural environment that both Team Canada squads would have to adjust.
That has yet to happen as the Canadian World Juniors at the time of writing have came out playing the exact opposite of the way they needed top play in order to succeed in Europe. From dumb penalties, inconsistent goaltending to allowing the first goal in every game they have played, the start to the World Juniors from Canada was pretty much exactly what head coach Brent Sutter likely told his players to avoid before flying to Sweden. Because of that Canada has already lost once in the tournament and dropped a pre tournament game against hosts and tournament favourites Sweden, and at the time of writing things are not looking up for the Canadians.
While there is a lot of tournament left, and the Canadians can still right the ship, I am voicing my concern that the Canadian World Junior program has lost its way as the game as continued to rapidly grow outside of the country that bleeds, breathes, and sleeps hockey.
With a chance to go a half decade without a gold medal, the Canadians are on the verge of the hold we all once thought we had on the game starting to slip us by. It has happened before when the Russians decided to choose ice hockey as one of their sports to prove that the Soviet Union was more dominant than the rest of the globe, and now it is the likes of the Americans and the rest of Europe that has decided that beating Canada is kind of fun. Sweden has turned into as much of a World Junior powerhouse as Russia was to the Canadians as have the Americans and now even the smaller countries such as the Czech Republic, Switzerland, and Finland have all grown their Junior programs to the point where they can compete with Canada on a consistent basis. All while Hockey Canada is experiencing an era of struggles and turmoils and while I always think the notion of putting the nation's attention on an Under-20 international ice hockey tournament, this is now a pressing concern for our national pride because of the fact that this has became our country's tournament.
That pressure has either became too much, or the star building factory that is TSN has injected too much hype into young hockey players, but Canada is now looking at falling into the pack after leading it for so long. The Americans outworked them last year, the Sweden's and Russians can always be a threat to outplay them in the skill game, and when you start to mix bad penalties and scared goaltending into it you have this recipe for disaster that keeps boiling. Enough is enough, and the message needs to be sent that what is being done is just not working.
Forcing physical play is not going to work, expecting to show up and win the tournament because you are Canada is never going to work anymore, and allowing the first goal in every game isn't going to do anything either. Canada always talks about their hard work ethic, but that work ethic and that physicality is useless without discipline and on the international ice surface you can't play with fire by going into the box at will because you want to hit somebody. It just is not going to work, and Canada is refusing to adjust. By doing so they are refusing to do what it takes to win. It is an old cliche but it is a true one.
When Canada loses in the World Juniors, it is a big deal. When they win, it is often one of the highlights of our sports year. We don't have a strong national soccer program, nor does anyone care about it. Same goes for basketball, for Canadians the empire of Hockey Canada is the top billing when it comes to rooting for our country and the World Juniors are the only major event that happens once a year. People care, some care too much, but this is our tournament and so be it.
I hope Canada proves me wrong, but at this very moment it is becoming painfully clear that the "Canadian Way" is resulting in losses. If Hockey Canada wants to continue to claim itself as the best in the world, they are going to have to make it their mission to adjust and find dominance again. They always have, hopefully they will now.
