Darrell Davis: Sweden versus Canada, on the ice and off the ice

So Sweden doesn’t do well in the medal round, eh?

That’s what Dominique Ducharme, Canada’s head coach, said before today’s semifinal game at the world juniors. Sweden versus Canada. Winner advances to Thursday’s gold-medal game.

In the past five world junior championships, Canada and Sweden have won the same number of gold medals. One. And Sweden has appeared in two more championship games.

So the country whose team has struggled more in recent medal rounds is Canada. Those numbers don’t really matter though because junior teams are vastly different year to year, with very few holdover players.

Ducharme’s team really hasn’t looked great this year, either, with his two goalies posting the second-worst saves percentage. So maybe the head coach is trying to distract his Swedish opponents, or perhaps he’s trying to motivate his own players, all with worthless statistics.