WORLD JUNIOR Cherry rips Hockey Canada after world junior disaster 85 Says team offic

[doniceage]

Hockey Night’s Don Cherry says he knows why Canada continues to lose at the world junior championship – and that was before Canada fell to the Russians in Sunday’s third-place game in Malmo, Sweden.

At issue is Hockey Canada's tendency to roster an even number of players from each of the Canadian Hockey League's three member leagues -- the OHL, WHL and QMJHL -- instead of selecting Canada's best under-20 players.


http://www.torontosun.com/2014/01/05...unior-disaster

[centrehice]

Canada was poorly coached. When are people going to stop following around Sutter Brothers like they are some sort of Hockey gods? Duane Sutter was the only one that should have made the NHL, the rest of them were just passengers. I have no idea why people bow down to this family, none whatsoever.

[mingus_md]

I agree with Don Cherry. One thing that has always puzzled me is why the NHL and IIHF don't have agreements to let all eligible players go to these types of tournaments (beyond the obvious insurance issues). In soccer, star players play in international friendlies (exhibition games) in the middle of their domestic seasons. If something similar could be done for hockey, the Canadian world junior team would be stronger. There are 11 players eligible to return, but most will be in the NHL next year and will not play on the team.

[30ranfordfan]

There is nothing that prevents the NHL from releasing a player to go to the WJC. It's happened before, it will happen again. But why on earth would an NHL team want to be at a competitive disadvantage (releasing one of their best 13 Forwards / 7 defense / 2 goalies) for this tournament? If those players leave their NHL clubs, the teams are worse off for it.

It's an international tournament, that in the grand scheme of things means NOTHING. With all due respect to the players (and their families) that are working their butts off to play well.... outside of Canada (where TSN has spent 20 years turning this into a HUGE event) nobody cares. The fans that were at those games.... sure, they're into it, but their a slim minority of hockey fans around the world. When the WJCs have been in the USA... I remember speaking to American friends of mine that do watch / follow hockey - and they had no idea what the tournament was, or that it was being played (sure, America is a big place... and they don't live anywhere near Buffalo, but I digress). You think it's any different in the rest of the world? Becuase my impression is that it is not. When these kids put on their national team sweaters, there will always be some fans that will show up / watch / cheer - but there is a reason Canada (and USA boarder cities) are the only places that can pack these games.


I'm not trying to be down on the tournament, but it is what it is. It's great entertainment, a lot of fun to watch.... lots of fun to be there in person (I went to three games when it was in Buffalo). You get a chance to see some really special players, early in their careers.

But what this tournament is not, is sigficicant in any way to the IIHF (in the sense that it's not a marquee event. It's not more sigficicant than the U17s, or U18s). That might not be a totally fair statement, becuase when the tourney is in Canada (or northern USA) then the IIHF makes buckets of money off it... but cash flow isn't my point, the importance of the games / medals is what I'm getting at.



As Canadians, we need to get over ourselves. That we didn't win a medal at the WJCs in back-to-back years.... it doesn't mean there's a problem with hockey in the country, it doesn't mean that other countries are necessarily better than we are, it just means that in that given year - the best group of available U20 players from three other countries were able to out-perform the best group of available U20 players from Canada. We don't have some devine right to win international hockey tournaments each year.... other countries have caught up to us. At the Olympics this year..... if the right goalie gets hot, there's 7 different countries who could win gold.




Anyway - as for Cherry's comments..... I do agree. Take the best players available, and don't worry about representing all three leagues. A bigger concern I have though - next year's coaching staff should go back to the idea of holding a selection camp, and evaluating players at that camp, then make cuts. It's a pretty normal thing to do.

Normally, Canada would invite 40+ players to selection camp, and get down to a roster of 23. This year - I think it was 26 they brought? Most these players were handed their spots (including NO compitition for the goalies) which is an absolte joke. I don't pretened to be an expert on who the best junior players in the country are..... but when I see that the leading point getter in the OHL isn't even invited to show up and get cut, that tells me there is something wrong with the process.

Of course, that goes back to what centrehice was saying..... Sutter thinks he's smarter than everyone else, when - in fact - he is not.