Despite three losses at the start and even though Canada would have missed the knockout stage without outside help, Canada became the ice hockey world champion. Really cool story. Or not? There are good reasons for both assumptions.
So it’s good that Canada has become the world champion
- Through this special World Cup story of Canadians all the inspiration coaches have found a new prime example for their teaching. After three bankruptcies initially rising again, wiping their mouths and finally still reaching the summit, it can impressively show every team that mess that great things are still possible. If you don’t lose your trust and instead get even closer together. The Cinderella story of this Canadian World Cup team is likely to unfold in some cubicles in the coming years.
- There was talk of the worst team ever sent by Canada for the World Cup. None of the stars were excited to go to Europe in the time of the pandemic to take part in the bubble tournament. And not enough NHL players either – the roster also had to be supplemented with youth players from the AHL, WHL and NCAA. For example, the Canadian World Cup teams in 2017–2019 and 2008–2014 were nominally several times better, but none of them became world champions. It shows once again and this time particularly impressively: it is not the strongest individual player who makes the decisions, but the strongest team.
- Canadian striker superstars Sidney Crosby, Conor McDavid and John Tavares were not in Riga. It doesn’t matter either. Because Canada’s top line in the current World Cup with Andrew Mangiapen, Conor Brown and Adam Henrik played, scored and joined as if they were Crosby, McDavid and Tavares. Your spectacle has earned you gold.
- Canada’s world championship title was made possible by the fact that ice hockey is still an honest sport among gentlemen. And it was nice to see. Canada had to rely on outside help before the last match in the Germany vs Latvia group stage. Had these two teams agreed to a draw after 60 minutes, both would have been in the knockout stage for extra points and Canada would have been eliminated. But he didn’t, he decided to take the sporty route. Even seconds before the end, the Germans constantly threw themselves into shots from the unconditional Latvians to bring up their 2–1 victory on the round.
so it’s bad that canada become world champion
- Firstly, it’s not good because we Swiss really wanted to be world champions this year. But after a mostly solid performance in the preliminary round, Nati experienced an abrupt end to her big dream in the quarter-finals with a 2:3 loss following a penalty shoot-out against Germany. The opportunity in Riga looked so good.
- If you can allow yourself to start with three losses, a 2-0 loss against Latvia, a 5-1 loss against the USA and a 3-1 loss against Germany, in fact Embarrassed themselves, but can still win gold in the end, then this group devalues the importance of the stage.
- In theory, this does not speak in favor of Europe’s top leagues if Canada can afford to send a team that is so humble by their standards and still wins. Not for the KHL, not for the Swedish and Finnish leagues and not for our National League either.
- With their 27th World Cup title, Canadians have reason to smile at the ice hockey culture in Europe and look even more proud in the future. It really didn’t have to happen.