Canadian players acted unsportsmanlike at the World Youth Championships.
The match between Canada and the Czech Republic was hot. PDO
Canada defeated the Czech Republic 7–5 in its opening match of the World Cup tournament. The match was played the night before Saturday Finnish time in Minneapolis.
Strange things happened in the game. The Canadian players already pushed the opponent’s players during the warm-up. Several Canadian players crossed the red line during the warm-up, i.e. went to the Czech side of the field. It is forbidden in the rules.
The violations were visible in TV pictures.
According to the information received by Iltalehti, the matter went to the handling of the discipline of the World Cup youth hockey tournament. Players who are guilty of fouls are threatened with a ban.
The tournament’s disciplinary panel is set by the International Ice Hockey Federation, and it includes, among other things, people outside the teams and the IIHF.
No handshake
The Canadian team did not shake hands with the Czech Republic after the match. That too is strange and very unsportsmanlike. The discipline of the WC tournament also deals with this issue. The punishment can be a fine for the Canadian team, i.e. the Canadian Hockey Association.
Canada’s head coach is Dale Hunter.
It will be interesting to see if the discipline of the tournament really dares to punish Canada, which is known to have power in the Kiekkomaailma cabinets.
The Canadian Federation said on Saturday evening in X that they apologized for the behavior of the players.