Bitter loss for Canada at world juniors, but N.L. players a silver lining for local hockey fans – CBC.ca

Hockey fans cheering on Team Canada in the world junior hockey championship had been enjoying a winning streak — but that came to a crashing halt Tuesday night, when the U.S. team came through with a 2-0 victory to win the gold medal.

Hockey fan Dwan Street was one of the viewers at home watched as Canada lost their first — and last — game of the tournament, and says there’s always an extra layer of nerves whenever the Canadians face their neighbours to the south.

“It’s not that I didn’t have faith in Team Canada, but when it came down to U.S. and Finland I was kinda rooting for Finland, because anybody who’s been watching the world juniors for a while, you always kind of have that lump in your throat when they’re playing the U.S.,” Street said.

“It was the fifth gold medal game between Canada and the U.S., and the States are always hungry and for some reason. I don’t know what it is — most times they just seem to want it a little bit more and have something to prove.”

Definitely proud of the hometown boys.– Dwan Street

The American team came in with a strong start, Street said — something Team Canada may not have been used to so far in the tournament, which started Christmas Day in Edmonton.

“I think Canada had a bit of a cakewalk into that gold medal game,” Street said.

“It was the first game that they had to play with a bit of adversity and effort, and you did see a lot of those cross-ice passes, two odd-man rushes, and Canada almost seemed like they were getting a little bit fancy, but the States weren’t letting them get away with it.”

The gold-medal match was definitely a different game for Canada, agreed fellow hockey fan Andrew Corbett.

“They had such a dominating tournament and to fall behind in the first period, you could just see it was a different game they were playing than they’d played the whole rest of the tournament,” Corbett told CBC’s St. John’s Morning Show.

“The passes and everything else weren’t as crisp as they’ve been in some of the other games and you could just see, especially in the third period, they were definitely playing with a more sense of urgency than they’ve had to do the rest of the tournament.”

While the U.S. took home the gold medal, the silver (medal) lining for Newfoundland and Labrador fans was the performance of Alex Newhook of St. John’s and Dawson Mercer of Bay Roberts.

“They both represented Newfoundland very well and they certainly put an extra little thing on for everybody in Newfoundland to be watching the games, and I’m sure a lot more people than normal stayed up to 11 o’clock last night to watch the game than they would have had there not been two Newfoundlanders playing,” Corbett said.

“And they weren’t just people there — they were on the ice. You heard them, they were mentioned all the time, they were out there playing their regular shifts and they both did a great job.”

That’s a sentiment shared by Street, who said it was a treat to watch local boys playing so well for Team Canada.

“There’s nobody as loyal and dedicated as Newfoundland when we have Newfoundlanders excelling at anything, and I think that there was a lot of excitement around the tournament because of that, and not just having them on the team but having them play so well,” Street said.

“The boys played great … especially Mercer; he was a pretty integral cog in the wheel there, and last night especially. He played a hard game and we’ll give them that — definitely proud of the hometown boys.”

‘It’s definitely been different’

The tournament was a unique one to watch this year: the stands in Edmonton were empty, with no audience being allowed in order to avoid the spread of COVID-19, something Corbett said felt strange at first when he watched hockey this past year.

“It’s definitely been different, watching hockey with no fans in the stands now. It’s funny to say but we’re almost a little used to it now after watching half a season of NHL and playoffs and everything else,” he said.

“Hopefully by next season for sure it’s back to having fans in the stands and everything else, but it’s something I think that most people have grown a bit accustomed to, whether they like it or not.”

Street said people who are used to sitting down and watching a hockey game every night were probably thrilled with the world juniors, after having such a shortened NHL season, and the quality of players definitely helped.

“I think the roster that Team Canada had definitely helped that hype a bit because if you look at some of the guys, this team I think was touted to pretty much have the best roster since 2005, and — my Penguins bias aside, of course — that was the year we had [Sidney] Crosby, [Réjean] Bergeron, Jeff Carter, [Ryan] Getzlaf, [Dion] Phaneuf, Shea Weber,” Street said.

This year’s team had players like Dylan Cozens, who Street thinks should have won MVP of the tournament — a title that went to U.S. winger Trevor Zegras — and who has been drafted by the Buffalo Sabres.

“I think a lot of these guys are gonna have pretty historic careers, so it was a great tournament and it was definitely great to have that calibre of hockey,” she said.

“Hopefully now when the NHL gets going everybody can stay safe and they can do a good job like they did with the playoffs there.”

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