Hi, this is Fred Wallace with ” Off the Wire ”
The World Junior Hockey Championship Tournament at Edmonton wrapped up last week and to be truthful, I didn’t overly enjoy it.
My lack of enthusiasm for the event has nothing to do with the Americans winning the Gold Medal by blanking Canada, in fact, that game was one of the very few that I enjoyed.
Make no mistake, I wanted Canada to win, but the Americans were better in that Championship Game and there can be no debate about that.
The distaste for me has been building for more than a decade simply because too many of the Canada’s games are utterly uncompetitive and unappealing.
Aside from the Gold Medal game, the only Canadian contest I watched from start to finish was the 3-1 win over Slovakia.
16-2 over Germany.
10-0 against Switzerland.
In the semifinal, Canada wins 5-0 over Russia.
Even the games that appeared close on the scoreboard; 4-1 over Finland and the 3-0 quarterfinal win over the Czechs could have been 10-0 based on territorial advantage.
And in the end, that may have done Canada in.
The Canadian entry really wasn’t pushed to a great degree in their first 6 games, which to a certain extent is a credit to the Hockey Canada program, the players and the coaching staff.
But 5 minutes into the Championship Game, the Americans found their legs and were the better team for most of the remainder of the game and Canada, outside of a couple of decent chances, had no response.
The World Junior Hockey Tournament returns to Edmonton, along with Red Deer, on Boxing Day and while Canada is hoping to return to Gold Medal status, I’m hoping for a more competitive, more appealing tournament in 2022.
I’m Fred Wallace