Philippe Boucher played 17 seasons in the NHL, collecting 94 goals and 300 points in 748 games. The Saint-Apollinaire native defender notably had two seasons of 40 points or more. He participated in the All-Star Game in 2007, in addition to lifting the Stanley Cup with the Pittsburgh Penguins in his last season in the NHL in 2009. First round pick (13th overall) of the Buffalo Sabers in 1991, he successively worn the colors of the Sabres, the Los Angeles Kings, the Dallas Stars and the Penguins. At the end of his playing career, he held management positions with the Rimouski Océanic, the Quebec Remparts and the Drummondville Voltigeurs in the Maritimes Quebec Junior Hockey League (QMJHL). Philippe agreed to collaborate with the LNH.com team to cover various current hockey topics.
“Since the start of our selection camp, we wanted to give our team an identity, and Dave remained faithful to it. He pushed the players as he knows how and he challenged them. »
Junior Team Canada general manager Scott Salmond spoke these words Friday to defend head coach Dave Cameron, who was unable to lead his troops further than the quarter-finals of the World Junior Championship last week.
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Behind words which may seem reassuring or which, at least, exonerate Cameron, I detect a way of doing things that is inadequate for a short tournament like the WJC.
The goal here is not to criticize the choices of Hockey Canada leaders, who each had the skills required for their position. But I wonder if by defining the identity of the team too early without knowing all the players who would compose it or the final formation, they did not shoot themselves in the foot before the tournament even began.
Salmond and his cohorts focused on a team that would play the Canadian Way, and their choices reflected that goal. Offensive tenors of the Canadian Hockey League (CHL) like Beckett Sennecke, Michael Misa and Zayne Parekh were excluded in favor of less prolific players, but who stuck to the famous identity that we tried to establish.
In my opinion, it would have been better to choose the 25 best players and choose an identity that reflects those 25 players. You can’t have players embrace a whole new identity in a short tournament like the World Juniors.
Because in reality, we never saw Canadian identity during the tournament.
Salmond’s strategy could have been worth it in the event of an incredible pool of 19-year-old players, which would have given managers the luxury of choosing from several quality options.
But this year, that wasn’t the case: the team’s best forward, Gavin McKenna, turned 17 just before the tournament. Matthew Schaefer, the best defenseman, has 17. The best 19-year-old players on this Canadian team are currently in the NHL: Connor Bedard is in Chicago and Zach Benson is in Buffalo.
We often hear that the World Junior Championship is a tournament for 19-year-olds, but sometimes when your best available athletes are 18, 17 or 16, they are just as deserving of a place on the team. It is possible that Hockey Canada favored its 19-year-old players, as is customary. This time, they paid the price.
The American team escaped with the gold medal for a second year in a row. Having worked with a few coaches from the American development program, I can tell you that they choose the best. They tour the country looking for the best young players to develop into their prolific Under-17 and Under-18 programs, and then grow them together towards the famous World Junior Championship. They favor talent and the elite, financial means or not. They are trying to make these young people better players individually and then, collectively, have a better team.
This is perhaps something that we should remember, in Canada, when the time comes for solutions after this second elimination in a row in the quarter-finals of the WJC. We will have to look in the mirror and make the necessary adjustments for the next tournaments.
Something to delight Montreal supporters
If Junior Team Canada represented the sporting disappointment of this holiday season, the Montreal Canadiens were the surprise. Martin St. Louis’ squad has won four of its five road games since Christmas, defeating the Florida Panthers, Tampa Bay Lightning, Vegas Golden Knights and Colorado Avalanche.
With Monday’s victory against the Vancouver Canucks at the Bell Centre, the Habs now occupy the eighth and final place providing provisional access to the playoffs in the East.
The Canadiens’ plan is coming together in the most difficult part of their schedule. I am happy for the team’s fans who have experienced the difficulties of recent seasons and who, now, have reason to view 2025 with optimism.
Who knows, maybe they’ll see their team make the playoffs sooner than expected?
*Comments collected by Gabriel Duhamel, LNH.com console operator
