Don Cherry knows exactly who to blame for Team Canada’s elimination at the WJC!

It still feels like a nightmare across Canada. For the first time in the history of the World Juniors, Canada has failed to advance beyond the quarter-final round for consecutive seasons.Canada’s self-inflicted mistakes led to goals throughtout the entire tournament, and fans are furious the players, head coach Dave Cameron and his staff and Hockey Canada’s management.

Defenseman Andrew Gibson, who was in the penalty box for kneeing with just over two minutes to go, leading to Adam Jecho scoring the game-winner for Czechia on the power play with 40 seconds remaining in the third period, has even received death threats.

However, former Canadian hockey coach and NHL analyst Don Cherry came to the defense of Canadian players, sending this message on social media about the elimination:

“Don’t be too hard on the kids. They tried their best. They seemed tight all tournament. Hockey Canada has to get with it and hire full-time coaches for the World Jrs, Under 18, Under 17 and get some consistency.”

Grapes is so right about this, even though Cameron, when asked he had any regrets as to how the tournament played out, simply stated, “No.”

Canada’s lack of discipline played a huge part in the quarter-final games as it did the entire tournament. And instead of sending a message and leaving some players on the bench for their indiscipline, Cameron kept saying that the WJC tournament was too short to start punishing players. Canada was by far the most penalized team at the event and was short-handed 27 times.

I agree with the Coach!