World Junior Hockey Championship

[the truth]

as long as we win the next 2 in Canada its all good

[Poindexter]

Canucks draft so poorly that the odd talent they do get has such huge expectations heaped on them. And you're right, then they them. :(

Russians outplayed swedes today and lost despite having great goaltending. I just hope we don't start another streak and go without a medal. Great hockey though, so much more open than nhl and the best players can really dominate. Gregirinko will be a beast, Horvat will have his hands full.

[Buckeye19]

Canada has trended away from it's traditional style of physical play at these tournaments and it's due to the IIHF. Clean hits that cause injury can land a significant suspension. Combine that with the Europeans taking after their soccer playing counterparts with the diving and faking of injuries and it's no wonder we are trying to force a style of play that isn't the nature of Canadian hockey players.

Today it didn't matter though. Finland played their frustrating style to perfection. Time to go back to what worked for Canada in the past - physical, crash and bang hockey.

[oneh2obabe]

World Juniors: Canada loses out on medal after loss to Russia
Canada comes home from the world junior hockey championship empty-handed, fourth-place finishers for the second year in a row, following a 2-1 loss to Russia on Sunday.

http://www.thestar.com/sports/hockey/20 ... ssia.html#

[grammafreddy]

Awwwwwwwwwwwww

[The Green Barbarian]

I know that a lot of people aren't big Don Cherry fans, and there's good reasons for that, but I think he's got a good point on this one...if our best players aren't going over there then that's a mark of shame on our entire system. Shame on Hockey Canada if they aren't taking our best to these tournaments, due to political correctness. That's total garbage. Max Domi should have been there.

http://www.cbc.ca/sports/hockey/nhl/don ... -1.2484482

Don Cherry says Canada could have used some key players in Malmo, Sweden.

During his Coach's Corner segment on Hockey Night in Canada on Saturday, Cherry explained what he thought was missing from this year's team after Canada fell to Finland in the semifinals of the world junior hockey championship.

He said Hockey Canada was more concerned about being "politically correct" when forming the roster, instead of sending the country's best players — namely OHL top-scorers Connor Brown and Max Domi — to the under-20 tournament.

[the truth]

I would have to agree with don on this one

[Poindexter]

Canada has trended away from it's traditional style of physical play at these tournaments and it's due to the IIHF. Clean hits that cause injury can land a significant suspension. Combine that with the Europeans taking after their soccer playing counterparts with the diving and faking of injuries and it's no wonder we are trying to force a style of play that isn't the nature of Canadian hockey players.

Can't equalize speed with grit in international hockey, they call it too tight. I think this expectation to change players like Connor McDavid into checkers may hurt our teams chances to win more than it helps. When you have players like Petan and Drouin serving 10 minute misconducts that's not utilizing their skillsets smartly. They're busy throwing their weight around when they should be throwing the puck in the net. Held to1 goal in 2 game 7's doesn't speak to a lack of grit, it's a lack of scoring.

Team Canada has to first select players that can skate, make plays and score, like Domi. Then play a style that takes advantage of this talent rather than play a nostalgic style that meets fan expectations.

[GordonH]

As I see it Hockey Canada should maybe rethink how they select the coaching staff.

No digs at current staff, maybe changing of the old guard is needed.

Just my opinion & thoughts.

Go Finland

I guess hip checks are not allowed.... Wow.

[twofingers]

Not to sound entirely like a spoiled homer, (but I am), but perhaps if the number one team in Canadian junior hockey had been represented.......,.
Oh....as well, good to see Papp miss the big calls on the world stage; just like he does at home!

[GordonH]

Congratulation to Gold, silver & bronze winners

See you next year in Montreal & Toronto

[jaz301]

Would have never though Finland would have beat Sweden today. As much as I want Canada to win every year its nice to see these teams that have not won in a while winning. I think countries are starting to develop better hockey players which is a good thing for the tournament.

[averagejoe]

Would have never though Finland would have beat Sweden today. As much as I want Canada to win every year its nice to see these teams that have not won in a while winning. I think countries are starting to develop better hockey players which is a good thing for the tournament.

Finland loves to beat Sweden in any sport! Always the underdog, Finland is. I guess Canada can't call hockey our game anymore?

[The Green Barbarian]

Finland loves to beat Sweden in any sport! Always the underdog, Finland is. I guess Canada can't call hockey our game anymore?

LOL - yeah we have to win every year or we can't call it our game. Hee hee

We did have a young team this year and that was obvious in the Finnish game, I remember one play where an older Finnish player scored while making both McDavid and Ekblad, the two youngsters, look bad. I'm not sure why Domi and a few other big scorers weren't on the team, and as Cherry said, weren't even invited to the try-out camps. This team had a real issue with scoring goals, and it does look suspicious when we don't send our best scorers to the tournament. I sincerely hope that Hockey Canada is trying to field the best team and not worry about regional crap - you know Russia isn't going to give a crap if more players are on their team from Moscow than from Vladivostock, and Finland doesn't care if their team is all from Helsinki. They just want to win. And that's all we should be caring about too.

[Buckeye19]

Can't equalize speed with grit in international hockey, they call it too tight. I think this expectation to change players like Connor McDavid into checkers may hurt our teams chances to win more than it helps. When you have players like Petan and Drouin serving 10 minute misconducts that's not utilizing their skillsets smartly. They're busy throwing their weight around when they should be throwing the puck in the net. Held to1 goal in 2 game 7's doesn't speak to a lack of grit, it's a lack of scoring.

Team Canada has to first select players that can skate, make plays and score, like Domi. Then play a style that takes advantage of this talent rather than play a nostalgic style that meets fan expectations.

It's not just about getting skilled players to play a different style, but we need a dominating physical presence. You watch any of the old tournaments where we dominated and you will see the trend. We had skill and we had big hitters. Defenseman on European teams were terrified to go into their end and retrieve the puck for fear of getting wallpapered. This is what started our forecheck and led to many key goals. Sweden, Russia and the States have always matched up well skill wise with Canada but it was our terrorizing physical game that gave us the edge. Until we get back to that we will see the same results. The Euros don't play that style for the most part and are afraid of it. Picking the 25 top point producers in the CHL has never won us a Gold and never will.