"Rest of the world catching up" - Ex-NHLer issues his opinion on Canada's shock early World Juniors exit

Former Canadian professional hockey player Kevin Bieksa believes Team Canada’s shock exit from the World Juniors was because of improving standards in junior hockey in other countries. Czechia knocked Canada out of the tournament in the quarterfinals for the second year in a row.

Bieksa played for the Vancouver Canucks and Anaheim Ducks in the NHL as a two-way defenceman. He co-hosts Hockey Night in Canada on Sportsnet. On Saturday, he pointed out that the recent tournament results indicated a parity in minor hockey, especially across the border with the USA.

“As Canadians, we believe that we dominate minor hockey and the NHL," Biieksa said. "You're going to see it in the Four Nations tournament. There was a guy named Wayne Gretzky who grew hockey in the south. Now you got Phoenix, you got Dallas, you got LA — all hockey hotbeds to go with Michigan, Chicago.

"I have seen retired NHL players stay back and develop minor hockey. Now you have all these American kids, America has 335 million people, with great NHL coaching. So it’s not so much a reflection on Canada but the rest of the world is catching up."

Team Canada’s subpar performance in the IIHF World Juniors 2025 has led to a storm of outrage among the nation’s hockey fans. GM Peter Anholt and HC Dave Cameron in particular have seen the ire of fans. Easton Cowan was also trolled online.

The team management’s decisions during the tournament also drew a lot of flak from pundits and the hockey community in Canada.

“That was a close game” - Kevin Bieksa on Canada losing in the World Juniors quarterfinals

Kevin Bieksa thinks that the Canada-Czechia quarterfinal game was a close one and that their loss was chiefly due to a few unlucky moments rather than an overall lack of quality.

“The third period Canada dominated," Bieksa said. "They tied the game; they had a bad coach’s challenge; they lost some momentum, which happens. Then they had a bad penalty with two minutes left, and that’s the game. But it was close.”

Team Canada fought back after going 0-1 and 1-3 down to tie the game at 3-3. With less than five minutes left, Canada defenseman Andrew Gibson was called for kneeing and Czechia was awarded a power play. Adam Jecho scored the winning goal for the Czechs at 19:20 in the third period.