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2025 World Juniors

Honestly Cowans play had been very dissapointing. He needs to get that motor going instead of sitting back waiting for his linemates to do the work. He is not that offsensively gifted to sit back and think he is the shooter/finisher role.
 
gunnar36 said:
Honestly Cowans play had been very dissapointing. He needs to get that motor going instead of sitting back waiting for his linemates to do the work. He is not that offsensively gifted to sit back and think he is the shooter/finisher role.
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Cowan was directly responsible for half of team USAs goals the other night.

But generally nice pressure by Canada in the 2nd.
 
Hopefully this is a wake-up call like the Turin loss was for the Olympic team. Canada's been doing the "we gotta take role players over better players" with the junior team for too long.
 
Registration for youth hockey has dropped over the past decade in Canada. 10 years ago 722,000 players. Today it's 545,000.

While Canada was traditionally equal with US in terms of GDP/capita..... it's now dropped from parity 10 years ago to 61% of US GDP/Capita in 2024.

Canadians don't have the money they once had to be able to afford this sport. Renting a home takes priority over renting ice.
 
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Ozzie said:
Registration for youth hockey has dropped over the past decade in Canada. 10 years ago 722,000 players. Today it's 545,000.

While Canada was traditionally equal with US in terms of GDP/capita..... it's now dropped from parity 10 years ago to 61% of US GDP/Capita in 2024.

Canadians don't have the money they once had to be able to afford this sport. Renting a home takes priority over renting ice.
Click to expand...

From the time I was born all through my teen years, you could make a sheet of ice in your backyard that would usually last until some time in March or so (in Toronto). If you didn't do that, the parks had natural rinks maintained by the city - all free. When my daughters came along in the 90s, I tried once to make a rink for them in the back yard - it barely lasted - too warm. To take them skating, we had to take them to an arena/artificial ice. I'll bet climate change is having an impact because the ice is not convenient and free.

In my teens, we were hockey bums playing 6-7 hours per day. Pucks lasted nearly forever. Ice was free. Skates didn't change that often at that age. Big expense for me was breaking wooden sticks working on my slapshot but those dollars would be laughable today. Back then, give me skates, a puck, a stick and some ice (even if I had to shovel it off) and I was good for hours.
You can't do that in Toronto's climate today. I suspect that is part of it.
 
cw said:
From the time I was born all through my teen years, you could make a sheet of ice in your backyard that would usually last until some time in March or so (in Toronto). If you didn't do that, the parks had natural rinks maintained by the city - all free. When my daughters came along in the 90s, I tried once to make a rink for them in the back yard - it barely lasted - too warm. To take them skating, we had to take them to an arena/artificial ice. I'll bet climate change is having an impact because the ice is not convenient and free.

In my teens, we were hockey bums playing 6-7 hours per day. Pucks lasted nearly forever. Ice was free. Skates didn't change that often at that age. Big expense for me was breaking wooden sticks working on my slapshot but those dollars would be laughable today. Back then, give me skates, a puck, a stick and some ice (even if I had to shovel it off) and I was good for hours.
You can't do that in Toronto's climate today. I suspect that is part of it.
Click to expand...

We have a park in the backyard that the city would put up boards, provide a hose bib to flood the ice. Even had a lamp post to light up the rink at night.

The boards haven't been put up in years. It never stays cold enough for long enough to warrant putting up the rink boards.
 
cw said:
From the time I was born all through my teen years, you could make a sheet of ice in your backyard that would usually last until some time in March or so (in Toronto). If you didn't do that, the parks had natural rinks maintained by the city - all free. When my daughters came along in the 90s, I tried once to make a rink for them in the back yard - it barely lasted - too warm. To take them skating, we had to take them to an arena/artificial ice. I'll bet climate change is having an impact because the ice is not convenient and free.

In my teens, we were hockey bums playing 6-7 hours per day. Pucks lasted nearly forever. Ice was free. Skates didn't change that often at that age. Big expense for me was breaking wooden sticks working on my slapshot but those dollars would be laughable today. Back then, give me skates, a puck, a stick and some ice (even if I had to shovel it off) and I was good for hours.
You can't do that in Toronto's climate today. I suspect that is part of it.
Click to expand...
We had a similar childhood
My Dad put a rink in the backyard off Bayview back in the mid 60’s
 
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