Are we in Canada paranoid about 2026 or should we not be worried?

[Golden_Jet]

Fans seem to be mostly focusing on Canada and the U.S and yes they have the most talent all around.

Now watch Russia win it for Gods sake. There will be a lot of shock and hand wringing around here were that to happen, all I can say to both Canadian and U.S fans is remember Nagano.

It's not a two team event last I looked.

Nagano, isn’t that where Canada lost gold in a shootout to Hasek.

 

[jj cale]

Nagano, isn’t that where Canada lost gold in a shootout to Hasek.

Yes of course( well it wasnt just hasek who beat them) but the U.S and Canada went in as the faves strongly for that tournament, and neither team even medaled, a team that wasn't even full of regular nhlers let alone stars from the NHL took home gold.

26 years later it's still a good reality check for Canadian and American teams and fans that might be a little puffed up going into 2026.

 

[Rabid Ranger]

I'm not sure why Canadians should be "paranoid." They will be a gold medal favorite for sure. Any team with McDavid and MacKinnon up front and Makar on the back end will be a stiff challenge. That said, they aren't the only contender. The U.S. and Sweden will have very strong teams and Finland can never be overlooked. Russia would also be a top contender if allowed to play.

The good news for Canada is that there seems to be some extremely high end/generational players that have come up through the system recently:

Bedard, Celebrini, Mckenna

Not to mention the current crop of great young defensemen and forwards being drafted.

The main issue I have is that the goaltending in this country has virtually gone dry. No real high profile goalies coming through the system though obviously this can change quickly.

Canada has serviceable goalies at this level. That may be enough with how good the rest of the team is.

 

[End on a Hinote]

Something else... In late 2023, posters were saying, "There are NO Canadians in the Top 10 goal scorers. What happened?"

As of tonight, 5 of the top 10 are Canadian.

Fun fact, that thread was stared by a notorious anti-Canadian xenophobe who constantly posts more anti-Canada content (hockey and political) than anything productively hockey related, and commonly cheers on the decline of Canadian hockey. So had he not be around that thread likely wouldn't even have existed in the first place, anyway.

 

[therealdeal]

Maybe we should combine with with out 2026 roster selection thread. It’s pretty much the same debate, we don’t need 4 threads on the main page for the same topic, makes it too hard to know where I’m posting!!

 

[Ben White]

The good for Canada is that MacK, McD and Makar is hard to match up against. That is as good a start as anyone can possibly have (Matthews, Eichel and Hughes?).

The more good is that Bedard should be a cemented stud by then too.

The bad for Canada is that Makar probably isn't going as that court case seems years away.

Yeah the the old “NBA Jam” matchup is still Canada on top

MacDavid - MacKinnon - Makar
Matthews - Tkachuk - Hughes
Pettersson - Nylander - Dahlin
Kucherov - Panarin - Orlov
Barkov - Aho - Heiskanen
Draisaitl - Stützle - Seider
Pastrnak - Hertl - Necas

 

[Czechboy]

Yeah the the old “NBA Jam” matchup is still Canada on top

MacDavid - MacKinnon - Makar
Matthews - Tkachuk - Hughes
Pettersson - Nylander - Dahlin
Kucherov - Panarin - Orlov
Barkov - Aho - Heiskanen
Draisaitl - Stützle - Seider

Pastrnak - Hertl - Necas

 

[SwissFan12]

Yeah the the old “NBA Jam” matchup is still Canada on top

MacDavid - MacKinnon - Makar
Matthews - Tkachuk - Hughes
Pettersson - Nylander - Dahlin
Kucherov - Panarin - Orlov
Barkov - Aho - Heiskanen
Draisaitl - Stützle - Seider
Pastrnak - Hertl - Necas

Fiala-Hischier-Josi

 

[therealdeal]

Yeah the the old “NBA Jam” matchup is still Canada on top

MacDavid - MacKinnon - Makar
Matthews - Tkachuk - Hughes
Pettersson - Nylander - Dahlin
Kucherov - Panarin - Orlov
Barkov - Aho - Heiskanen
Draisaitl - Stützle - Seider
Pastrnak - Hertl - Necas

These are all awesome and it would be cool to watch these teams go head-to-head.

 

[Pure West]

The US has a massive advantage in goal and IMO a better defense so they may be a slight favourite here. Its a short tournament, with single elimination games, so almost anything can happen. Would Finland beating Canada in a tight 2-1 game be that much more of a shock than a Czech team with 10 NHLers beating Canada in 98? Team Canada is probably due to a lose a best-on-best after winning them all in the 2010s, even if they have the best team on paper.

