Following an upset just a year ago, Latvia looked to repeat the same story against the Canadians, but Canada narrowly escaped with a 2-1 overtime victory over Latvia. In the Latvians’ loss, they proved they can hang with the top teams, and could be destined for more in this year’s tournament, given they made Canada’s second game difficult.
Related:Â Guide to the 2026 World Junior Championship
Canada Must Play Verhoeff Sooner Rather Than Later
Where is Keaton Verhoeff, you ask?
He’s a healthy scratch.
Canada seemingly refuses to allow one of their best young defenseman available at the 2026 World Junior Championship to play in the round robin games.
Verhoeff, a top prospect eligible for the 2026 NHL Entry Draft, has yet to play in arguably the biggest tournament a draft prospect can showcase himself at.
This feels like there’s some bad blood between Hockey Canada and Verhoeff, leaving the Western Hockey League for the NCAA. Verhoeff left the Victoria Royals to join the University of North Dakota, and he had no problem representing Canada before he played for UND.
Team Canada absolutely cannot make the mistake of sitting him throughout the entire round robin and then immediately expect him to jump right into quarterfinal game action.
The line of ‘these are teenagers’ is said every single year, and it applies to this scenario. Maybe Canada has a plan to get Verhoeff one game before the round robin wraps up, but the time to do that is getting shorter, and Canada has to get him in as soon as possible.
Not playing Verhoeff against Latvia feels like a brutal management error, but here the Canadians are in the tournament.
Latvia Pushed Back When It Mattered Most
This absolutely shocked me this year, especially after Canada lost last year’s game to Latvia. The Canadians seemed to just not have an answer to Latvia as they did with Czechia, and that’s honestly scary.
Latvia didn’t have the best first half of the game, and that’s fine considering Canada swarmed them in all ends of the zone. The talent was on display until the motors of Latvia showed they can preserve themselves longer than the Canadians and take advantage when it mattered most.
Canada seemed destined to take this game 1-0, but an incredible pushback late in the third period by Latvia saw them tie it with 1:58 to go, and the pressure immediately started mounting against Canada.
You see, Canada seemingly cruised throughout the entire game, rather than striking when the iron was hot. They also ran into a red-hot Latvian goaltender, Nils Maurins, and it added up a little more as to why Latvia stayed in the game for the entire 60 minutes.
If Latvia can get this performance in their remaining round robin games, they could have a realistic shot of upsetting multiple teams this year and competing far beyond the expectations of many.
If Canada Wants to Medal, They Must Score More Goals
This one feels a little different to say, considering Canada beat Czechia 7-5 on opening day, but only won 2-1 over Latvia in overtime last night.
Canada should’ve been able to generate more against the Latvians, but the U20 World Juniors team is too focused on trying to score highlight reel goals and be far too fancy with how they play the game. Shoot the puck, as many Canadians are saying.
Sometimes, simple passing and shooting can generate the most offence, and sometimes, you find yourself with a highlight reel goal from a basic play.
The Canadians need to simplify it, and I get wanting to have that moment at the top tournament, but when it’s time to buckle down and get to scoring, Canada has been unable to do that so far.
If they can win a game by a margin larger than four goals, I’ll happily eat my words, but until then, the Canadian World Junior team still has a lot to prove right now.
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