As a goaltender with prospects, Dylan Garand of Langford will have plenty of disappointments and highs in his career. Most will be of his own making — a great save here or a shot allowed through the wickets there.
That’s what makes the cancellation of the 2022 world junior hockey championship tournament after just four days into its planned 11-day run in Edmonton and Red Deer, Alta., so hard to stomach. It’s got nothing to do with anything that happened on the ice. The decision came after four players tested positive for COVID-19. sa国际传媒 was 2-0 and was scheduled to play its third opening-round game on Wednesday night against Germany.
“It’s disappointing, for sure,” said Garand, from Edmonton, following the stunning news.
“But there is nothing we can do about it. It is what it is and is completely out of our control.”
Canadian goaltender Garand and Swiss team forward Keanu Derungs of the Victoria Royals of the WHL were among the 250 players from 10 nations whose dreams of glory were dashed Wednesday by the announcement.
“I cannot imagine how disappointed the players are,” Hockey sa国际传媒 CEO Tom Renney said in a video call with the media. “I identify with that disappointment. We came up against an opponent, not on the ice, but that was bigger than all of us.”
International Ice Hockey Federation president Luc Tardif of France didn’t rule out rescheduling the junior tournament in Alberta later in 2022 with all players eligible to participate even if they’ve turned 20.
“We don’t want to quit in the middle,” said Tardif. “We want to come back with a good surprise. It’s important to the young players. We’re working on that.”
That was small consolation for Garand. The world junior tournament has become a Christmastime staple of the Canadian sports scene and would seem out of place in June, which is about the only opening in which to hold a postponed tournament.
“Yes, I’d be interested if it happens, but I’m not sure,” said Garand.
The Islander recently signed a three-year entry-level NHL contract with the New York Rangers, the team that selected him in the fourth round of the 2020 draft, and pro commitments will soon come into consideration.
Garand was among only three returnees from the 2021 silver-medallist Canadian team along with defenceman Kaiden Guhle of the Edmonton Oil Kings and forward Cole Perfetti of the pro Manitoba Moose of the AHL.
“We’ll be looking to finish the job this year,” Garand said, heading into the 2022 tournament. Now he may never get that opportunity.
He was looking to become the fourth double medallist from the Island in the world junior tournament and first since Kent Manderville of Victoria won back-to-back world junior golds in 1990 and 1991. Former Victoria Cougars WHL forwards Mark Morrison and Port Alberni’s late Paul Cyr were the first Islanders to pull the medal double with gold in 1982 and bronze in 1983.
The Royals’ Derungs was also in his second year of representing Switzerland in the world juniors.
It is the first cancellation of the IIHF world junior tournament in 44 years. Some critics and pundits questioned such a rash move after only four positive tests and with Omicron showing more transmissibility but far less severity than previous variants for those fully vaccinated.
“We were very much playing catch-up here with an evolving situation,” IIHF medical supervisor Matt Robins said.
“We’re just playing catch-up with a very infectious variant.”
A third game was forfeited in two days. The championship began Sunday, but players testing positive for the virus put defending champion United States, Russia and Czechia into mandatory quarantines by Wednesday, when nine of 31 games had actually been played.
“We saw it was impossible to continue this competition in a fair way,” Tardif said.
“We had to do other tests after a positive test, but sometimes results were coming two hours before a game. That was not an easy situation for the two teams knowing if the game will be played or not.”
— With a file from Canadian Press