 

[ORRFForever]

The good news for Canada is that there seems to be some extremely high end/generational players that have come up through the system recently:

Bedard, Celebrini, Mckenna

Not to mention the current crop of great young defensemen and forwards being drafted.

The main issue I have is that the goaltending in this country has virtually gone dry. No real high profile goalies coming through the system though obviously this can change quickly.

We are so much better than we give ourselves credit for being but we are Canadian, after all, and hockey is not our strongest suit... being insecure is.

 

[ORRFForever]

The good news for Canada is that there seems to be some extremely high end/generational players that have come up through the system recently:

Bedard, Celebrini, Mckenna

Not to mention the current crop of great young defensemen and forwards being drafted.

The main issue I have is that the goaltending in this country has virtually gone dry. No real high profile goalies coming through the system though obviously this can change quickly.

Yes. We have an OBSCENE amount of talent coming thru the system. Even if HALF of it pans out, we will be miles ahead of where we are.

 

[ORRFForever]

If any other country had our rosters - say country "X", the same posters who are saying Canada is in trouble, would be saying how great Country X looks. Canadian fans are pathetic.

 

[Czechboy]

The US has a massive advantage in goal and IMO a better defense so they may be a slight favourite here. Its a short tournament, with single elimination games, so almost anything can happen. Would Finland beating Canada in a tight 2-1 game be that much more of a shock than a Czech team with 10 NHLers beating Canada in 98? Team Canada is probably due to a lose a best-on-best after winning them all in the 2010s, even if they have the best team on paper.

That's kind of my point .. it's close. There would be close 1 goal games. You get a hot goalie and everyone blocking shots and anything can happen. One fluke goal against... A bad call.. TSN camera... Anything can happen.

I would not even flinch if Finland or Sweden won the next one.

 

[ORRFForever]

Fun fact, that thread was stared by a notorious anti-Canadian xenophobe who constantly posts more anti-Canada content (hockey and political) than anything productively hockey related, and commonly cheers on the decline of Canadian hockey. So had he not be around that thread likely wouldn't even have existed in the first place, anyway.

Fair enough. Having said that, there are a bunch of posters who are always throwing dirt of Hockey Canada's grave. Where are they now?

 

[ORRFForever]

That's kind of my point .. it's close. There would be close 1 goal games. You get a hot goalie and everyone blocking shots and anything can happen. One fluke goal against... A bad call.. TSN camera... Anything can happen.

I would not even flinch if Finland or Sweden won the next one.

Of course. Anything can happen. I agree, I would not be surprised if it is NOT a Canada USA Final.

 

[Czechboy]

Of course. Anything can happen. I agree, I would not be surprised if it is NOT a Canada USA Final.

It rarely is the final we think (except maybe U20). The only consistent is Canada. Not always but by far the most consistent finalist.

So a Canada vs Finland final wouldn't be a shock to me. Saros standing out.. heisk playing 30 minutes. It's not impossible to think it'd work.

I think, from the best on best Olympics, that Finland was the most consistent medalist. Canada with most gold's.

 

[Chainshot]

It seems like the only area of possible averageness might be in net, but we don't know who might emerge in the next two years. But there doesn't seem to be a Hasek caliber player on another team who is going to blank the murders' row of Canadian forward talent. And we all have seen time and time again how players will play roles willingly, energetically, and well when called upon as part of repping the National team.

 

[Eye of Ra]

There is nothing to worry about. Canada has a gigantic number of registred players and a very strong hockey culture. Becuse of that Canada will always be a super power in this game.

 

[WarriorofTime]

There is nothing to worry about. Canada has a gigantic number of registred players and a very strong hockey culture. Becuse of that Canada will always be a super power in this game.

Well said. Even if various factors play out as far as prohibitive costs, demographic changes, declining stature of the sport in Canada, etc. there will always be a strong infrastructure pipeline in Canada. I don't see a bunch of AAA hockey clubs closing their doors at the moment. In fact with the western canadian prep school academies, it's still trending the other direction of people being more serious/hockey rabid trying to get kids to the NHL. Canada will always be fine, and if they aren't, it probably means hockey becomes just a relatively dying sport in general, not that USA/Russia/Sweden/Finland are leaving Canada in the dust.

