Congrats to the Canadian Junior Team for winning its 5th straight gold medal in the competition. This is the second time they have won 5 straight gold medals (the last time I believe was 1993-1997).
The question becomes why does our junior team do so well, but our senior team does so poorly comparatively?
Last major competition (I think it was the winter olympics) - I don't think we even made it out of the round robin. If I remember right - we lost to Switzerland and Finland among others.
I have a theory - it assumes two things I sort of take for granted:
1) Europeans play more of a skills game (skating, passing, shooting) and North Americans play more of a physical game (dump and chase, hitting in the corners, screening the goalies and picking up the garbage).
2) Canada has the best junior hockey infrastructure in place of any country in the world (coaches, players, rinks, leagues, interest, weather, etc....).
Here is my theory:
At the junior levels, there is a much bigger physical discrepancy between players (because kids mature at differents ages and at different rates). This allows Canada to choose players who are bigger and stronger than their European counterparts (because of the sheer number of players in the country). Combine this with the fact that the World Juniors are always played on NHL sized rinks (versus the bigger Oympic size rink), this makes the more physical gameplay much more effective.
Contrast this to the adults where most international tournaments are played on olympic size rinks (making pure hockey skills much more valuable) and the vast majority of humans are completely matured physically by their early to mid 20s. This maturation means that the European's are more than capable of taking the physical abuse the North Americans can dish out while still being more skilled at the game.
So Canada is generating players who will always be a force to be reckoned with at the junior level, but will be always be lacking at the senior level.
Discuss.
The question becomes why does our junior team do so well, but our senior team does so poorly comparatively?
Last major competition (I think it was the winter olympics) - I don't think we even made it out of the round robin. If I remember right - we lost to Switzerland and Finland among others.
I have a theory - it assumes two things I sort of take for granted:
1) Europeans play more of a skills game (skating, passing, shooting) and North Americans play more of a physical game (dump and chase, hitting in the corners, screening the goalies and picking up the garbage).
2) Canada has the best junior hockey infrastructure in place of any country in the world (coaches, players, rinks, leagues, interest, weather, etc....).
Here is my theory:
At the junior levels, there is a much bigger physical discrepancy between players (because kids mature at differents ages and at different rates). This allows Canada to choose players who are bigger and stronger than their European counterparts (because of the sheer number of players in the country). Combine this with the fact that the World Juniors are always played on NHL sized rinks (versus the bigger Oympic size rink), this makes the more physical gameplay much more effective.
Contrast this to the adults where most international tournaments are played on olympic size rinks (making pure hockey skills much more valuable) and the vast majority of humans are completely matured physically by their early to mid 20s. This maturation means that the European's are more than capable of taking the physical abuse the North Americans can dish out while still being more skilled at the game.
So Canada is generating players who will always be a force to be reckoned with at the junior level, but will be always be lacking at the senior level.
Discuss.
