What went wrong for Canada at the 2024 World Junior Championship?

Disappointing. Disaster. Failure. No matter how you cook it up, it’s hard to look back at the team’s 2024 World Junior Championship effort with any sort of happiness if you’re a Canadian hockey fan.

Canada was eliminated from the tournament with a crushing 3-2 loss to Czechia, with a late-game bounce off defenseman Oliver Bonk’s leg putting a cap on things. It came after a Canadian onslaught kept the Czechs in their own zone for much of the third period, but goaltender Michael Hrabal was up for the challenge.

And now, Canada won’t participate in the medal round for the first time since 2019.

After a big 5-2 win over Finland and a 10-0 blowout over Latvia, hopes were high. But then the 2-0 loss to Sweden caused ripples, with coach Alan Letang electing to change the lines drastically heading into the game against Germany. And if you saw that battle, you know the 6-3 score wasn’t representative of the actual game, given it was 3-3 with about 10 minutes to go.

No question about it, Canada’s roster wasn’t as good as it could have been. They were missing Zach Benson, Kevin Korchinski, Adam Fantilli, and, of course, Connor Bedard in the NHL. Tristan Luneau was named to the team but was replaced before the tournament due to a viral infection.

There were some NHL connections with Matthew Poitras, Matthew Savoie, Fraser Minten and Owen Beck. But between them, they only scored four goals, with both of Poitras’ tallies coming in the tournament’s first two games. Savoie didn’t even score a goal, missing one game due to an injury.

There’s also Jordan Dumais, who, after registering 140 points last year and sitting on pace for nearly 120 again this year, had just two points and had nothing when it mattered against Sweden or Czechia.

Celebrini was the only player with more than two goals on this team; he had four. The two forwards with the least ice time on the team – Carson Rehkopf and Matt Wood – finished tied for third in team scoring with four points apiece. The big guns were not the big guns. Simple as that.

Letang deserves some heat, too. Celebrini was clearly the best player, but it never felt like they gave him the best possible line combination to make it work. There had to be something for the team to start focusing on shooting, too, because trying to get fancy with the passes killed way too many scoring chances in close. Having Celebrini with Minten, for example, felt like a wasted opportunity when someone like Savoie or Rehkopf would have made more sense.

And in net, saying Mathis Rousseau had a bad tournament would be disingenuous. He was great against the Finns and was the only reason Sweden didn’t win by more. But having him play every minute without giving Samuel St-Hilaire or Scott Ratzlaff a sniff meant that if it ever went south, you’d be calling for a goalie who hadn’t played a full hockey game in nearly a month. There’s a reason no Canadian goalie played every game since Carey Price in 2007. Had Czechia scored another quick goal in the first, Letang would have needed to do something to spice things up, and going to a different goalie wasn’t going to be an option – because the staff pigeonholed themselves there.

No player had a dreadful tournament by any means, but like any time Canada loses out, the topic of who could have played will continue to dominate the discourse. Jagger Firkus was cut after a rough camp in Oakville but was later added as a reserve player. Given he’s one of the top players in the CHL, they had to have a found room for him somewhere. Denver Barkey did everything Letang used Easton Cowan for – energy, blocking shots, killing penalties – in camp, but was better. Both of those players would have made a big impact on Canada.

After giving a 2-0 lead to the Czechs, Canada was the much better team on Tuesday. They dominated possession and kept Hrabal busy. But Canada’s inability to capitalize on chances – today, and far too often in the past couple games – left everyone wondering, “What if?” They needed a finisher and didn’t get it.

A lack of effective lineup juggling. Missed opportunities. An overworked goaltender. Missing talent. The stars weren’t playing like stars. All of this combined made for a well-deserved early exit.

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What went wrong for Canada at the 2024 World Junior Championship?

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