Canada’s lack of discipline is their ultimate downfall at the world juniors

OTTAWA — Canada’s expectations at the world juniors each holiday season are to win gold and create unforgettable memories for Canadian hockey fans. Unfortunately, the 2025 Canadian world junior team made its own history by becoming the first team since 1981 to fail to finish in the top four in back-to-back years, falling 4-3 to the Czech Republic in the quarter-finals on Thursday night.

Last year, a flukey shot bounced off Canadian Oliver Bonk to seal their defeat; this year they gave up a last-minute goal to Adam Jecho.

What is deja vu in Czech?

This time the loss felt more inevitable; it was no coincidence. It began on the first shift when Canada lost the puck in transition, leading to a two-on-one that the Czech Republic capitalized on, with Petr Sikora opening the scoring 43 seconds in.

Canada’s coach, Dave Cameron, acknowledged his team could never recover.

He was asked after the game what he could have done differently. “If I knew the answer to that, I would (have) done it.”

After Latvia beat Canada in one of the biggest showdowns in world junior history, it was clear that Canada was in trouble, despite general manager Peter Anholt suggesting otherwise after the game. It felt predetermined.

The start of Thursday night’s game summed up Canada’s tournament.

It was sad. The team took unnecessary penalties at every turn, struggled to score, their coach didn’t play the best players he had, and he probably didn’t have the best players Canada could have fielded.

To start with, too many penalties would be an answer. Cameron was asked before the Czech Republic match how they would know if they had become more disciplined.

“I’ll tell you tomorrow at 7:30,” he said.

Well, we found out. Canada generated a power play after giving up the early goal. But it took just four seconds for Calum Ritchie to neutralize the advantage with a horrific tripping penalty. Then Cole Beaudoin hit Sikora with a knee-on-knee that led to a five-minute major.

Canada briefly tied the game with a shorthanded goal, but then the Czech Republic regained a 2-1 lead on the power play when Canadian defenseman Sam Dickinson accidentally shot the puck into his own net while trying to clear it.

Canada took 10 minutes of penalties against the Czech Republic (not including Beaudoin’s big penalty), preventing any sustained pressure, repeating a pattern that saw them total 113 penalty minutes in five games – the most of any team by a mile.

Even when the team was at five-on-five, it couldn’t generate enough offense, in part because their best players weren’t playing.

Canada’s most dynamic player, 17-year-old Gavin McKenna, averaged just 15:23 throughout the tournament. Cameron finally relented and moved McKenna up to the top line with Easton Cowan and Ritchie midway through the quarterfinals, where McKenna played 18:41. The line buzzed when it was on the ice but couldn’t find the back of the net.

Maybe Cameron could have gotten his players in sync through the tournament with more reps.

Curiously, the day after Canada’s loss to Latvia, the Canadian team did not practice; the day after losing to the US, they didn’t practice; and on game day in a do-or-die game against the Czech Republic, they didn’t practice.

Cameron’s reasoning for having fewer practices was peculiar to a team made up of teenagers.

“Because we were exhausted,” Cameron said. “There is no system for tired hockey players.”

On Thursday, it looked like Canada would survive the first period down just 2-1 when the hapless Dickinson snarled to try to force an attack and was burned as the Czechs went down on another two-on-one. To add insult to injury, the Czech Republic later claimed a 3-1 lead with just 2.1 seconds left in the period.

Dickinson wouldn’t have been asked to do so much heavy lifting offensively if Canada had put more pure talent on their roster. Canada left defenders Zayne Parekh and Carter Yakemchuk sitting at home. Both had scored higher per game than Canada’s entire defense at the junior level except for Dickinson and Matthew Schaefer, who broke his collarbone in the second game of the tournament.

Meanwhile, high-scoring forwards Beckett Sennecke and Michael Misa were also left out of the squad. Why? Canada inserted pieces into their lineup like Tanner Howe, Mathieu Cataford, Ethan Gauthier and Cole Beaudoin with the goal of being more defensively sound, but their opponents played Czech book hockey to shut the team down (a joke for levity’s sake).

The Canadians couldn’t score and finished with 11 goals in five games with the lowest shooting percentage in the tournament at 6.34 percent.

Canada’s special teams let them down as well. Canada finished in the bottom half of the tournament, shooting 74.1 percent on the penalty kill and 21.1 percent on the power play, both ranked sixth in the tournament.

The power play was more effective against the Czech Republic. That got them back into the game as Porter Martone made a wonderful tip to cut the lead to 3-2. They then played their best period of the tournament, outshooting the Czech Republic 14-6. Bradly Nadeau scored by finishing off a rebound to tie the game at 3-3, seemingly sending the game into overtime. However, they were unable to capitalize on many more of their chances.

In the end, ill-timed penalties cost them the you-know-what when Andrew Gibson took a knee with less than three minutes left in the game. With 39.4 seconds left, Jecho snuck a shot past Carter George that the goaltender will be thinking about for a long, long time.

It ended for Canada as it was tied – allowing a goal on the kill after a premature penalty.

McKenna, likely the face of Canada’s team next year, wasn’t too happy with the referee.

“It speaks for itself, it was terrible,” McKenna said.

If you want to go glass half full, he is the future of Canadian hockey. A lot needs to change for McKenna and Canadian fans to replace tears of sadness with tears of joy.

The 2025 World Juniors in Ottawa should bring a flurry of memorable moments in Canadian hockey history, such as the Summit Series in 1972. Now it’s time for a different kind of summit. This will be needed within the organization of Hockey Canada.

What is clear is that Hockey Canada needs a new approach to this tournament, so their failure to reach the medal round is a blip and not a trend.