If Canada is going to win world junior gold, the stars need to be much better

Credit: Steven Ellis/Daily Faceoff

Every team needs a little bit of adversity. The days of perfect 7-0 runs at the World Junior Championship have become rarer.

But for Team Canada’s sake, Friday’s 2-0 loss to Sweden better be it.

It was a difficult evening in front of a packed house in Gothenburg, with over 11,000 fans being split between the two most popular teams in the tournament. But the Swedes skated to a shutout victory – their third in a row – denying Canada the chance to win the top spot in Group A and potentially focus on resting their players against Germany.

Now, they’ll need to fight just to keep second place.

On one hand, it’s not unusual territory. Canada lost its first game of the 2023 tournament 5-2 to Czechia, with the focus being on Canada’s stars – Connor Bedard and Adam Fantilli, specifically – trying to hard to pull off highlight-reel moves. Canada answered back with an 11-2 drubbing of Germany two nights later before going 11-0 against Austria and 5-1 over Sweden.

They learned their lesson. And on Jan. 5, Halifax turned into a madhouse as Canada won gold for the second consecutive year.

Canada brought the business to Finland in the first game earlier this week before crushing Latvia 11-0 on Wednesday. Everything was looking to plan. But Sweden provided them with a much-needed reality check on Dec. 29.

Sweden deserves all the credit in the world for that win. They know their system, and no team has played better defense than the Tre Kronor boys. This year, most of this group has been together for 2-3 events. It mainly comprises players built from the past two U-18 World Championship teams that won gold and silver, respectively. It’s clear why they’re good.

Canada has Saturday off, and they’ll use it to regroup. They know they need to do better. The individual efforts have to stop. The shooters need to get back to shooting. It’s better they dealt with this now instead of next week when the games start to really mean something.

Every year, there’s always the hubbub about who didn’t make the team. Riley Heidt, Andrew Cristall and Denver Barkey – plus all the eligible NHLers – would have an impact if they were there. But they’re not, for better or for worse. Jagger Firkus was called up to join the team’s 25-man roster, but if it wasn’t for a lackluster camp, he would have factored into the team’s top six.

Canada needs its stars to show up. Fraser Minten, who started the year with the Maple Leafs, has just one goal and two points. Jordan Dumais – the CHL whizkid coming off a 140-point campaign in the QMJHL – has just one assist. Matthew Savoie has had his chances, with just one assist to show for. Brayden Yager was invisible against the Finns and had just one shot against Sweden. Macklin Celebrini is the clear No. 1, leading the way with six points in three games.

Nobody else has more than three, with two of the team’s depth players – Carson Rehkopf and Owen Allard – being among the five two-goal scorers. Nobody else has more.

Speaking of Rehkopf, what must he do to get more playing time? He’s on pace for a 65-goal season with Kitchener. Rehkopf scored twice in the drubbing over Latvia, but played just 4:50 against Sweden. He started as the 13th forward, and fought his way onto the fourth line, but coach Alan Letang needs to see what he can do higher in the lineup.

And Letang deserves some blame here. The lines felt off from the get-go. For example, Minten and Cowan are playing two-way roles on scoring lines, and it’s not working. Letang should have stacked that top six earlier than they did. Give Celebrini shooters to work with – reunite the U-18 World Championship scoring duo of Celebrini and Matthew Wood, and maybe add Rehkopf as the third option. Celebrini has played with both separately, but I’d almost guarantee they’d be the team’s most dangerous line if put together for a game.

I suppose it is the perils of having one of the deepest player pools to choose from. No matter the year, you’ll have fans screaming for a national summit with every world junior loss. At least Mathis Rousseau’s goaltending has been solid, because that was a serious question mark during the pre-tournament.

Scoring by committee is great, and that’s what happened against Latvia. But when it comes to finding the guys to really help the team win important games, they need more than just Celebrini.

If you’re a Canadian fan, relax. Some of the hot takes on social media are brutal. It’s one loss to a team that nobody has figured out yet. The loss stung, sure, but that’s the beauty of this tournament. The payoff can be huge, and you saw that firsthand last year.

But if Canada will make this work, the best players need to play like it. This team is full of opportunity, a chance to steal the spotlight. It doesn’t matter who it is, but someone needs to step up. They’ve got to play better as a team, and adjust when needed. If they can figure it out, just like they did against the Finns, watch out.

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If Canada is going to win world junior gold, the stars need to be much better

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