Hockey Canada president faces music after WJC disaster.
Hockey Canada president and CEO Katherine Henderson faces the music on Saturday after disaster at WJC.
The brass at Hockey Canada will no doubt be dealing with the fallout from the country's catastrophic appearance at the International Ice Hockey Federation's World Junior Championship tournament and that began on Saturday when president and CEO of Hockey Canada, Katherine Henderson, faced the media while flanked by chairman Jonathan Goldbloom and senior vice presidents Scott Salmond and Dean McIntosh.
No amount of answers from Henderson would have satisfied the contingent of Canadian hockey fans that are furious with how this team was constructed and how it eventually performed at the tournament, but to Hockey Canada's credit the top brass began by taking accountability for the team's clear underperformance.
"We will look to get better," said Salmond. "We will make changes. And we will be better."
Of course the fact that she was flanked by many of those responsible for making the decisions that led to this catastrophe, all of whom will be remaining in their positions for at least the time being, made those comments ring hollow to some. When pressed on what Hockey Canada needed to change, Scott Salmond again fielded that question.
"We'll look at our selection process for sure," said Salmond of the process he oversaw. "We'll look at how we build teams. ... Skill. We'll be criticized and probably should be criticized about how this team was constructed."
Henderson was asked herself about what she would say to furious Canadian fans who spent big money on ticket packages expecting to see their team make a deep run, and her response I suspect won't satisfy any of those fans.
"Anyone who bought a package is going to see unbelievable hockey," said the president and CEO of Hockey Canada. "While it feels unthinkable, it certainly has happened in the past. There was a time when Canada came eighth. So what you do is you go back and you look at where are we right now, what is it that we've done in the past that we should no longer do, and what should we do more of?"
While it is commendable that Hockey Canada's top brass was willing to face the music after such a disastrous tournament, I don't anticipate that this will do much, if anything, to diminish the criticism that has been directed at this organization, its management, or even the roster of players they constructed for this tournament.