The Athletic Hockey Show - Latvia upsets Canada in World Juniors stunner

Episode Date: December 27, 2024

Max, Corey, and Scott break down Latvia’s historic 3-2 shootout victory over Canada at the World Juniors moments after the game and discuss what went wrong for Canada, the significance of the win for Latvia, Matthew Schaefer’s injury, expectations for the Canadians going forward in the tournament, and more.Hosts: Max Bultman and Corey PronmanWith: Scott WheelerExecutive Producer: Chris FlanneryProducer: Chris Flannery Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This is the Athletic Hockey Show Prospect Series. Hey, everybody. Max Boltman here, alongside the athletic Scott Wheeler and Corey Pranman for an emergency episode of the athletic hockey show prospect series. Canada falling to Latvia at the World Juniors in a shootout. Guys, I was at the Red Wings game all night. I was watching Tom McClellan's debut as Red Wings head coach. I didn't watch a minute of this game.

So, Corey, I'm going to need you to tell me what on earth happened to get to this result. Yeah, obviously, an historic day. I mean, there's always surprises and major upsets at times at the world juniors. But for Latvia, junior team to beat Canada, junior team, which is traditionally a game that ends something along the lines of 9-1 or 10-2 in favor of Canada. Then to lose the game was just, it's quite frankly stunning. And we'll get into this later and, you know, and talk about how Canada's, you know, we'll argue they had plenty of scoring chances.

They had plenty of puck possession. They had a ton of shots. But this did not feel like a game that they had in control. This was not a game where they were generating odd men rushes, getting grade A scoring chances, second chance opportunities at the net. Did they play well? Yes. but it really never felt like they were truly grabbing this game.

And in general, even though they were getting a lot of scoring chances and shots, it felt like a lot of times they were just playing on the outside. They seemed like they were looking to go for the perfect play a lot. And it just left them open to Lafayette getting the couple of things. the couple of scoring chances they did, two power play goals late in the third period, and those chances just happened to go in, and it's a combination of factors,

but to me what it comes down to is I didn't love Canada's blue line playing in general following the injury of Matthew Schaefer in the first period, and then two, I look at this team, and I wonder who is the go-to player on this team, which is the go-to line? Who is the player they can lean on to consistently generate offense? And it felt on both of those fronts they were lacking.

I thought they played horribly for what it's worth. I don't think they played well in almost any area. And we can get to it. But they had maybe half a dozen chances in the game. I asked Dave Cameron post-game, how many of your 56 shots on goal? did you feel were good looks? And he said he thought he had six to eight goals, or the looks out of his team tonight.

And I didn't see six to eight good chances in the game for Team Canada. It was wristers from distance, no second quick, nobody to the net. It was shocking how they looked, I thought. You had a great quote from Cameron. I mean, he said, you know, full marks to Lafayette. We had 56 shots. They blocked and what they didn't block. Their goalie blocked.

I don't know what the ozone time would be, but we spent most of the time in the open. zone. You probably play that game and we win it nine out of ten times. It does not sound like you're particularly buying that as a takeaway from this, though. Just the fact that Dave Cameron is talking about winning a game nine out of 10 times against Latvia speaks to, I think, an alarming amount of accountability. He said that they were fine. And he's a coach. He's got to get his team for the rest of this tournament. He said that they were fine. He repeatedly said that they had the looks that it was hallmarks to Latvia. Team Canada isn't supposed to be giving

full marks to Lafeya. Lafeya is not supposed to get full marks from Team Canada on anything in a hockey game at this level. So I don't know. I could not believe how they looked. The power play is horrendous. Team Canada lost in the quarterfinals last year. Last year's team was horrible. They beat Lafayia 10-0 a year ago at this tournament. For me, there's no excuses. They didn't get goal lead. It's none of that for me. It's just, just a roster that I think is ill-conceived. I think it's a coaching staff that doesn't really understand its players and hasn't, to this point in the tournament, at least, adequately or appropriately used their players, especially on the power play where they've just got guys in all of the wrong spots, guys in spots that they've never played in on their teams coming up. Jack Ivan Kovic was their best player tonight.

Like, their goalie was their best player tonight. They had chances late in the game that they just didn't get sticks on on little backdoor plays, they could have won the game in overtime. Tanner Mollandike almost got beaten over. Like there were several moments. They were undisciplined as Canada often is at this tournament. From top down, I think there's a lot of blame to go around. Like, I don't think this is a small, I mean, we all know it's not a small thing,

but this is one of the biggest upsets in the history of this tournament. It's not the biggest upset in the history of this tournament. And it might have been one of the biggest upsets in the history of the tournament, even if they won it overtime or even if they, pulled out and pulled it out in a shootout. It's unacceptable if you're hockey Canada year after losing in the quarterfinals and telling the media again and again

through pre-tournament through selection camp that this was different, that they knew these players going back to the Halenka. Peter Anholz has been the management group lead for these players all the way back to the Halenka. He says it's the age group. He knows the best and still the result is one of the most disappointing results ever for hockey Canada.

