Canada 5 – Finland 2 | Too early to assess the potential of this team

Most experts agree: the Canadian team is not offering a great vintage this year at the World Junior Championship.

We can’t do without Connor Bedard, Adam Fantilli, Shane Wright, Zach Benson and defender Kevin Korchinski, retained in the professional ranks, without suffering.

As if Canada wasn’t already handicapped enough by these major losses, two of the team’s best defenders, Tristan Luneau and Tanner Molendyk, withdrew early in the tournament due to injuries. Luneau was invaluable due to his experience over the past few months in the NHL with the Anaheim Ducks.

For one of the rare times in its history, the Canadian team could count on a single veteran of the previous tournament, and again, Owen Beck, the Canadian’s hope, played only three matches last year after an emergency recall once the tournament had already started.

Canada nevertheless won 5-2 against the Finns in its opening match on Tuesday in Sweden, in a match that was closer than the score indicated, due in part to two goals scored into an empty net. by Canadian training.

Finland is generally synonymous with power. With the exception of Canada and the United States, it is the only nation to have won this tournament in the last ten years. She did it three times.

But the Finns have been experiencing a slump for two years. They finished fifth last year. Only Slovakia, Latvia, Germany, Switzerland and Austria had done worse and their training is even more depleted this year, with the loss of their leader Joakim Kemell, retained in the American League by the Nashville Predators and Topi Ronni, under investigation for rape.

We will therefore have to wait until Friday, during the match against the powerful Swedes – favorites with the Americans – to measure the value of Canada’s team.

Big goal from Macklin Celebrini

Connor Bedard’s 23 points in seven games during last year’s tournament in his NHL draft eligibility year, at just 17 years old, made us lose all sense of measurement.

Players of this age, even the most gifted, rarely earn a position with the Canadian team and when they do, generally have a modest impact against opposition made up of mostly 19-year-old players.

Nathan MacKinnon, for example, had just one assist in six games on a fourth line in his only tournament with Canada, in 2013.

The consensus first overall pick in the next draft, Macklin Celebrini, 25 points in 16 games at Boston University this season, started the tournament on the fourth trio. In addition to showing some good offensive flashes, Celebrini scored the winning goal in the third period. Here is a young center destined for a bright future.

A defensive role for Owen Beck

Center Owen Beck is the only Canadian representative on the Canadian team. Beck, an early second-round pick in 2022, impressed at his first training camp with the CH last year, to the point where some wondered if he wouldn’t be retained in the NHL at 18. only.

Beck is an efficient, intelligent, fast and defensively responsible player. However, we do not expect much offensive production from him in the National Hockey League.

He was also given a defensive role with Canada as part of a third line. With six numerical inferiorities, Beck was busy against Finland, although he was in the penalty box in the first following a check that was a little too sustained during the initial period.

His trio, completed by the first round pick (9^e overall) of the Detroit Red Wings in 2023, Nate Danielson, and undrafted Owen Allard was the best Tuesday. They produced two of their club’s three goals.

Next match Wednesday against the Latvians, in principle one of the weak teams in the tournament.