With the round robin of the World Junior Hockey Championships now in the books, Canadians have been glued to their televisions to watch the fate of 22 teenagers in their quest for gold.
Heading into the tournament, there was much debate in the media regarding the Canadian dominance of the event in recent years. Sure Team Canada has won the event five years in a row.
Do we need to be reminded that the Canadian entry was just over five seconds away from playing for bronze instead?
Or how about in 2008 when Team Canada needed overtime to beat Sweden in the gold medal game?
Have the Canadians had an easy road to those gold medal wins? At times, yes. But when it comes to medal round games, it hasn’t been an easy ride all the time for Team Canada. Watching Team Canada defeat teams 16-0 like the did against Latvia over the weekend isn’t fun, but keep in mind, other top hockey nations are doing the same things (Sweden over the Czech Republic 10-1 anyone?).
Sure there have been a lot of easy games along the way, but in the World Junior Tournament that’s what winning gets you. The schedule for each tournament is set by the results from the year before. You win gold, you get an easier round robin schedule. It’s pretty hard to fault Team Canada for that.
For those that say Team Canada has an unfair advantage playing on home ice on a regular basis and that plays a role in their routine success…it’s certainly hard to argue.
But in the current streak of five gold medals in a row, Team Canada has won jut two in Canada, although the 2005 gold medal win was split between North Dakota and Minnesota and the crowds were predominately Canadian. The other two tournaments saw Canadian wins in the Czech Republic and Sweden.
Between 1999 and 2004 Canada won four silver medals (1999, 2002, 2003 and 2004) and two bronze (2000 and 2001) and in those six tournaments, the host country did not win gold.
What about the last Canadian gold medal streak you ask?
During the original drive for five between 1993 and 1997, Team Canada won struck gold on home ice just once. The other four tournaments were on foreign soil.
Come to think of it, the way Team Canada has succeeded on both home and foreign ice where the tournament is played isn’t as big a deal as many would have you believe either.
At the end of the day, maybe the so-called Canadian dominance isn’t as big of a problem as some would want you to believe.