You don't want to get into the minutia of the map. But if you really look at like what the pregame odds were, it shouldn't be that they should be beating Latvia nine times out of ten. It should be that they're beating Latvia 499 times out of 500. Like it should have been, they should never have really been in the game. But they just they hung around and due to all the reasons that we cited before. And I don't think you want to let it's a tough tightrope to walk because I'm On the one hand, yes, Canada did have a bunch of shots. And they still had scoring chances and they had plenty of opportunities to win this game.

But it should never have come down to that. And I think, and we'll get into this, but there are some serious issues when you look at this roster right now. And you wonder with the limitations they have based on just how a double IHF tournament is and how much of the rosters are already been registered. and who they decided to bring is what's the path forward for them right now. Well, let's just go there right now. Like obviously, back at Seneca is a highly skilled player, a potential difference bigger who was left off this roster.

Carson Rekhov, we kind of thought was on the roster, and then yet he's not registered. He's not in uniform here. How much does this amplify the questions around Canada's roster build here, Scott? Well, I think on RACOP, I mean, I go back to the power play. Canada's power play has looked horrible. they don't truly on either one of their units have a one-shot score, a game-breaking shooter. Carson Racoff led the OHL in PowerPlay goals a year ago.

He has something like 72 goals, I believe the number is, in his last 87 OHL games. And still, despite the fact that they started the term in 0 for 6 in the power play, finished one for seven after Calam Ritchie scored on a one-timer late in the game tonight for two games, I'm not sure they like Carson Rekoff or want to use Carson Rekoff. I thought they underutilized him to a certain degree on last year's team and certainly on this year's team. And after the way he played at selection camp, the way he filled the net at selection camp,

he feels like an obvious guy that should enter the fold here. They haven't registered their three healthy scratches, I think because they wanted to leave the door open to the potential of actually bringing someone who wasn't among their initial 25 into the fold if things went south. So I wonder about that now, now that things have gone south and now that Matthew Schaefer's out, is Sawyer Minio, who's been there,

their scratch defenseman, is Sawyer Minio even the type of player that they want to replace Matthew Schaefer with or do they bring a Zane Perak into the fold, for example? So, so many questions still for Canada to answer. They're going to get another opportunity to have the points night that I think they probably thought they were all going to have tonight against Germany before they face USA, but now they're up against it to win the group. They're up against it in terms of the way that people are perceiving the team. And the pressure is as high as I can remember it this early in a tournament on a team Canada. The blue line to me is probably the biggest issue without Schaefer,

and that I thought through the pre-tournament and then the first four periods of the regular tournament, I thought Schaefer was the only defenseman who was consistently creating offense for this group, with just how great a skater he is, his ability to get up into the rush. He looked like he was making a ton of creative plays from the blue line. I just thought he was the only guy out there

who was going to really move the needle for that blue line offensively. And now without him, you look like, you know, with all due respect to Oliver Bonk, Tanner Mullinick, Sam Dickinson, all exceptional players who are going to have very good NHL careers. They just haven't really been doing much offensively, haven't been really making many creative plays with the puck. So I really wonder what they do with the blue line. And I do think it does open the door potentially,

even though Sawyer-Mignio technically didn't make King Canada, I do think it's definitely a debate as to whether they register him if Schaefer can't come back, which I don't know for sure what that Parnosis is going to be, or if they go externally to add a legit powerplay quarterback like a Zane Perak. What do we know about Schaefer's status right now, Scott? No update from Dave Cameron postgame, not a huge surprise. I'll try to tech some people tonight and sort of get into the morning,

get a more concrete answer. they said he was being looked at. It didn't look good. He went down in a heap and sort of skated off immediately. He seemed to be favoring his shoulder. But that's a huge blow. As Corey said, Schaefer was, if not their best defenseman through the tournament here, then certainly in the conversation through four periods

and a major, major, major loss for them, regardless of who they bring in to replace him. Now, I'm sure some people will look at this result and what happened here, and they'll argue, well, If you really look at the history of international hockey, Latvia always pushes teams to the brink at various levels. There are such a competitive hockey culture. They make games close. You remember the Olympics against Canada a long time ago or even various results of the men's world championships?

This is a country that prides itself on its competitiveness. But at the junior level is not supposed to be that way, really. There's a difference between competing hard and pushing Canada to the brink. I don't mind beating a team Canada. And the other side of that coin is this team Canada was constructed in a way where its compete level was kind of supposed to be what was the main thing that was going to stand out about this group. They had a bottom six that was supposed to be built in terms of this way that was going to be really hardworking, big, physical, fast. And they didn't really feel that way in this game. even against Finland kind of the same way too in the first game.

