What’s Canada supposed to do now?? Hockey was the only thing they were ever good at,……….
Sorry, I had to get one Tkachuk chirp off
I still think Hockey Canada is going to remain strong at the international level for the foreseeable future. I genuinely think that the team team that objectively controlled play today will actually be better 4 years from now when you look at who will be back, who will still be in their prime and who Canada has coming up. Below are the players (and the 2030 ages) of the guys I expect to represent us 4 years from now.
C: Connor McDavid (33)
C: Nathan Mackinnon (34)
C: Nick Suzkuki (30)
C: Robert Thomas (30)
RW: Macklin Celebrini (22)
RW: Connor Bedard (24)
RW: Mitch Marner (32)
RW: Beckett Sennecke (23)
LW: Wyatt Johnston (26)
LW: Dylan Guenther (26)
LW: Brandon Hagel (31)
LW: Seth Jarvis (27)
13th: Gavin McKenna (22)
D: Cale Makar (31)
D: Mathew Shaefer (22)
D: Jacob Chychrun (31)
D: Noah Dobson (28)
D: Thomas Harley (28)
D: Travis Sanheim (33)
7th: Brandt Clarke (26)
G: Logan Thompson (32)
G: Aiden Hill (33)
G: Sebastian Cossa (27)
Objectively, that will be and insanely loaded squad, again, and that's not even counting on the emergence of guys like Michael Misa, Tig Iginla, Mason McTavish, Alexei Lafrenniere, Bowen Byram, Owen Power, Zayne Perehk or Kent Johnson. It will be younger than the 2026 team on average, with better skaters and scoring depth. Defensively, they'll be much kore offensively gifted 1 through 6. There is also the possibility of guys like Brayden Point, Anthony Cirreli or Travis Konecny, who all played for Canada at 4-Nations, jumping on the team.
Tough loss today for us to swallow, but the future of Canadian hockey is still incredibly bright. The world has simply caught up and when we're playing best-on-best, anyone can win these days. Both USA and Canada needed nail biting wins in the elimination rounds to get by the Swedes, Finns and Czechs. Russia will be back next Olympics as well and excited about their squad.