Sweeping changes were announced by Hockey Canada on Wednesday.
The most significant of those changes is the introduction of a management team to oversee the Program of Excellence. And make no mistake, the changes are a direct result of Canada’s four-year gold medal drought at the World Junior Hockey Championship.
The management team will consist of one member from each of the three Canadian Hockey League member leagues – Joel Bouchard (Blainville-Boisbriand) from the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League, Mark Hunter (London) from the Ontario Hockey League and Bruce Hamilton (Kelowna) from the Western Hockey League.
The group will also include Sean Burke (Phoenix Coyotes), Hockey Canada holdovers Brad Pascall and Scott Salmond and new head scout Ryan Jankowski.
The new management group will definitely spark discussion, and that’s a good thing. The group is composed of head-strong, type-A personalities and that is also a good thing. There’s also an injection of youth with the hiring of Jankowski.
Whispers over the past four years claim Canada became too “opposition focused” in its preparation and as a result teams became bound by what to expect and how to defend as opposed to dictating play.
Further, too much emphasis was being put into age and role players — top-six and bottom six, or starter versus back-up in goal. Politics entered the fray; when and where a player was drafted, who he played for, whether or not he’d been a part of the PoE in the past all became more important criterion than selecting the best players and allowing those players to determine the team’s depth chart.
And when it came time to play the games, Canada got away from doing what it did best in these events for so many years: play hockey.
The program became stagnant, and in a country normally not known for being brash and arrogant took its sweet time before looking into the mirror, as if to say “how could this happen to us? We’re the best in the world at this game, do we really need to change?”
To add to its woes, Canada has watched as programs in Russia, the United States, Sweden and Switzerland increasingly became progressive in its coaching and player development.
That all changed on Wednesday, but the winds of change started to blow with the selection of the 2013 WJHC team.
While the 2013 group did bend a little in its philosophy, it didn’t really trust it. Steve Spott and his staff selected underagers Jonathan Drouin and Nathan MacKinnon, but left MacKinnon on the back burner. Malcolm Subban was given the nod in goal despite a sub-par camp. The team did select Jake Paterson over Laurent Brossoit, but despite being the best goalie in camp, Paterson was left in civvies the entire tournament. And finally, Ryan Murphy, who was not even amongst the top 10 defencemen in camp, was given a spot over the more deserving Ryan Sproul or Frankie Corrado. The last of those decisions is somewhat understandable in that Murphy had been a superstar for Spott’s Kitchener Rangers over the past three seasons.
A more recent and successful philosophical shift was recognized with Canada’s gold medal at the 2013 U-18 world championship in April. Don Hay, a no-nonsense guy, was chosen to guide the ship. Yves Sarault, a multi-time member of the program was brought in as an assistant, as was former team member Jody Hull. The U-18 program was not biased in selecting players based on age, future draft status or league success. Canada’s U-18 team was chosen on merit and was coached in the same fashion. And this from a team that normally doesn’t fare well in this event as many of its eligible players are competing in the playoffs for their respective club teams. Canada was able to grind out wins, face and overcome adversity and return home as champs for the first time in this event since Pat Quinn led the group to gold in 2008.
While the Program of Excellence has always relied on contributions nationwide, director of hockey operations and national teams Scott Salmond said the move was made to “formalize” those contributions. As a result, the pressure doesn’t squarely fall on the head scout or the coach as it did in the past. When gold medals were the norm, it was easy to praise the head coach, but over the past four years the coach has had to duck for cover upon returning to his club team in January and the head scout lived under constant pressure.
According to Salmond these changes had been in the works for some time, but no doubt Canada failing to win a medal for the first time in 15 years at the world juniors accelerated its implementation. “The international game has changed and now we’re looking to improve ourselves,” said Salmond.
Along with the introduction of the management group came the introduction, or re-introduction, of Brent Sutter as head coach for the 2014 WJHC team and Dale Hunter as head coach of the 2013 U-18 team that will compete for the Ivan Hlinka trophy in August.
These two coaches are very similar: both have had success as players and coaches in the NHL; both have had success as owners and coaches in the CHL; both are used to running their own programs the way they see fit; and most importantly, both have an amazing track record of winning. Period. Their hiring should serve notice that Canada has said enough is enough, no more BS, let’s just go and win hockey games.
Sutter won WJHC gold medals in 2005 and 2006. He’ll be joined by Benoit Groulx and Ryan McGill, both no-nonsense coaches in their own right. This trio will not be swayed in any way, shape or form by politics, media or any other outside influences. They’ve been entrusted with getting Canada back to “our team, our players and our style of play,” according to Sutter, who has worked with both coaches in the past.
Hockey Canada also introduced changes to the U-17 program. The program will have its own scouting staff and will become more centralized. Beginning in 2014-15, there will be a U-17 camp comprised of the best players across the country. In 2015, Canada will enter three regional teams as opposed to the five regional teams that currently compete. The management team feels this will streamline the top-end talent, introduce Hockey Canada’s objectives and allow the group to grow and compete starting at a younger age.
As a subsidiary benefit, the philosophical change in the U-17 program will put more emphasis on provincial U-15 and U-16 programs, allowing provincial federations to direct more resources into those programs.
Give Hockey Canada credit, while the changes may have come a little late, the fact this group has caved to change is a big step in and of itself. Positive results are likely to be seen immediately and hopefully by the time your New Year’s hangover subsides, the first topic of discussion won’t be, “we need another hockey summit.”
No, it’s not doom and gloom, but these changes mark the coming of age for a program that up until four years ago never had to challenge itself. Bravo.