There’s something of a “ho-hum” mentality whenever Canada manages to capture gold at the World Hockey Championship. Critics are eager to point out that many of the world’s best players don’t even attend the tournament, still within the throes of the Stanley Cup playoffs, so it’s only natural that the Canadians’ sheer number of NHL talent — when contrasted with those of other, smaller nations — should carry them to victory.
This is a fair assertion. Canada has won a tournament-leading six of the last 21 gold medals, but they also failed to medal 10 times within that span.