Friday 8 January 2021

In a world juniors like no other, Canada had a good run

It can be easy to cannibalize of over-dissect a loss in the world of sports, especially if it happens with a program that has constant success.

On Tuesday, Canada entered the gold medal game at world junior men’s hockey championships, which were being held in a bubble environment at Rogers Place in Edmonton, Alta., in impressive fashion.

Though the preliminary, quarter-final and semifinal rounds, Canada had a 6-0 record outscoring its opponents 41-4. The record grows to 7-0, if you add in Canada’s 1-0 victory in exhibition play over Russia.

Canada, which topped Group A in the preliminary round, hadn’t trailed in any of its game at world juniors until hitting the gold medal game.

Throughout the day on Tuesday on various Canadian sports talk stations and media outlets, there was discussion that this was the best team Canada had ever sent to world juniors including the gold medal winning team featuring Sidney Crosby in the 2004-05 campaign.

The excitement all came down to a crashing thud with Canada falling 2-0 to the U.S.A. in a contest that had a huge following on Canadian television over the TSN airwaves.

Due to the fact there were no fans in the stands and no other hockey was taking place in Canada due to the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic that had gripped the world, the Canadian side that took the ice at this edition of the world juniors had arguably way more attention paid to it than any other Canadian team in the history of that tourney.

Opinions seemed to fly around everywhere about why Canada wasn’t able to win.

In all reality, the result of Tuesday’s gold medal game likely came from the fact Canada was playing in a one-game showdown. The United States did what it needed to do to win on that day.

During the first half of the game, the players on the United States side showed they weren’t afraid of the pedigree on the Canadian side and came out and played the game tenaciously. You could tell it truly meant a lot to the players on the United States side to win that contest.

In a one-game showdown, I think that whole aspect caught the Canadian side off guard. After the U.S. got ahead 2-0 early in the second, Canada had a lot of good chances in the final 10 minutes of the second to get back in the game.

The images of Canadian offensive-defenceman Bowen Byram hitting the post on a short-handed rush shortly after the midway point of the second likely won’t escape the minds of most of Canada’s supporters.

Canada could never get that traction goal to trigger a comeback. While Canada held a 15-1 edge in shots on goal in the third, the U.S. played a textbook defensive game in that frame and kept most of those chances on the outside.

Had both teams played another game 24 hours later, it can be argued that Canada might have won. If the battle for the gold medal was a best-of-three, best-of-five or best-of-seven series, Canada’s odds of gaining victory would be very good.

Still, star forward Trevor Zegras, netminder Spencer Knight and the rest of the U.S.A. side took the one-game showdown with Canada fair and square. The United States gets full marks for playing a great 60-minute game to claim victory.

On a side note, the officiating in the tournament had to grade out as being great in the tournament, so huge kudos to the crew there.

Canadian netminder Devon Levi couldn’t be faulted on any of the two goals the United States scored, and he was more than worthy of being a tournament all-star.

Canadian forward Dylan Cozens, who stars with the WHL’s Lethbridge Hurricanes, topped Canada in scoring with eight goals and eight assists for 16 points in seven games. He had a sensational tournament being named a tournament all-star.

Byram, who is a star of the WHL’s Vancouver Giants, was stellar at both ends of the ice and was also more than worthy of being named a tournament all-star.

On a Saskatchewan front, Kaiden Guhle, who is a defenceman for the WHL’s Prince Albert Raiders, had a solid tournament. Saskatchewan products in Prince Albert’s Braden Schneider, who plays defence for the WHL Brandon Wheat Kings, Yorkton’s Kaedan Korczak, who plays defence for the WHL’s Kelowna Rockets, and Saskatoon’s Connor Zary, who plays centre for the WHL’s Kamloops Blazers, all had strong tournaments.

Going back to the selection camp held in Red Deer, Alta., the Canadian side spent about 52 days together in a bubble environment. That included the fact the team had to go through a 14-day quarantine period in hotel rooms early in the selection camp due to positive COVID-19 tests.

In the exhibition game win over Russia, Canada lost captain and centre Kirby Dach with a fractured right wrist. Dach is a member the NHL’s Chicago Blackhawks and an alumnus of the WHL’s Saskatoon Blades.

