Katherine Henderson also expresses her disappointment. Hockey Canada’s president and CEO added that the national sports organization will take the necessary steps to avoid a repeat.
The country was eliminated in the quarterfinals of the World Junior Hockey Championships in Ottawa earlier this week for the second time in 12 months. This is the first ugly incident for the program.
Henderson and fellow officials held a press conference Saturday ahead of the two semifinals, which tournament organizers will be watching from the sidelines.
“Canadians look forward to seeing our country compete for medals every year, and we all take that expectation very seriously,” Henderson said in his prepared opening remarks.
“We will take time to reflect and discuss the next steps for our program.”
Scott Salmond, senior vice president of high performance and hockey operations, sits two spots below Henderson in what amounts to a public vote of confidence despite Canada’s back-to-back losses to the Czech Republic during the quarter, including a 4-3 loss at home on Thursday. Yes. Soil.
Canada captain Brayden Yager (11) stands on the blueline with teammates after losing 4-3 to the Czech Republic in the quarterfinals of the IIHF World Junior Hockey Championships in Ottawa, Thursday, Jan. 2, 2025.
Adrian Wyld/The Canadian Press
“I would sit down with Scott,” said Henderson, who pointed to success at other levels when asked what he had seen from the men’s under-20s over the past two years. “We will be talking about how we strengthen our program for this particular tournament, which we know is very important to Canadians.
Get local breaking news
For news affecting Canada and around the world, sign up to have breaking news alerts delivered straight to you as they happen.
“I know (Salmond) will work tirelessly to ensure something like this never happens again.”
What happened was a team that fell far short of expectations. Canada put together a roster that left a lot of its offensive talent at home, preferring what management viewed as a more well-rounded roster.
The results were disastrous.
Canada got off to a strong start with a 4-0 win over Finland on Boxing Day, then suffered a shocking 3-2 penalty shootout loss to Latvia, an unconvincing 3-0 win over Germany, and a 4-1 loss to the United States on New Year’s Eve. I lost. As a result, they advanced to the quarterfinals against a weaker opponent: the Czech Republic.
A lack of offense (13 goals in 5 games) and a disorderly march to the penalty box led to Canada’s final loss.
“I understand and share the anger and disappointment,” Salmond said. “I apologize. The building will be packed in the next two days with Canadians rooting for Team Canada. That’s our job. I apologize for that.
“We will make changes and become better.”
Salmond was later asked what that would entail.
He added, “We will look into the selection process.” “We’ll look at how we put together a team. We’ve done that in the past. “We’ve historically had a model of building teams based on kind of a ghost roster, where you have skilled players, you have players who check, you have players who bring energy.”
Salmond then iterated the “skills” in terms of the roster after Canada went through this failed iteration to focus on a broader range of factors and attributes.
“We will be criticized and perhaps we will have to be criticized for how this team is built,” he added.
Salmond led the under-20 brain trust in the last two tournaments and the contract of Peter Anholt, who is also general manager of the Western Hockey League’s Lethbridge Hurricanes, is set to expire, with head scout Al Murray saying he has a year left on his deal. transaction.
“We will go back and look at the decision,” Salmond said. “We’re going to take a holistic look at how we build our team.”
He added that performance reviews include independent analysis, player interviews and in-depth analysis of analytics.
“We need to look at the process, not just the outcome,” Salmond said. “To improve, you have to make changes. We will do that whether we win or lose. “But we’re going to take some time to dig a little deeper into what this year looks like so we can be better prepared for next year.”
athlete committee
Hockey Canada announced that eight current and former players have been elected by their peers to form the new National Team Player Council.
Billy Bridges, Michael Mastrodomenico, Tyler McGregor, Bailey Mitchell, Markus Phillips, Alyssa Regalado, Kyle Turris and Kendra Woodland will each serve multi-year terms.
Hockey Canada says the committee, which is comprised of representatives of outstanding athletes across men, women and the disabled, will meet at least quarterly and be empowered to make recommendations on issues affecting fellow national team players.
© 2025 The Canadian Press
