Katherine Henderson stocks within the sadness. The Hockey Canada president and CEO provides the nationwide recreation group will do what’s vital to keep away from a repeat.
The rustic used to be bounced from the global junior hockey championship in Ottawa on the quarterfinal level for the second one time in 365 days previous this week — an unsightly first for this system.
Henderson and fellow executives held a information convention Saturday forward of a couple of semifinal video games the match hosts will watch from the sidelines.
“Canadians do be expecting to peer our nation play for a medal every and yearly, and all of us take that expectation very significantly,” Henderson mentioned in her ready opening remarks.
“There shall be time for mirrored image and dialogue on subsequent steps for our program.”
Senior vice-president of excessive functionality and hockey operations Scott Salmond used to be positioned two seats down from Henderson in what amounted to a public vote of self assurance regardless of Canada’s back-to-back losses to Czechia within the quarters, together with Thursday’s 4-3 loss on house soil.
Canada captain Brayden Yager (11) stands at the blueline with teammates after shedding 4-3 to Czechia within the IIHF Global Junior Hockey Championship quarterfinal, in Ottawa, Thursday, Jan. 2, 2025.
Adrian Wyld/ The Canadian Press
“I can be sitting down with Scott,” Henderson, who pointed to good fortune at different ranges, mentioned when requested what she’s observed from the boys’s under-20 group the final two years. “We’re going to discuss how we fortify our systems for this actual match that we all know may be very, essential to Canadians.
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“I do know (Salmond) will paintings tirelessly to make certain that this doesn’t occur once more.”
What took place used to be a group that fell some distance beneath expectancies. Canada assembled a roster that left a boatload of offensive ability at house in favour of what used to be seen through control as a extra well-rounded roster.
The effects had been disastrous.
The Canadians began sturdy with a 4-0 victory over Finland on Boxing Day prior to a surprise 3-2 shootout defeat to Latvia, an unconvincing 3-0 victory over Germany and a 4-1 loss to the USA on New Yr’s Eve. That driven them into the quarterfinals towards Czechia as an alternative of a lesser opponent.
A loss of offence — 13 objectives in 5 video games — and an undisciplined parade to the penalty field used to be Canada’s final undoing.
“I perceive anger, I perceive sadness, and I percentage it,” Salmond mentioned. “I ask for forgiveness. There will have to be complete constructions within the subsequent two days stuffed with Canadians, cheering on a Canadian group. That’s our task. I ask for forgiveness for that.
“We will be able to make adjustments and we will be able to be higher.”
Salmond used to be requested later what that may entail.
“We’ll have a look at our variety procedure,” he added. “We’ll have a look at how we construct groups. We’ve performed that previously. We’ve had a style traditionally the place we constructed groups in keeping with some kind of a ghost roster the place we had professional avid gamers, we had checking avid gamers, we had avid gamers that introduced power.”
Salmond then repeated “talent” in relation to the roster after Canada obviously taken with a much wider vary of things and attributes with this failed iteration.
“We’ll be criticized and most probably will have to be criticized about how this group used to be built,” he added.
Salmond mentioned the contract of Peter Anholt, who led the under-20 mind consider on the final two tournaments and could also be common supervisor of the Western Hockey League’s Lethbridge Hurricanes, is ready to run out, whilst head scout Al Murray has twelve months left on his deal.
“We’ll return and have a look at choices,” Salmond mentioned. “We’ll have a look at total the best way through which we construct our groups.”
He added the functionality assessment comprises unbiased research, participant interviews and a deep dive on analytics.
“We want to have a look at the method, now not simply the end result,” Salmond mentioned. “We want to make adjustments to that to beef up. We do this win or lose, however we’ll spend a bit extra time and dig a bit deeper into what that appears like this yr in order that we’re higher ready subsequent yr.”
ATHLETE COMMITTEE
Hockey Canada introduced 8 present and previous avid gamers had been elected through their friends to shape its new nationwide group athlete committee.
Billy Bridges, Michael Mastrodomenico, Tyler McGregor, Bailey Mitchell, Markus Phillips, Alyssa Regalado, Kyle Turris and Kendra Wooded area will every serve multi-year phrases.
Hockey Canada mentioned the committee — set to constitute high-performance athletes throughout males’s, girls’s and para — will meet quarterly at a minimal and be empowered to make tips about problems impacting their fellow nationwide group athletes.
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