NHL analyst lashes out at Team Canada HC Dave Cameron over 'nonsensical beliefs' leading to team's WJC elimination

Dave Cameron's Hockey Canada lost 4-3 to Team Czechia in the World Junior Hockey Championship quarterfinals in heartbreaking fashion on Thursday night.

After storming back to tie the game at three, defenseman Andrew Gibson took a questionable kneeing penalty with just over two minutes remaining in the third period. The Czechs took advantage as Adam Jecho buried the game-winning goal with 40 seconds left.

Cameron had faced criticism for the majority of the tournament. His team never seemed to find any chemistry and the lack of offense was startling. It was an extremely disappointing showing from Team Canada, especially with the tournament being on home soil in Ottawa.

After a second straight year finishing in fifth place at the WJC, Canadian hockey fans and analysts were making their feelings known about the state of Hockey Canada.

On TSN's "First Up" this morning, NHL analyst Dave Feschuk expressed his thoughts to host Aaron Korolnek.

"Yeah, like his justification that there's no system for tired hockey players he took shots at," Feschuk said. "He tried to blame it on social media for being too hard on these kids. ... He talked about how there was no way he could replace Matthew Schaefer. ... They couldn't kill a penalty. Well, is that something you could practice? Probably."

Feschuk added:

"So, you know, they couldn't score on the power play. Is that something you could practice? Probably, would it take that much out of these 17, 18, 19, year old kids to get out there and walk through the power play a couple of times? I don't think so. Dave Cameron thought they were too exhausted to run through the power play or the penalty kill. This is ridiculous. ... This team was coached with nonsensical beliefs by a guy who did not appear to understand how to win games."

Dave Cameron and Hockey Canada faced lots of criticism for players who were left off the team

Dave Cameron and Hockey Canada were being questioned and criticized even before the 2024-25 tournament began. Several high-profile Canadian hockey players who were eligible to play in the WJC were left off the team.

When news of the official roster for the tournament came out, it was quite shocking to see the amount of players snubbed from the team. Beckett Sennecke, Zayne Parekh, Carter Yakemchuk, Michael Misa and Andrew Cristall were among the names expected to have made Team Canada.

Fans will never know how different the results would have been should these five players have been on the team. But it's clear that Cameron did not put together a team good enough to compete for gold at the World Juniors.