"The debacle that ensued": NHL analyst rips into Hockey Canada's 'pathetic performance' in World Juniors

NHL analyst Aaron Korolnek and Toronto Star columnist Dave Feschuk slammed Hockey Canada's loss at the World Juniors. Hockey Canada suffered a 3-4 upset to Czechia in the quarterfinals for the second year in a row.

Team Canada tied the game twice, clawing back a 1-3 and 0-1 deficit before Adam Jecho scored the winning power-play goal for the Czechs at 19:20 of the third period. Czechia was awarded a power play after Canada defenseman Andrew Gibson was called for kneeing. Petr Sikora, Jakub Stancl and Eduard Sale also scored for the Czechs. Tanner Howe, Porter Martone and Bradly Nadeau scored for Canada.

During Korolnek’s TSN podcast First Up, the duo discussed the reasons behind the loss and criticized Team Canada coach Dave Cameron. Aaron Korolnek called Canada’s performance “pathetic” and refused to accept any excuses.

“The fact that Canada lost to Czechia in back-to-back years in the quarter-finals of the World Juniors is unfathomable, and I'm not trying to disrespect the Czechs who clearly have taken some serious strides in their program. But come on, that cannot happen. An embarrassment last night,” Korolnek said.

Korolnek held Dave Cameron, the coach of Team Canada, primarily responsible for the loss,

"We'll talk a lot about Dave Cameron, the coach of Team Canada, who I will make a personal guarantee, never coaches for any Canadian faction again after the debacle that ensued over the course of that tournament there," he said.

Meanwhile, Dave Feschuk called Canada’s showing “an embarrassment,” refusing to accept that bad referee calls led to the loss. He also agreed with Korolnek’s criticism of the coach.

“This team was coached with nonsensical beliefs by a guy who did not appear to understand how to win games…," Feschuk said. "They couldn't kill a penalty. Well, is that something you could practice? Probably."

Czechia reached the World Juniors semifinals for the second straight year and will play the United States. Last year, they defeated Canada 3-2 in the World Juniors quarterfinals in Sweden.

World Juniors loss exposes bigger issues with Team Canada

Aaron Korolnek and Dave Feschuk also pointed to more significant problems within the Team Canada machinery. They both commented on the team’s lackluster showings in the tournament over the past few years.

"The guys they brought were good enough to compete in this tournament. But forget last night. They lost to Latvia, dude. Yeah, they lost to Latvia and they got dominated by the (United) States, and they lost to Czechia…It could have been Canada out three straight years,” Korolnek said.

He referred to the 2023 World Junior Championship quarterfinal match in which Canada nearly lost to Slovakia. That night, Connor Bedard scored in overtime to spare Canadian blushes.

“So this is not some isolated incident, some bad break game. This is a pattern here. A really ugly, disturbing pattern of Canada falling short at a tournament it cares more about than anybody else on this planet,” Feschuk added.