Hockey Canada Needs A Referendum

Like 1998, the organization needs to rethink how they build their Canadian teams

Back in its glory days, the Canadian team sent out for the World Junior Championship never had to worry too much. It seemed like Canada was ahead of the curve in developing their 18–19-year-old players and the results spoke for themselves. Between 2005 and 2009, Canada won five consecutive gold medals. Since 2009, they have won only two gold medals (along with three silver medals and a bronze). It’s clear that the hockey world has caught up with Canada in the development of its young players.

This isn’t the first time that Canada has found itself at a crossroads. Before 2005, Canada had been mired in a seven-year gold-medal drought. They were fighting an identity complex: their style from the early 90s had focused on bruising, physical hockey and it had paid off. Between 1988 and 1997, Canada had won 8 gold medals with their physicality.

At a higher level, the 1998 Olympic games highlighted what Hockey Canada felt to be a problem. Namely, the Canadian style of hockey was quickly becoming inadequate in comparison to the faster, more finesse based game that the Europeans and Russians were coming around to perfecting. This became especially clear on bigger international ice where the Canadians simply weren’t equipped to deal with the speed of their opponents.

Hockey Canada was left to decide: stay the same and hope the trend bucked back to their style of play or adapt with the times. Eventually they decided to focus their teaching away from defense and experience and focus rather on scoring and getting players more practice time. It took a few years but the changes eventually took place and you can see it directly in the results of those mid to late 00s junior teams. Hockey Canada could shift its image back into the golden program it once was.

Following a tough defeat to Finland in this year’s WJC, Hockey Canada should find itself in another moment of reflection. It wasn’t simply losing in the quarterfinals of the tournament but also how they lost. A Canadian team took a 1–0 lead and from there, decided to turtle in an attempt to protect it. The Finland Game was preceded by a round-robin game with Russia in which Canada did the same thing. Canada’s goalie, Micheal DiPietro, faced 31 shots against Russia and 35 against Finland.

There is no explaining how a team with so much offensive talent felt it wise to fall back on itself like they did in their last two games. Maxime Comtois, the team’s captain (and embodiment for a lot of the hate this roster will receive for its early loss) has 7 points in 10 NHL games this year. Nick Suzuki is a tantalizing NHL talent who has been a monster in the OHL for three seasons. Brett Leason is putting up more than 2 points per game in the WHL. Morgan Frost is doing nearly the same thing in the OHL. Joe Veleno was given exception status to play in the QMJHL earlier than he should have been allowed. I could go on and on about the team’s offensive weapons.

Above all that, the Canadian team also had a highly touted 17-year-old phenom on its roster. You could be forgiven for never knowing about Alexis Lafrenière’s presence because Canada coach Tim Hunter made certain he almost never saw the ice. Hunter revealed the reason for the young winger’s limited minutes in a TSN article:

Lafrenière actually scored in the first period of the game Hunter is talking about having Lafrenière “prove he understood.” It didn’t matter, Lafrenière proceeded to see the ice less and less as the tournament advanced. The same can be said of Joe Veleno, whose speed and skating seemed to really put the pressure on the opposing team but ended up in Hunter’s doghouse.

As a player, Tim Hunter was a tough-nosed player who was always up to drop the gloves with anybody. He knew his role and he did what he had to do to stick in the NHL for as long as he could. He’s brought that same kind of mentality as a coach and it just didn’t work for the team he had assembled.

Instead of asking his highly capable offensive players of skating freely and unleashing their offensive barrage on their enemies, he asked them to play a more reserved, slower-paced type of game. It’s a type of game a guy like Tim Hunter might feel comfortable in but guys like Tim Hunter don’t make World Junior rosters.

In their final game against Finland, the flaws were obvious. Canada was desperately trying to contain the Finnish offense as DiPietro made big save after big save. The Canadians were trying to collapse everything on defense and simply hold on to their one-goal lead. A one-goal lead is not something you cling onto. One bad break and the game is all tied up which coincidentally, is exactly what happened against Finland.

Backed up into a corner with the fins having all momentum, Hunter still stuck to his game plan. Lafrenière and Veleno didn’t touch the ice once in the closing moments of the 3rd period or in overtime. This despite all the other forwards being exhausted from their coach not running all their offensive units. It was especially egregious when overtime rolled around and the ice wide-open. 4 on 4 hockey with a fresh Alexis Lafrenière having room to work his offensive magic? It should have been a no-brainer.

A case like Lafrenière isn’t unique for Hockey Canada when it comes to the World Juniors. They’ve made it repeatedly clear that they don’t want underagers on their team. They only take the ones they feel pressured to take because of the perception if they were left off, like a Crosby or a McKinnon. But even when they do take them, they put them in roles where they won’t succeed and limit their playing time because of their “youth.” Well, I’ve got some news for Hockey Canada…

Players like Lafrenière aren’t hampered from being 17 years old playing against 19-year-olds. He has been lighting up the QMJHL this season to the tune of 54 points in 31 games. As a 16 year old, he had 80 points in 60 games for the Rimouski Océanic. If you give him ice time, Lafrenière will produce for you. Instead, Hunter chose to believe he needed to teach Lafrenière a “lesson” by benching him when Canada could have used him the most.

It’s time to stop looking at the “old boys club” of former NHL tough guys turned junior coaches to lead the world junior team. This is the second time in 4 years that the team bows out in the quarterfinals despite having perfectly talented rosters. Hockey Canada needs to reconsider, like it did in 1998, how it chooses the people who will lead these young men. The last time, their referendum set Canada into a golden age at the World Juniors so let’s hope they can pull another rabbit out of their hat.

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