Players and coaches fire back at IIHF for cancelling World Juniors

In case you missed the news earlier today, the 2022 World Junior Championships has been cancelled.

What an absolute preventable shame. Shame on the IIHF for mishandling things so badly.

Yesterday team USA was forced to forfeit their game against Switzerland after two players tested positive for COVID-19 and their entire team was forced into quarantine. Today Russia was forced to forfeit their game against Slovakia for the same reasons, ditto for Czechia against Finland.

I literally cannot believe this is happening... but then again how many times have I said that to myself in 2020 and 2021?

And I'm not the only person out there who is perplexed by this decision. Players and coaches are taking to social media to express their disappointment and outright anger toward the IIHF for this decision.

Finnish head coach Antti Pennanen:

"I am angry because this was not a COVID problem, but the problem was that this was a poorly run tournament. ... This says a lot about the state of the IIHF."

- Antti Pennanen

Interestingly enough, USA head coach Nate Leaman responded to Pennanen's statement simply saying, "100 percent."

Swedish goalie and Pittsburgh Penguins prospect Calle Clang:

"Feels completely absurd, you are mostly in shock. The dreams were extinguished in a second. Feels actually completely sick, we could complete last year's WJC but not this year, which is very strange."

- Calle Clang

I feel for these guys... I really do...

It's safe to say that the players and coaches are NOT happy about the IIHF's decision and neither are fans and media members. Check out some of these reactions:

In their explanation of what exactly transpired today, multiple TSN analysts put forth the idea of rescheduling the tournament during the 2022 Winter Olympics or for sometime in June or July, 2022. More to come on that.

"It's not impossible to reschedule the tournament," said TSN analyst Craig Button. "But there are huge obstacles in the way of it."

"The perfect outcome would be to hold the World Juniors during the Women's U-18 tournament," said James Duthie. "It makes sense, James but... there's NHL development camps, there's lots going on in the hockey world at that time. Yes, we know the schedule can be tight but that window is there because there's less stress on other leagues. It seems that that might be the very best time for player availability."

In all honesty though, this was an entirely predictable outcome and if the IIHF wasn't prepared to "push through" a rash of positive test cases, then the entire tournament should have been held in a bubble like it was in 2020/2021. You may recall that last year the tournament ran without a hitch while the players quarantined themselves in hotels, restaurants and Edmonton's Rogers Place. 

This year the IIHF elected to open things back up a bit and... well here we are. Again, entirely predictable. If the IIHF wasn't prepared to deal with a number of positive test cases then they either should have run this entire tournament in a bubble or they should have outright cancelled or postponed it. It's clear to me that there was a ridiculous lack of foresight and now the IIHF is scrambling to get things under control... in the end it's hockey fans who pay the ultimate price. So tired of this...