OTTAWA | Junior Team Canada did not practice on Wednesday, the day after its defeat against the Americans. On the menu: a meeting, short, certainly, but where head coach Dave Cameron made sure to speak in the eyes of his players.
“It was a fairly short meeting but the message was quite clear,” revealed Ethan Gauthier.
This message was simple: we’re going to have to stop talking about it and show discipline, for real, for the future.
Because it was a major problem for the ECJ since the start of the tournament, with the exclamation point of Tuesday’s discomfiture against the Americans, a match during which the Canadians offered victory on a silver platter to their opponents because of their indiscipline.
On Wednesday, in front of the microphones of a handful of Canadian journalists, Easton Cowan and Carson Rehkopf, guilty of costly infractions on Tuesday, took responsibility and assured that they had to do better.
“It was so blatant that there’s no way they didn’t get the message.” Now, the important thing is not whether they understand, but whether they will apply it. We need to stop talking and act,” Cameron decided.
Avoiding a disaster
The ECJ will play for its life Thursday evening in a replay of last year’s quarterfinals against the Czech Republic. Remember that in 2024, in Sweden, the Czechs had shown Canada the exit door.
Never in its history has Canada been excluded from the medal round twice in a row. The last time they failed to medal in two consecutive tournaments was in the 2013 and 2014 editions, when they lost in the bronze final.
If this were to happen, the columns of the temple of Hockey Canada would be shaken.
“It’s difficult in a way because we know our fans doubt us right now. On the other hand, we have a fairly intelligent group and we have confidence in ourselves. We know we didn’t play our best hockey and we have everything we need to win,” added Gauthier.
Now it remains to prove it, on the ice.
