World Juniors: Reinforcements on the way to Canada

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With a suddenly nervous and critical country looking over its shoulder, Canada calmly turns to its bullpen as it enters must-win territory for its hopes of finishing first in Group A at the World Junior Hockey Championship.

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As for the goal of winning gold, the home team realizes that they must immediately go into “must be better” mode.

Sawyer Mynio, a point-per-game defenseman in the Ontario Hockey League, got the call to replace the irreplaceable Matthew Schaefer — who suffered what is reported to be a broken collarbone in the loss Friday’s shocking game against Latvia — also known for its solid defensive play.

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Carson Rehkopf, a big forward (6-2, 200 pounds) who has scored 72 goals in his last 87 OHL games, should help save an offense that is struggling to finish.

Mynio and Rehkopf were innocent bystanders and healthy scratches when Canada, favorites to win the tournament early on, shockingly fell short in a 3-2 final against Latvia, leaving them waiting of a victory against Germany on Sunday. .

As expected, Canada fell to second place on Saturday, when Latvia battled the Americans but surrendered three straight goals midway through a 5-1 loss.

With all teams now having played two matches, Group A has the USA leading with six points, Canada with four, Finland with three and Latvia with two, while Germany are last with zero in the column.

On the B side, Czechia and Sweden are tied for first place with six points, while Slovakia have three and Switzerland and Kazakhstan have none.

Canadian players look in the mirror.

“It was a (crappy) feeling,” front-line winger Bradly Nadeau said Saturday morning about digesting the loss to a Latvian team she was expected to beat the same way Czechia throttled the Kazakhstan (14-2) on Saturday and the United States beat Germany (10-4) on Friday. “We all know what this group is capable of, and losing this game is not our norm. I think we’re going to bounce back and do it even stronger.

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Putting pucks on net wasn’t a problem as Canada held a 57-26 lead on the shot clock through three periods and through the five-minute 3-on-3 overtime.

Opportunity conversion was – again.

Not counting Schaefer’s empty-net goal in the tournament-opening 4-0 win over Finland, Canada has scored just five goals on 96 shots in two games.

As good as Linards Feldbergs was in the Latvian net, too many pucks he stopped came from the perimeter and with not enough traffic in front of him.

“We had shots fired. We missed a few as well,” said Nadeau, who added that going forward, the Canadiens need to do a better job of “keeping things simple, sticking to our game plan and working hard in all situations.” .

“We had to score (a few) more goals, that’s obvious,” he added. “But I think the effort was there. We just couldn’t get the rebounds we needed and obviously didn’t get the result we wanted.

Defender Oliver Bonk also noticed that the sun rose on Saturday, figuratively speaking.

“I don’t think we played bad last night,” Bonk said. “We didn’t play our best, but it wasn’t a horrible or terrible game on our part. I think we just have to play like we played against Finland. We had a very good match against them. I think we just need to get back to it.

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Many armchair critics across the country are not interested in such reasoning.

These are oxymorons.

They have short memories, forgetting the match against Finland, and long memories, with the bitter taste of last year’s fifth place in their mouths.

The latter are displayed in their lack of patience.

On social media, they’re already going after Canada’s experienced decision-makers for not having guys like Michael Misa, the 17-year-old Saginaw Spirit forward who overtook Gavin McKenna as the league leader, on the roster. Canadian hockey team with 61 points. (including 30 goals) in 30 games, and fellow Oakville native Nick Lardis, the 19-year-old Chicago Blackhawks prospect with 29 goals in 32 games for the Brantford Bulldogs.

Critics also lament the fact that Beckett Sennecke, the third overall pick in last June’s National Hockey League draft, who has 23 goals in 28 games with the Oshawa Generals, was not retained at camp selection of the Canadian junior team.

They’re not in the mood to hear details about why these offensive stars aren’t on the roster.

Coach Dave Cameron is also under fire and pressure for decisions such as not having his Ottawa 67s captain Luca Pinelli, who has scored 69 goals in his last 94 games, and Cameron regularly designated as a natural scorer, among the eight players who all came up empty in the shootout, in place of Porter Martone, who had gathered dust playing a record 7:13 of the 65 minutes of Friday.

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Or having Bonk, who is used to playing the power play bumper role, as the best player, while his London Knights teammate Sam Dickinson has more than double the number of power play goals than anyone another OHL defenseman.

Or the overtime penalty for having too many men on the ice when one player was too slow to get off the ice while another was too quick to jump on.

Of course, all complaints will be forgotten if Canada uses Latvia’s defeat as a wake-up call in its race for the gold medal.

“I thought we played really hard,” Peter Anholt, the voice of Canada’s management group, said of Friday’s game. “We controlled the batch of pucks. We created chances. Their goalkeeper was really good and they defended very well. I think in most cases, 99 times out of 100, we win this game, but we didn’t, and you have to give back to Caesar what is Caesar’s.

“In the end, we haven’t given up a goal yet at 5-on-5. We lost the specialty teams game (Friday). But I think, for the most part, it’s a process. We know we are in a world championship tournament. There are good teams and you are going to encounter obstacles along the way. This is where we are.

Asked if he saw any shades of last year’s team in the current edition, Anholt replied: “No, not at all. Not in any way, shape or form. Our players and coaches are really prepared. We just have to take care of business going forward and we’ll still be in good shape.

Nadeau believes Canada will survive the loss of Schaefer, significant as it is.

“He’s a very good defender,” Nadeau said, “but we have a lot of good defenders.

“I’m sure Schaefer would want us to win for him. So it’s the least we can do.

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