Canada’s coaching staff led by head coach Andre Tourigny, who is the head coach of the OHL’s Ottawa 67’s, did a remarkable job that included dealing with pandemic induced factors no other Canadian world junior coaches had to deal with.

The assistant coaches should get big credit for ensuring thing kept going forward.

The assistant coaches included Mitch Love, who is the head coach of the WHL’s Saskatoon Blades, Tyler Dietrich, who is an assistant coach with the Blades, Michael Dyck, who is the head coach of the WHL’s Vancouver Giants, and goaltender coach Jason LaBarbera.

LaBarbera was the goaltending coach of the WHL’s Calgary Hitmen, but he moved over to become a full-time goalie coach for the NHL’s Calgary Flames before world juniors started. The Flames own the Hitmen.

Over a period of 14 days beginning on Dec. 23, 2020 with the exhibition game against Russia, Canada’s entry at the world juniors provided numerous thrills for a host country with most regions experiencing lockdown conditions to battle the COVID-19 pandemic.

Team Canada provided a welcomed breath of fresh air. It was just a winning result in the event’s gold medal game was not to be.

Original Hardy Trophy sits in Sask. Sports Hall of Fame

The original Hardy Trophy has a new home.

On Friday, the Saskatchewan Sports Hall of Fame showed pictures of the Hardy Trophy being dropped off on their grounds by Evan Daum, who had been the associate director of communications and marketing for the Canada West Conference.

The original Hardy Trophy was presented from 1922 to 1996 to the conference’s championship team in football. It pre-dates the U Sports national championship trophy for football – the Vanier Cup.

U Sports, which is the national umbrella the Canada West Conference plays under, first awarded the Vanier Cup in 1965 to the University of Toronto Varsity Blues.

The original Hardy Trophy was named in honour of Evan Hardy, who was the former head of the agricultural engineering department at the University of Saskatchewan. The trophy was first presented to the University of Alberta Golden Bears in 1922.

It was last presented on November 9, 1996 at Griffiths Stadium to the University of Saskatchewan Huskies after they downed the University of British Columbia Thunderbirds 37-16 in the Canada West title game.

The Huskies would move on to win that year’s Vanier Cup 31-12 over the St. Francis Xavier University X-Men.

The Huskies had a dynasty in the 1930s winning the original Hardy Trophy on five occasions in 1930, 1934, 1935, 1936, 1937 and 1938. The 1930 championship marked the Huskies first Canada West title win.

When the Huskies won the Canada West title in 1996, the original Hardy Trophy fell apart during the on field celebrations. It was replaced by the current trophy in 1997.

The original Hardy Trophy was forgotten at the U of Saskatchewan until finally being unearthed under a pile of storage boxes in 2008. Daum, who became the director of brand marketing and communications with the WHL’s Regina Pats this past November, had been the keeper of the original Hardy Trophy for the last four years after it was reassembled.

It is a sweet piece of Canadian sports history that the Saskatchewan Sports Hall of Fame now has.

Funds raised to help “Woodsy” on COVID-19 recovery trail

Warren Woods is best known as a warm feeling sports broadcaster in Regina, but he is now riding a lengthy comeback trail recovering from COVID-19.

“Woodsy,” who is 66-years-old, contracted COVID-19 in early this past December and has been fighting the virus and its effects at Regina General Hospital ever since.

Woods is in the recovery process and a GoFundMe campaign was started by 10 of his friends four days ago to help him with his medical needs. It is expected Woods will be needing physical therapy for the next year.

The campaign has a goal of $50,000 and has raised $52,513 at the time this post went live. Anyone who wants to donate to the campaign can do so by clicking right here.

Woods was an original member of the sports department with STV Regina when it first went on the air in 1987 and later became Global Regina. He became one of the hosts of Regina’s first half-hour nightly sportscast when Sportsline went on the air.

Woods is best remembered for hosting the show with the show’s other original host in Ron Rimer and later with Craig Adam.

In 2013, Woods moved to radio working in several roles for CJME.

Woods has covered sports of all sports and is best known for being around the football and curling circles or enjoying himself hitting numerous rounds of golf during the summer months. He is also a lifelong fan of the NHL’s Toronto Maple Leafs.

Woods has always been a guy everyone enjoys socializing with, and it is safe to say all who know him wish him well on the recovery trail.

If you have any comments you would like to pass along about this post, feel free to email them to stankssports@gmail.com.

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