Quote:
Originally Posted by Red John
With the U.S. development rise Canada might soon not even be the best hockey country on the continent let alone world. Goaltender has to be the biggest development problem right now.
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That seems very, very doubtful.
That was the first time in 15 years they failed to medal in the WJHC, and they likely would have if the bronze medal game mattered to them and they have lost about 5 games in the past 10 years in the round robin.
The US "rise" includes a 7th place finish and as many finished outside of the medals as in the top 3. They have an average of finishing 3.4 in the past 5 and 10 years while Canada is 2.4 the last 5 years (tops) and 1.9 the last 10 years (easily the tops) all while missing many more of its top players than other nations.
I know Hockey Canada tends to freak when it isn't gold, gold, gold but Canada is still by far the best hockey nation and hockey development country and despite the improvement of the US compared to what they once were they are far from being much of a threat outside of once every 8-10 years at the WJHC.