World Junior Championship | Another early elimination for Canada

For a second consecutive year, Canada was eliminated in the quarter-finals of the World Junior Championship by the Czech Republic on a goal in the final moments of the match. And like last year, the Canadian team lost again by a single goal, 4-3 this time, but that’s where the similarities end.

Canada had a good preliminary round in 2024, with three victories against a single loss, 2-0 against the future finalists, Sweden. He crushed Latvia and Germany, scoring 21 goals in 4 games and allowing only 7.

Last year’s defeat was cruel. The Canadian team lost on an unfortunate shot deflected by a defender, Oliver Bonk, after having dominated the match overall.

This year, Canada lost to Latvia in the preliminary round, a terrible slap in the face, and struggled to defeat Germany. He also suffered another setback against the United States in the last meeting.

They scored a measly 10 goals in 4 games, had the lowest shooting success rate among the 10 teams entered and had no counters in the top 38 before facing the Czech Republic.

Their defeat against the Czech Republic on Thursday evening was deserved.

It took a goal at the end of the second period during a numerical superiority, a point shot deflected by attacker Porter Martone, although removed from the lineup during the previous meeting, to finally show a little enthusiasm.

Canada largely dominated in the third period, but a penalty with a little more than two minutes remaining in the period, for a knee strike, allowed the Czechs to take advantage of a numerical superiority and score the winning goal, that of Adam Jecho, 18, a third-round draft pick of the St. Louis Blues in 2024.

The team’s lack of discipline was the topic of the day the day before the match, and head coach Dave Cameron’s half-hearted responses impressed no one.

Not only did the Canadian team perish again where it sinned at the end of the match, but it received two penalties in offensive territory in the first period, including one lasting five minutes. Canada finished first in the tournament in penalty minutes, 113, ahead of Kazakhstan (79 minutes).

We left good players in the lurch, we have been saying for several weeks, including three young men drafted in the top nine. The injury suffered in the second game by 17-year-old defenseman Matthew Schaefer, perhaps the next first overall pick, hurt.

But the loss of Schaefer, the absence of Beckett Sennecke, Carter Yakemchuk and Zayne Parekh also does not explain the sluggish play of this club during the majority of the tournament, its lack of collective cohesion, its breakdowns in confidence.

There were still 10 first-round picks on this team, including three having played at least one game in the NHL, six second-round picks, and three possible picks in the top 3 in total.

The selectors will have to examine their consciences, as will the coaches. How to explain that the most dominant defenseman in the country, Sam Dickinson, 11^e overall pick by the San Jose Sharks in 2024, 46 points in 26 games in London, offers such mediocre play?

How to explain that Berkly Catton, eighth overall pick in 2024, 47 goals in 28 games in Spokane, is content with just one assist in five games? That Gavin McKenna, only 17 years old, but the next McDavid, they say, got a single point? That the team’s best scorer is satisfied with three points? That the defense is so porous?

Why did Canada, lacking scorers, leave out Carson Rehkopf for the match against Czechia, with 142 points in his last 87 games in the junior ranks? Why Porter Martone, undoubtedly a choice in the top 5 in 2025, was he left out of the lineup for a few games only to find himself on the power play in the quarters? Why did you wait four and a half games before changing the trios?

Canada is excluded from the final four for the second time in two years. This hasn’t happened since 1981, when Canada sent the Memorial Cup champion to represent the country. Ronald Reagan entered the White House, Prince Charles married Lady Di and Guy Lafleur was still playing rain and shine at the Canadian with Pierre Larouche and Steve Shutt.

After the match, head coach Dave Cameron said that if he had it to do over again, he wouldn’t change his approach, despite continually changing his lines, that the tournament went as planned, with three or four contenders, but that this match had to be won without a future. Denial. Total…