Encouraged by back-to-back tournament wins as the goaltending consultant for Canada’s under-18 national hockey team, like the rest of the country, Dan De Palma felt good about the host team’s chances of going for gold at the U20 IIHF World Junior Championship in Ottawa.
As we all know, it didn’t turn out that way.
Team Canada suffered the excruciating horror of an early elimination in the quarterfinal round, a 4-3 defeat dished out by Czechia, the team that ousted Canada in the 2024 world junior quarterfinals.
Fifth place won’t cut it in a hockey-mad country that expects gold every year from a group of teenaged boys who have but few weeks to mesh their talents into a team good enough to win that world crown. After 20 world junior wins, more than any other country, it comes with the turf. This year they didn’t come close.
“The expectation was to win and we didn’t win, so that wasn’t a success,” said De Palma, who made a triumphant return to his Prince George hometown Saturday as the Kamloops Blazers' goalie coach when they beat the Cougars 5-2 at CN Centre.
“There were obviously good teams there and give them credit, but at the end of the day we needed to be better and needed to find a way to just get the job done and we didn’t. You love the fans’ passion when it’s going well and when it’s not, that pressure is real. But you wouldn’t want it any other way, you want to be part of something like that to test yourself in that environment and I’m still honoured and grateful to have that opportunity.”
Too many penalties and not enough goals. That about sums up what derailed Canada’s medal ambitions this year.
De Palma knows it wasn’t bad goaltending that did it.
Brampton Steelheads goalie Jack Ivankovic got Canada into the eighth shootout round before the Latvians finally scored to pull off the upset of the tournament, Carter George of the Owen Sound Attack took over the Canadian crease and was the Los Angeles Kings draft pick was rock-solid the rest of the tournament. But they didn't get enough run support. Canada scored just 13 goals in five games and they were the most penalized team in the tournament.
“I don’t stop pucks, the goalies do and I give them credit, I thought the goalies handled the pressure well and gave us a chance to win games and I’m very proud of them,” said De Palma. “It was really fun to be able to work with them and it was rewarding.
"(Brandon Wheat Kings goalie) Carson Bjarnason didn’t get in but he was outstanding. There are a lot of good goalies in this country and we’re pretty happy where we see things at this point and it looks good for the future.”
De Palma took a leave of absence from his job as marketing/business development director at Arrow Transportation in Kamloops and spent nearly a month in Ottawa with the world junior team. He spent long days at the rink preparing his own goalies for the tournament and scouting other team's netminders, looking for any weaknesses for the Canadians to use to their advantage.
"You never know until you get there how you're going to handle that pressure and it was fine, it didn't feel any different than (a WHL game), you prepare and do your job and then there there's a little bit of calm as a result of that for me," said De Palma.
De Palma went through the Memorial Cup two years ago when the Blazers hosted it but nothing compares to the spectacle of hosting a world junior tournament.
"Memorial Cup was intense in its own way and you have those Game 7s but that was unique and I was just honoured to do it for the country," he said. "I'm not happy, we didn't deliver for the country but you learn from it and get better. Everybody can be good when things are good, I guess, and when things aren't going great, can you hang in there and be trusted. Even though it wasn't the result we wanted you've proven you can be there through good times and bad."
There's been no official announcement but De Palma has been asked by Hockey Canada to be part of the coaching staff at the 2026 world junior tournament in Minnesota and he said he would be honoured to return.
"We're still working on that for sure, but it feels really good," he said. "I was surprised the first time and don't think I'll ever not be surprised and I do pinch myself. I'm round of what I've learned in the game and what I've been able to do and hopefully I'll be able to do more."