This was not a team that I thought was really bullying its opponents, wearing them down physically, overpowering them, getting to the net to create chances. So I look at this candidate team. It doesn't seem really dynamic offensively. It doesn't seem like their competitiveness is off the charts. Just a team that's really lacking in identity right now. And we'll see if they can find that going forward into the hard game,

such as the one on New Year's Eve and ultimately the medal round. Ethan Goethe, who was supposed to be one of those sort of energy guys, go-getter, Forchequer, competitive, new identity players for this group after they were so disappointed in the competitiveness of last year's team, barely touched the ice tonight late in the game. So if someone's going to come out for a player like Carson Raycock, for example, as we head into Germany in a couple of days, I would expect that it's probably Goetje. I want to talk about the significance of this for Latvia, Corey, because you talked about kind of their brand as this competitive hockey nation.

Where does this rank among the greatest moments for Latvian hockey? It's up there, right up there with the world championship performance a couple of years ago, where they want silver on home ice. It's, you know, I mean, the Latvian hockey federation isn't the biggest one, but they've found a way to get a lot out of, a low amount of talent on their rosters at times, but this is even compared to how they've played at other events. And it's kind of funny that they often are not even at the top level.

I mean, that's kind of the status of their hockey nation. Sometimes at their top level, sometimes they're in the B group. It's got to be one of their greatest, if not their greatest moment in their programs history. Worth noting, too, Latvia is the ninth seed in this tournament. if Russia and Belarus were still participating in this thing, there's a chance that they might not even be playing here. Just late in the game when some of those big plays happened, the shootout goal,

their brass were sitting right in front of us in the press box here at the Canadian Tire Center. And they were literally jumping up and down, hugging each other, giddy. They were turning around and fist pumping the press behind them. Like, it was a sight. And that's what this is all about. We always hear about the need for this tournament

to shrink in too many blowouts without Russia. Then you get reminded of nights like this, why these teams participate and why it's important to grow the game. I think that obvious question on a lot of our listeners' minds are going to be, okay, there's got to be some prospect here that I got to know about if Lafee is going to upset Canada. I don't know if that's Lennards Feldbergs, the goalie here.

I don't know if it's Eric's Mateko, who scored the game-winning goal in the shootout. But, Corey, is there a prospect here that fans should go, hey, this guy's on my radar now? I think Batako's going to play in the NHL. I don't know if it's going to be in a major role, but he's big, he's hard, he's got some goal scoring touch. The feet are kind of heavy,

but I think there's a path for him to be a bottom six forward for Washington. Seat have come a long way to, like, they were a major issue early on, and they actually took to calling him the moose in St. John because of how sloppy and sort of damby he looked like. And they're still not great, but he's made enough progress there that you start to wonder, hey, maybe he's got a chance. Super high compete level, too. Yeah.

Last thing I want to get both you on, and I'll start with Scott here. Does this change your perspective or your expectations at all in this tournament for Team Canada? I know there were some roster questions coming in that I'm sure this kind of validates, but in terms of your predictions for Team Canada,

I think both of you picked them for gold. Does it change your prediction there? How does this shake this up, Scott? Absolutely. It's hard at that age. even if they are a better team than this, you go down the list of reasons that they can be better and that they can bounce back and still win gold

and they might, it's hard for teenagers in this setting with these stakes in front of 18,000 people when they've just been through what they've been through. I think it's going to be a hard mental hurdle for this team to overcome here. I think the coaching staff has a lot of things that they still have to figure out

and I'm not sure they're well positioned to do that. So, yeah, if I'm picking it today, if I'm sort of redoing my predictions, I think you have to look at the Americans. And the Americans, frankly, against Germany, weren't particularly convincing despite a 10-4 win. Their defense in that game also looked vulnerable and a little flawed in a lot of ways.

I'm not sure who David Carl trusts on his blue line either. So there are questions for all of these teams and the door is still open for Canada. It's not like we've slammed it shut here, but I'm not feeling confident in any way about this team Canada after tonight. Yeah, I would probably say USA is the favorite. right now and then you probably have from what I've seen for the first two days is probably some

combination of Canada and Sweden would be the two three for me in some order just based on the way the seating's probably going to go if you know I would bet USA beats Canada on New Year's Eve I wouldn't feel confident about that I could easily go the other way but I had one way coming into the tournament and I would lean USA over Canada right now in terms of how I think New Year's Eve is going to go and ultimately how I think the tournament could go. I think we couldn't see USA pump Latvia tomorrow too. And then that's sort of, I mean, it'll be a back to back for Latvia, which is a very tough situation after the high of tonight.

The fact, we'll be further evidence of the worry. Yeah, I mean, if Lasfia can get up for that game, it would be just incredible to be quite honest. Like, just after what they just went through tonight. The question might be, are they going to go to sleep tonight before that game? I'm sure there'll be quite the celebrations. for that team tonight. A shocking day in Ottawa at the World Juniors,

Latvia Upsets Canada. Scott Wheeler and Corey Prondman. Thanks so much for listening. We'll talk to you soon.