With 17 goals in just two games so far, Team Canada has been giving home team hockey fans plenty to cheer about during this year’s World Junior Hockey Championship.
But, Don Cherry wishes the team wouldn’t cheer quite so much.
The Hockey Night in Canada personality took exception to Team Canada’s lopsided tournament debut against Denmark, which they won by a score of 14-0, cautioning Canada’s youngsters against the dangers of running up the score.
“I’m very, very disappointed in Team Canada. I’m cheering for them, I hope they win,” Cherry said Saturday. “But to beat a team 14-0, Hockey Gods will always come back and get you.”
Cherry was not happy with how the Canadians celebrated some of their early goals, and pointed to forward Morgan Frost’s actions late in the first frame as an example. Upon making it 3-0, Frost put his hand to his ear in celebration — an act often meant to question where the crowd noise is, and usually reserved for games with a little more competition or heat between opponents. (Remember Auston Matthews vs. Patrick Kane earlier this season?)
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“I mean, come on. We’ve got more class than that,” Cherry said of Frost’s celebration. “Poor Denmark hasn’t scored a goal, and we do stuff like that?”
Denmark was shut out in their second and third games, too, losing to Russia on Thursday and Switzerland earlier Saturday in a pair of 4-0 defeats.
“Hockey Gods will come back and get you every time,” Cherry said.
For a few moments, it almost looked like the Hockey Gods were exacting revenge in Canada’s second game of the tournament, a much closer affair against Switzerland that saw the game go down to the wire and end in a 3-2 win for the home side.
“I give it to Team Canada, but we all cheer for them,” Cherry concluded. “Just don’t run up the score, it’s not the Canadian way.”
