[GDT] Ongoing 2025 WJC Game Day Thread

[Johnny Makarov]

The best thing about the tourney this year was the nightly junglist meltdowns.lol

[Locke]

Originally Posted by SuperMatt18

Predictable outcome in the end.

The team just didn't have enough talent and the skilled guys they did take just didn't have very good tournaments.

I blame the coaching more than I blame the players though TBH, poor selection from the start and then they just didn't look prepared in any of the games, and the coaches just kept cancelling practices.

I also found that baffling, its a short tournament, you're looking for chemistry, your best lines, etc. and the best time to do that is at practice.

And they're young. They'll manage.

[SuperMatt18]

Originally Posted by dino7c

Honestly, good

Time for changes

Think the one thing they need to think of is maybe looking at a program coach full time to support the World Juniors and World Championships teams.

Cameron is busy coaching his junior team, how much time does he have truly to prepare for this and put together a game plan. Coaching is starting to feel like a bit of an issue in these tournaments.

Last year they took a more talented roster but still didn't seem prepared for what the other teams were doing.

This year they took a more balanced roster and the same issues were present (Discipline, Special Teams)

They take 4 coaches from across Canada from their junior programs, plop them together as a coaching staff and expect them to work together and put together a coherent coaching plan for the players.

Seems like you should be able to find a coach and GM to commit for a year at a time to head up the WJC and WC programs and put together an actual strategy.

[browna]

Originally Posted by KootenayFlamesFan

Agreed. Every international tourney is the same. They focus on head shots, kneeing, hits from behind. This is nothing new.

Bring back the clock counting up, hanging mesh in the net and yellow colored ice inside the net. And a Skoda in the corner. No booing either, only whistling.

[Junglist]

Originally Posted by Johnny Makarov

The best thing about the tourney this year was the nightly junglist meltdowns.lol

I’m all good.
No hard feelings to anyone.

[BigThief]

Originally Posted by Junglist

Toews was the 13th forward if I remember correctly.

Edit - Or maybe it was Morrow.

Getzlaf and Thornton were the second and third centres.

To add Iginla started the tournament on the 4th line but replaced Bergeron at some point on the first line with Crosby and Nash.

[Mr.Coffee]

Originally Posted by Knut

Boneheaded Coaching too. No practices because the players were tired should be enough to disqualify Cameron from ever coaching this or high level hockey again.

Pinelli was the other team’s best Defensive forward. Neutralized all of McKenna’s offence.

Exactly. No practices is so dumb it numbs the mind. And yeah, Pinelli was not a “Team Canada” forward although neither was Cowan for that matter

[BoLevi]

I was barely cheering for this team, if at all. I can only assume there's politics and other bureaucratic nonsense at work behind the scenes.

[hwy19man]

Originally Posted by Johnny Makarov

The best thing about the tourney this year was the nightly junglist meltdowns.lol

Nuclear meltdowns!

[tkflames]

Originally Posted by KipperFaNaTic

What the F!?! Why are you allowing kids a rest day in a short tournament when they’re freaking teenagers? They could get hit by a truck and recover quick enough to play.

As a low level youth coach I would never entertain cancelling a practice for rest, much less during the playoffs. This decision by the coaching staff is baffling to me considering this laziness is happening at the highest level.

WTF!?! This cancelling of practices must be investigated by HC.

Past experience would suggest that Hockey Canada shouldn't be responsible for investigating anything...

[mile]

https://twitter.com/user/status/1875028722044285006

https://twitter.com/user/status/1875042668411339148

https://twitter.com/user/status/1875030054536901087

[trackercowe]

Why is Dave Cameron so highly respected within Hockey Canada anyway? He's never won a Championship at any level, nor made it to the finals in 29 years as a head or assistant coach! We're talking in the NHL, AHL, OHL, CoHL, and even coaching in Austria. Flames fans know he's terrible, Sens Fans know he's terrible, and he hasn't made it out of the second round since he went back to the OHL after being fired (and sanctioned: https://www.championshockeyleague.co...ach-sanctioned) by his Austrian team. That's coming off of doing nothing for the Flames and Sens in his 8 year stint in the NHL.

Dave Cameron is just not a good coach. On top of that he either holds grudges against certain organisations or is poor at evaluating hockey players. Hockey Canada should never let him back in the door at any level.

[KootenayFlamesFan]

I really don't get 'the players were exhausted' stuff to cancel practices. Sure, maybe they were tired, I'm sure all teams were. But they were on home soil. A lot of the players had very very little travel. And if you do practice it doesn't have to be a bag skate, it could be to do simple drills, working on chemistry and line combos, special teams. Just seems strange.

[Junglist]

Well see you never again at any type of this level Cameron.

[Paulie Walnuts]

Originally Posted by CorsiHockeyLeague

This is a very bad take.

The "smartest guy in the room" thing is the standard "200 hockey men" bull#### that Hockey Canada (and USA men's hockey a lot of the time) have done intermittently for decades. That is, instead of taking the best players, they try to meticulously curate a team of guys designed to fit certain roles, because you see it's an art form and you can't just "take the best players". We're very experienced hockey men, you see, and we know better because we have experience! It's the scouting meeting from Moneyball over and over again and people have rightly called out the emperor for having no clothes.

This isn't rocket science. You take the best hockey players, period. When you get to the last 20% of the roster and it's not clear if player B is substantially better than player A, then you can bring your judgment to bear. But this type of "we're going to have a gritty team" nonsense is how you get embarrassed. It happened in '98 with Shayne Corson and Rob Zamuner, it happened in '06 with Shane Doan and Kris Draper, and it's happened numerous times at the WJHC level too.

This.

This isn’t a 7 game series that you need to grind it along the boards and taking a piece of flesh.

It’s a short 10 day tournament. It’s one and done. Take your best players and live woth the fact you will have to win 7-5.

It’s beyond ridiculous they need to craft a team to have a 3rd line grinder and all this crap. Sure Parekh may make a mistake but he will also create more opportunities on the other side. Dickinson made 2 glaring errors and was a ghost offensively.

Complete ####.

[Dion]

Originally Posted by troutman

14 OHL players.

The West is Best!

Too much politics involved in picking this team.

[Erick Estrada]

Hockey players exhausted in December? I can't believe he said that. Get him away from anything Team Canada please!

[Royle9]

Dave "excuse train" Cameron
Love his lies as well, "WE TRIED EVERY COMBINATION POSSIBLE"

Dave... no you didn't... we all watched

This man should be relegated to a league far far away from N.A

[Ashasx]

I want to echo the thought that this team was doomed from the beginning. Immediately after the camp invites were announced, the team was behind the eight ball and you knew these players would be facing an insurmountable amount of pressure because of the stupid decisions by the coaching staff and management. Before they even stepped on the ice, the air was rotten. The snubs were all the talk before, during, and after the tournament.

These kids grow up watching this tournament and dream of being the national hero during the holiday season.

And yet, you have to imagine that some of these players knew that they weren't bringing the best team, that so many of their best players were missing, and that some that made the team probably shouldn't have been camp invites themselves.

Just truly baffling decisions this year, and ultimately I feel bad for these kids.

[The Fonz]

Honest question, because I didn't see it. But I also didn't watch 100% of every game.

Did McKenna & Martone ever play on a line together at even-strength?