Oh woe is me! Team Canada lost! Who can we blame?

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Right here’s some free recommendation for fellow Saskatchewanians Al Murray and Peter Anholt:

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Don’t learn the papers, take heed to radio speak exhibits, examine social media, open a podcast or activate a TV. At the least for a pair days, till all of the whining and hand-wringing wind down. Then it is perhaps OK to see if hundreds of dejected, offended Canadians have gotten over the house group’s poor efficiency on the under-20 males’s world hockey championship in Ottawa.

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Why achieve this many Canadians get heart-and-soul invested in an annual, made-for-TV hockey event? That’s a superb query. And why can’t we settle for the notion that different international locations now play hockey in addition to Canadians? It occurred in curling, too.

However we’re an entitled bunch in terms of “our sport.” We evidently know all the pieces about hockey and aren’t scared to say it in public.

We definitely perceive group dynamics and acknowledge expertise higher than Murray, a long-time NHL scout who has gained two Stanley Cups with the Tampa Bay Lightning and three world championships with groups he helped assemble for Hockey Canada. And, simply as sarcastically, a lot better than Anholt, an executive-of-the-year winner who’s now common supervisor of the Lethbridge Hurricanes, his fifth WHL franchise.

Murray is Group Canada’s head scout. Anholt chairs the administration group. They helped choose the group.

So we will blame them for dropping. Proper?

Anybody with a distant management who watched Czechia get rid of Canada for a second straight yr with a 4-3 quarterfinal victory Thursday desires to know why Michael Misa, Beckett Sennecke, Andrew Cristall, Zayne Parekh and Carter Yakemchuk weren’t on the group. Individuals who have by no means even seen these gamers in motion know they might have added on the spot firepower to an impotent offence.

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Followers who’ve by no means spoken to a junior hockey coach puzzled why head coach Dave Cameron gave his gamers days off following their losses. Why didn’t he juggle his traces? Why didn’t he cease them from taking so many pricey penalties? And why the $#&*@! was Cameron even the pinnacle coach?

The hatred spewing in direction of the pinnacle coach is cruel, unfathomable and ridiculous. Twice an assistant and 4 occasions the pinnacle coach, Cameron has gained one silver and three gold medals on this planet juniors.

Perhaps Cameron wasn’t personable sufficient when TSN’s Kenzie Lalonde — one in all Canadian sport’s finest in-the-moment interviewers along with her truthful, not-too-emotional questions — quizzed him following losses. He’s bought a pedigree, so Cameron can definitely be grilled about his methods. However like all the pieces surrounding Canadian hockey at a global degree, this nation goes overboard with its fire-him-immediately reactions.

The gamers merely didn’t meet expectations. Though they allowed the fewest objectives among the many 10 groups, additionally they took probably the most penalties, struggled on particular groups and just one Canadian scored greater than as soon as in 5 video games.

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Easton Cowan is being roasted for taking pictures when he ought to have handed. Andrew Gibson for taking a kneeing penalty (after a video evaluation) that gave Czechia the facility play on which it scored the game-winning purpose. Cole Beaudoin for a controversial main penalty that bought him tossed within the first interval, and defender Sam Dickinson for inadvertently gloving a bouncing puck into his web.

The officiating has been roundly criticized, significantly the discrepancies between three related kneeing incidents that resulted in three completely different calls. And why Czechia gamers weren’t penalized for headlocking a Canadian ahead or elbowing 17-year-old Gavin McKenna within the earhole are additionally questions value asking.

The youngsters performed arduous; they had been proud to signify Canada. They’re not getting paid. And the Saskatchewan gamers — Brayden Yager, Tanner Howe, Caden Value and Berkly Catton — turned in sturdy performances.

Merely dropping a hockey sport shouldn’t besmirch a rustic. Nor ought to it mirror badly on anybody who didn’t win.

Keep in mind that present NHLers Connor Bedard and Macklin Celebrini are nonetheless younger sufficient to play on this event, however didn’t. Canada nonetheless produces top-quality gamers. Generally they merely have to be combined proper to win gold. Having a celebrity additionally helps.

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It’s not time for a nationwide inquiry into Canadian hockey. There’s in all probability a federal election coming earlier than Hockey Canada solutions all of the questions nonetheless effervescent on the again burners about sexual misconduct surrounding its 2003 and 2018 U20 males’s groups.

That’s much more necessary than questioning why Canada — for the primary time below the present playoff format — isn’t vying for a medal in back-to-back tournaments.

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