[TangerZ]

Originally Posted by Enoch Root

This team looked from the very beginning of the tournament like they didn't have what it takes. So many things wrong:

1) discipline. From the get go, way too many penalties. But in today's game, it was ridiculous - and not just Virtanen - Marner and Strome both had terrible, dumb penalties as well. When a team is continually undisciplined, you have to look to the leadership and to coaching. And both are to blame.

2) goaltending. It was never good in this tournament. But again, it was at a new level of bad today. It was plain for all to see that Blackwood was fighting the puck and handing out rebounds like Easter eggs. Lowry pulled him 25 minutes too late.

3) selfish play. Marner, Virtanen, Strome and occasionally Point, were continually trying to do it all by themselves. The best players simply weren't good enough. Yes, Marner had a couple goals today, but too little too late. And he followed it up with a stupid, selfish penalty.

4) coaching. So many examples. But I'll just go with the fact that he stuck with his guys (Virtanen, Hicketts, Blackwood, Marner, Strome) no matter what they did. Strome and Marner were good at times, but the bottom line is that these guys got the ice-time and they didn't deliver.

5) team structure. Hockey Canada used to try and fill roles. Now they have gone completely the other way and just tried to pick talent. And as a result, they had no leadership, no physicality, no grinders. I agree that you need talent, but a team also needs balance. And this team was too small, and lived on the perimeter.

6) Jake Virtanen. His level of stupidity was so high that he deserves his own bullet
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point.

I agree with most of your points, but I thought Marner was clearly the best player on the ice for Canada today (when it counted), especially in the third period. Every time he was on Canada had a chance to score, he completely carried the team offensively. Strome to me was the disappointment, a guy they had brought in for his offense could not even complete a pass, the puck was a bomb on his stick. Virtanen was just crap all tournament and took too many selfish penalties. Extremely frustrating loss, but I thought they would lose just looking at their roster from the start, not enough talent on their top lines. This tournament finish will likely rank up with the 1998 team.