Chicago Blackhawks News: Canada falters in World Junior opener

The Chicago Blackhawks are a rebuilding organization. They have big decisions to make before the trade deadline for some obvious players but the plan is to keep the youth movement going.

There are a lot of great young players in their system right now. Some of them are playing in the 2022-23 World Junior Championships for different countries.

Every team in the NHL wants to see their guys dominate in this tournament and the Hawks are no different. It is always a ton of fun to watch but it is even better when you are rebuilding.

The Hawks have five players representing them in the tournament. One of them is Victor Stjernborg who was a part of a dominating win for Team Sweden. They defeated Austria by a final score of 11-0 which is absolute domination.

The other four all play for Team Canada. Three of them are defensemen (Nolan Allan, Kevin Korchinski, Ethan Del Mastro) and one of them is a forward (Colton Dach). Of course, this Canadian team is expected to be a favorite each year.

The Chicago Blackhawks have some major influence on Team Canada at the WJC.

With guys like Connor Bedard, Shane Wright, and Adam Fantilli leading the way up front, you’d expect some big things from these guys who are either already drafted really high or expected to be at the 2023 NHL Draft.

Shockingly, however, Canada lost to the Czech by a final score of 5-2 in a stunner. It was a dominating performance for Team Czech as they pulled off the upset by executing their game plan. They also didn’t show any fear just because they were playing Canada.

Shane Wright scored on a beautiful redirection to give Canada a 1-0 lead but the Czech responded by scoring three straight goals. Connor Bedard scored a little bit after the Czech took that 3-1 lead to bring Canada back into the game.

Again, instead of crawling into a shell, the Czech team went out and scored two more and took the big opening win.

Of course, it would surprise nobody if they won out and took home the Gold. It just isn’t a good start to their tournament but there is time to turn it around. This roster is too talented to fold from here.

Next up for Canada is a Wednesday matchup against Team Germany as they continue Group A play.

They already lost to Czech and Sweden earned the aforementioned 11-0 victory so Canada is definitely behind the eight ball but they have overcome things like this as a hockey country before and are capable of doing it again.