For the second straight year, Team Canada finished fifth place in the World Junior Hockey Championships after losing to Czechia 4-3 during the quarterfinals on January 2, 2025. Last year, Canada lost to Czechia 3-2 on the same day.
"Still way more questions than answers," TSN's Darren Dreger told the SportsCage. "The way Canada played, I struggled with it from a fan perspective. They weren't generating offence, yet they continued to take penalties. For the life of me, I don't understand why or how the coaching staff wasn't able to get control of that mindset."
In the tournament, Canada ranked last in scoring efficiency and first in penalty minutes with 113. One notable moment in the quarterfinal game against Czechia was when Canada’s Cole Beaudoin was assessed a five-minute major and a game misconduct for kneeing in the first period. In Dreger's opinion, that should have been an indication for Canada to change tactics.
"As soon as you saw that five-minute major call, the messaging should have been a thousand fold: 'Do not do anything,'" Dreger said. "Play the game, attack on the forecheck and keep everything clean. Make sure there's no line that you come to that you can cross."
Dreger believes the Red and White should have practiced more during the tournament.
"To really confuse me, they don't skate between December 31 and January 2 -- there's no practice," Dreger said.
"We were exhausted," Team Canada head coach, Dave Cameron said. "There's no system for tired hockey players."
Dreger fears Canada hockey management can be their own worst enemy. Other countries have caught up to Canada in hockey and Dreger believes they deserve more credit.
"We're in a real dangerous place in Canadian hockey management of overthinking," Dreger said. "Let's start giving more respect to some of these good hockey countries that continue to develop and have really punched that ticket in the last 10 years. This big bad North American game that can beat you with anything you throw at us doesn't fly anymore."