The situation isn't too different from USA Basketball, where even if the development system kind of sucks right now and is ripe with inefficiencies (for USA Basketball, lots of people absolutely despise the AAU model), the sheer popularity that results in raw numbers plus infrastructural advantages (for USA Basketball, 362 Division 1 Men's Basketball programs, basically every high school in the country having a school team and however many AAU programs are floating around) means it can never really slip as far as being the primary feeder into the best professional league. That's more or less the situation that describes Canadian goaltending for instance. The country appears to more or less have forgotten how to develop Goaltenders with all the focus going to Skaters. But you can tie an arm behind the back, put a blindfold on, the fact is, 60 some CHL teams and however many AAA teams feeding into that or the various NCAA junior feeders are still going to have a kid playing goaltender and so you're always going to have a few emerge regardless.

 

[ORRFForever]

The situation isn't too different from USA Basketball, where even if the development system kind of sucks right now and is ripe with inefficiencies (for USA Basketball, lots of people absolutely despise the AAU model), the sheer popularity that results in raw numbers plus infrastructural advantages (for USA Basketball, 362 Division 1 Men's Basketball programs, basically every high school in the country having a school team and however many AAU programs are floating around) means it can never really slip as far as being the primary feeder into the best professional league. That's more or less the situation that describes

I know NOTHING about basketball, WT, so a sincere question...

If there was a Best On Best including NBA players, would any other team have a chance? The reason I ask is I saw something on YouTube where people were saying France(?) would win. That shocked me.

 

[WarriorofTime]

I know NOTHING about basketball, WT, so a sincere question...

If there was a Best On Best including NBA players, would any other team have a chance? The reason I ask is I saw something on YouTube where people were saying France(?) would win. That shocked me.

USA has won the last 4 Olympic Gold Medals and 7/8 Gold Medals since NBA players were allowed to go (and while Olympics is "close" to "best-on-best", many players do still decline in order to rest up in the offseason, looking at the roster for the last Olympics, and while it's hard to place yourself of how everyone stacked back then I'd say it was an "A-" roster for the USA with about half of what I'd consider true "best-on-best" talent). Other countries (France, Serbia, Canada, Spain, Australia are the next five best countries in my opinion) definitely have a chance based on their players to win based on variance (anyone can have a good or off night shooting the ball), USA will always be a pretty overwhelming favorite from a pure talent perspective. Last Olympics, USA dropped a game against France in the group stage (first time since the 04 team that lost 3 games and took Bronze) but then beat them in the Gold Medal Game. France may win the upcoming Olympics. They are at home. The rookie Wembayana is the real deal/potential generational talent. Nobody would be overly surprised imo. I suppose we'll see who accepts/declines potential spots for USA.

 

[the valiant effort]

Crazy how long it’s been since Bobby Clarke’s general demeanour turned the ‘98 roster selection into a cluster****. The D that year though:

Bourque
Blake
Desjardins
Foote
MacInnis
Pronger
Stevens

Of course no Niedermayer, who would end up leading dmen in points that year

 

[ORRFForever]

USA has won the last 4 Olympic Gold Medals and 7/8 Gold Medals since NBA players were allowed to go (and while Olympics is "close" to "best-on-best", many players do still decline in order to rest up in the offseason, looking at the roster for the last Olympics, and while it's hard to place yourself of how everyone stacked back then I'd say it was an "A-" roster for the USA with about half of what I'd consider true "best-on-best" talent). Other countries (France, Serbia, Canada, Spain, Australia are the next five best countries in my opinion) definitely have a chance based on their players to win based on variance (anyone can have a good or off night shooting the ball), USA will always be a pretty overwhelming favorite from a pure talent perspective. Last Olympics, USA dropped a game against France in the group stage (first time since the 04 team that lost 3 games and took Bronze) but then beat them in the Gold Medal Game. France may win the upcoming Olympics. They are at home. The rookie Wembayana is the real deal/potential generational talent. Nobody would be overly surprised imo. I suppose we'll see who accepts/declines potential spots for USA.

Thanks, mang.

Yes, I've even heard about Wembayana so he must be special - TBH, it had more to do with Britney Spears than him.

 

[jj cale]

If any other country had our rosters - say country "X", the same posters who are saying Canada is in trouble, would be saying how great Country X looks. Canadian fans are pathetic.

Put it this way,which you already did but i'm doing it again for good measure did, other then the U.S( and they would still be more then fine with the proposed Canadian rosters here), if this was the team any other country was going into the next best on best with these threads would be all different, it would be along the lines of....................."Look at the talent we have here now, team X has a real chance of taking it all this time around, I can't wait to get the games going, we have a tremendous chance to win gold!!"


They would be pretty giddy,