For the Canadians, this year’s under-20 championship definitely did not start as expected. And this despite the fact that they have two victories after two games.
Not one of them was born as it should be for an overseas favorite.
In the first case, they defeated the Czech Republic 7:5, but in the 46th minute the score was tied 4:4, and in the 59th minute the Canadians were still leading by only one goal.
In the match against Latvia, which on paper belongs to the worse half of the participants, the Canadians, on the other hand, needed extra time to win 2:1. And that is not enough for such an ambitious team. Especially when the Latvians lost the second match against the Finns 0:8.
After all, 13 of Canada’s 14 forwards at the tournament were selected in the first round of the last two drafts. And the fourteenth is Gavin McKenna, who will most likely be selected among the first in the next draft.
V survey 19 of the 27 NHL coaching staff members chose Canada as this year’s future champion, The Athletic.
However, reality has brought so far:
- Captain Porter Marton’s multiple failures;
- failure to manage the modern rivalry with the Czech Republic;
- digging into the team from opposing players;
- poor performances and lackluster victories.
The captain had to apologize
Perhaps the most heated match of the World Cup for players under the age of 20 brought the very first day of play, which opened with the Slovaks against the Swedes, but ended with the Canadians against the Czechs.
The Canadian-Czech rivalry arose in the previous two years, when the Czechs eliminated the Canadians in the quarterfinals each time, and it cannot be ruled out that they will meet in the playoffs this year as well.
But instead of the Canadians proving their hockey qualities, there was more discussion about how they performed on and off the ice.
The act of Canada’s captain says it all – Porter Martone received a two-minute penalty for unsportsmanlike conduct after the last goal into an empty net.
The reason for his unconventional exclusion was that
