2018 Four Nations Cup

[shelfit]

Canada needs to find players that have even half the skill and class as Jayna Hefford. Congratulations to her on being inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame last night. So well deserved. What a great representative of our sport!

[pokechecker]

Re: 2018 Four Nations Cup

I’m sure Canada would love to find more players who can make Americans their bit chuz.

[Chaffron]

Re: 2018 Four Nations Cup

Back to Canada and Chaffron's dismay with Team Canada, it would be interesting to see exactly what changes he/she believes should be made. Chaffron, please post your "dream lineup" that you would like to see represent Canada in the next international tournament (not sure, but might this not be the 2019 IIHF World's?).

Also, who would you recommend to coach the team, and who should take over as head of Canadian women's hockey? Obviously, that person should not be Mel Davidson, in your opinion, so who best to lead the whole organization, with Davidson no longer involved? Assume it's you, with a free reign, and the coaching staff and player roster is your's to determine.

Sorry for the late reply. In the next international tournament and leading up to the next quadrennial, I would like to see the players who were useless in the last quadrennial (and there were several) be released if they continue to play like desperate rink rats with little thought or strategy or even skill. It is no coincidence that many of these players other than Fortino - Spooner, Jenner, Wakefield - were first time Olympians in Sochi (a fluke win) that arguably led them to be overconfident and arrogant all the way up to Pyeongchang despite losing everything there is to possibly lose in international play to team USA. They contributed pretty much nothing to team canada play in the last quadrennial and therefore, silver.

Personally, i think Jenner should be cut, Poulin can't captain, Johnston is overworked and her talent wasted (Daoust as well to a lesser degree), goalie situation is at its worst ever, and 31 year old Agosta is (still) the only hope for this sinking ship of a team. Agosta was recently pregnant and fortunately for fans of women's hockey, she has her sights set on 2022(!). I hope she does it.

Now what does need changing is the coaching and management. The problem with the current women's GM is that she has no contacts, no connections with elite level men's coaches. Pipe dream, perhaps, but once Ken Hitchcock left the Dallas Stars as head coach, team canada women's program should have tried to scoop him. After serving a brief stint as consultant for the Dallas Stars, Ken Hitchcock has since been picked up by the Edmonton Oilers. Lost opportunity for sure. He has great respect for the women's game and is infinitely more knowledgeable, qualified, and dignified than what team canada women management has to offer. The current coach bemoans to the media that he is treated so much better by the team canada women than the meanies in the NHL who keep firing him. He goes on to say that the NHL doesn't appreciate what he has to offer. This is who team canada women has as head coach at the moment.

while team canada women have always been bad since 2013 thanks to the arrivals of kessel and coyne, the major turning point was haley irwin's multiple injuries that effectively derailed the culture and leadership of this team. team canada women lost a great captain post-Sochi with the loss of Irwin and that void was never filled IMO. A healthy Irwin may, or may not have made any difference to this team but her being sidelined for so long certainly didn't help team canada women which at that point was already a trainwreck. Hopefully Agosta can stay injury free and can play in 2022 even if she is not playing during these non-Olympic years.

[Chaffron]

Re: 2018 Four Nations Cup

in other related news, the IIHF U-18 women's world championships are set to begin in less than a few weeks. Perhaps team canada women can upgrade on their bronze medal performance from last year to a silver this year, an improvement. They need to return to their silver streak for a 5th year.

[shelfit]

Sorry for the late reply. In the next international tournament and leading up to the next quadrennial, I would like to see the players who were useless in the last quadrennial (and there were several) be released if they continue to play like desperate rink rats with little thought or strategy or even skill. It is no coincidence that many of these players other than Fortino - Spooner, Jenner, Wakefield - were first time Olympians in Sochi (a fluke win) that arguably led them to be overconfident and arrogant all the way up to Pyeongchang despite losing everything there is to possibly lose in international play to team USA. They contributed pretty much nothing to team canada play in the last quadrennial and therefore, silver.

Personally, i think Jenner should be cut, Poulin can't captain, Johnston is overworked and her talent wasted (Daoust as well to a lesser degree), goalie situation is at its worst ever, and 31 year old Agosta is (still) the only hope for this sinking ship of a team. Agosta was recently pregnant and fortunately for fans of women's hockey, she has her sights set on 2022(!). I hope she does it.

Now what does need changing is the coaching and management. The problem with the current women's GM is that she has no contacts, no connections with elite level men's coaches. Pipe dream, perhaps, but once Ken Hitchcock left the Dallas Stars as head coach, team canada women's program should have tried to scoop him. After serving a brief stint as consultant for the Dallas Stars, Ken Hitchcock has since been picked up by the Edmonton Oilers. Lost opportunity for sure. He has great respect for the women's game and is infinitely more knowledgeable, qualified, and dignified than what team canada women management has to offer. The current coach bemoans to the media that he is treated so much better by the team canada women than the meanies in the NHL who keep firing him. He goes on to say that the NHL doesn't appreciate what he has to offer. This is who team canada women has as head coach at the moment.

while team canada women have always been bad since 2013 thanks to the arrivals of kessel and coyne, the major turning point was haley irwin's multiple injuries that effectively derailed the culture and leadership of this team. team canada women lost a great captain post-Sochi with the loss of Irwin and that void was never filled IMO. A healthy Irwin may, or may not have made any difference to this team but her being sidelined for so long certainly didn't help team canada women which at that point was already a trainwreck. Hopefully Agosta can stay injury free and can play in 2022 even if she is not playing during these non-Olympic years.

BUUUUZZZZZ!!!!!

We're sorry but you just exceeded your quota on the use of the word "quadrennial" so you are hereby disqualified from expecting any sort of respect on this forum (not that you had any to begin with). Thanks for playing!

Besides, you never answered the questions. You didn't name a new head of Canada women's hockey (I guess the assumption is the person would have to be both available and interested). You didn't name a new coaching staff, and you didn't give us your chosen roster. You were given carte blanche to bless us all with your superior expertise and offer up tangible solutions to the problems you repeatedly come here to whine about, but you failed miserably on each account. It's just more of your constant verbal diarrhea. I don't think this sad performance of yours earns you any medals at all. In fact you didn't even come close to making it to the medal round. You are therefore relegated down a tier and banned from b*tching and complaining for at least the next quadrennial and probably another quadrennial after that. Buh bye now! USA! USA! USA!

[thirdtime's . . .]

Re: 2018 Four Nations Cup

Interesting article on growing parity (aka Canadian losses) in men’s World Juniors:

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/01/07/s...sa-canada.html

Dave Starman, an analyst for the tournament for NHL Network, is also a member of the coaching education program with USA Hockey. He said the recent success of American teams could be attributed in large part to a new development model that was introduced 10 years ago. "We have absolutely reshaped how we’re teaching the game and how we’re teaching coaches how to teach the game," Starman said. "We have really emphasized small-area games, and it goes along with age-appropriate practices. If we play a lot more 3-on-3, 2-on-2, where younger kids are touching the puck more, they’re in an environment where they’re going to have more fun and be more involved," he added. "Not only are they going to have more fun and want to come back, they’re going to get better because they’re constantly involved in the play."
The emphasis is the same in Finland, Starman said. “A lot of their parents and their organizations don’t care who wins the average game by shortening a bench so they can win a game,” he said. “Their players play, and they use their bench. They believe in player development.”

Has this “reshaping” been true on the girls’/women's side? (Nice to think there are some non-competitive parents out there.)