IIHF all star teams are very influenced by points and a decent story. Power was off to a big start as the returning number one pick, and Canada had a Germany game to play along with good odds of a weak QF opponent. I think that that side of the tournament would have produced at least one Canadian forward plus one Finn forward, maybe Lambert. No one can say all that much after teams played two games or fewer though.
Go back and look at the threads and Canadian Media
and of course Canadian Fans on Twitter. There was PLENTY of talk about last years Team Canada being the best since the Bergeron\Crosby by your countrymen.
I'm clearly not talking about you or Snipes (I think its his name). However, tons of Canadian fans were.
I'm not talking about the hype. The hype for the 2021 team was over the top, just like the hype for the 2015 team was over the top regardless of that team winning the tournament. It happens sometimes. I'm talking about how the three NHL lockouts were in 1995, 2005, and 2013. Even then, there were players held out (or close enough) in each of those years. The 2021 tournament had six players held out, which is better than usual but not really an outlier at all. For example, the 2002 tournament also had six players held out and the 2006 tournament had only 1 player held out even though the NHL was running. I will say that despite winning, USA was probably the team hurt the most by NHL teams holding players out in 2021. I know what you were trying to claim but it was not accurate in terms of facts or implication.