Tony Ferrari says Team Canada played undisciplined and incohesive hockey in the opening game of the U-18 World Championship.
Sixty penalty minutes. That is the story for the Canadian squad, as they were thoroughly beaten 8-0 by Sweden on the first day of the U-18 men's World Championship.
It was an underwhelming effort fuelled by undisciplined, unhinged and incohesive play from the Canadian side. This wasn’t a case of the referees picking on Canada or some bad calls going against them. The Canadians just couldn’t seem to get out of their own way from the start.
The Swedes came out hot and put their speed and skill on display early. Within the first five minutes, Swedish captain Otto Stenberg had put Canadian defenders on their heels before cutting into the high slot and sniping home the opening goal. Noel Nordh then posted up in front and deflected a point shot from shift blueliner Axel Sandin Pellikka to make it 2-0.
Canada was visibly frustrated and took the first penalty of the game – a slashing call against Macklin Celebrini, one of Canada’s best players. Although Sweden didn’t score on the power play, the tone was set.
Shortly after the penalty expired and Canada seemed to wake up a bit, starting to find ways to get shots on goal, the Swedes put the game away fewer than 15 minutes into the game by scoring three goals in a three-minute span. Canadian netminder Carson Bjarnason allowed five goals on seven shots before being replaced by 16-year-old Gabriel D’Aigle.
After 20 minutes, the Canadians were simply outclassed.
Coming into the middle frame, the Canadians needed to figure themselves out. Even if the game was lost, they needed to fight and battle back to show that they weren’t the team that was run out of the rink in the first period.
It only took about five minutes to get in their own way again. A tripping infraction by Andrew Cristall killed any momentum Canada had begun to build with an early push, as it resulted in a power-play goal for Sweden. That felt like the beginning of the end of Canada’s desire to play functional hockey.
The Canadians began chasing hits, seeking out scrums and trying to physically intimidate the Swedes. Unfortunately for Canada, they were unfazed and decided that playing hockey was more important, a seemingly logical choice in the middle of a hockey game.
With about 10 seconds to go in the second period, Canada’s Porter Martone received a five-minute penalty and game misconduct for a shot to Axel Hurtig – it was deemed a boarding major but had some head contact as well. The Canadians started the third period on the penalty kill for almost five minutes, and their night was virtually over.
Unfortunately, Canada decided they weren’t done running around. Just over a minute into the third period, while still killing off the Martone penalty, Macklin Celebrini cross-checked a Swede in the corner and was sent to the box. Almost immediately, Stenberg added his second of the night.
Halfway through the frame, Canada’s Andrew Gibson extended his elbow and hit the head of a Swedish player. After a quick review, Gibson was given five and a game, becoming the second Canadian ejected from the game. For the second time in the third period, Canada was tasked with killing a five-minute penalty despite being down huge on the scoreboard.
Sweden scored late in the power play to cap their 8-0 win on a beautiful feed by Stenberg, but the Canadians' lack of discipline was the story. The game was over as soon as it started. Sixty minutes in penalties is far too many.
The Canadians outshot the Swedes. It didn’t matter because the Swedes generated offense from more dangerous areas, and the Canadians chased the score for the entirety of the game.
Sweden was the better team, hands down. From their goaltending to their defending to their offensive chance generation, the Swedes wiped the floor with the Canadians. Chasing hits and trying to physically intimidate their opponent did nothing for them. They looked like a second-class team.
There will be plenty of excuses provided online for the Canadians. They are missing some of their most talented players, such as Zach Benson, Michael Misa and Brayden Yager, among others, because of their teams still being involved in the CHL playoffs. The Canadians don’t play together as much as other nations because they don’t participate in Five Nations tournaments like the European nations or have a development program the way the Americans do. Connor Bedard skipped the tournament and could sit out until the NHL draft or play at the men’s World Championship instead.
The reality of the situation is that Hockey Canada has put itself in this situation with its insistence that it sticks to the status quo rather than adapting and evolving the development plan for the Canadian hockey pipeline.
Canada is supposed to be the world’s preeminent hockey power with a pool of players so vast and deep that they could compete with their ‘B Team’ at many tournaments. The U-18s routinely prove that Canada’s hockey prowess is often overblown.
If Team Canada wants to compete and have a more cohesive and streamlined development system right through the U-20 ranks, it may need to look outside of the status quo of Canadian hockey. A development program similar to the USA Hockey’s National Team Development Program or a more consistent gathering of U-18 talent as the European nations may be beneficial.
That’s a deep dive for another day, though. Today, we marvel at Canada’s insistence on playing undisciplined and incohesive hockey to start the U-18 World Hockey Championship. We will have to see if they can bounce back against the Germans on Friday at 8:30 a.m. ET.