EDMONTON — Two minutes for being teenagers.
The real mockery was that a country with 23 ice rinks has to play Canada at the world junior championship, not what any teenagers did for a laugh afterward. Try telling that to Team Denmark coach Todd Bjorkstrand, though. The Dane coach benched forwards Mathias Bau-Hansen, Jonas Sass-Jensen, Nicki Kusum, Anders Schultz and Anders Thode for Friday's game vs. Finland, which ended up being a 10-1 loss. The five players were recorded by tournament volunteers, a TSN cameraman and Buzzing The Net acting like, well, teenagers, after losing 10-2 to Canada on Thursday.
Bjorkstrand is facing questions about whether scratching the five players affected the integrity of the world junior. Team USA needed an upset from Denmark to stay alive in Group B. With a 15-skater lineup, Denmark's chances became that much more infinite. Finland's win shut the door on America's medal hopes.
"We had the three lines, back-to-back games, it was a difficult situation," said Bjorkstrand, who is American by birth. "We have to go through those things. It's the wrong messages, their actions, and there's a consequence. I'm responsible for Team Denmark, not Team USA. I can guarantee one thing, we went out tonight and tried to compete hard for Denmark."
(Update: The players' side of the story; nice of the Calgary Herald to properly atttribute the video.)
Bjorkstrand added he hasn't decided on when or if the players will be reinstated. He also noted it was his call, not the Danish hockey federation's.
"It's not the way we want our players to act when they lose a hockey game 10-2 against Team Canada," he said. "It's the wrong way. And that's it. It was my decision.
"They're kids. It wasn't something they planned. We're here to play hockey and represent Denmark. Danish hockey has come a long way."
Sure, it smacked of insouciance for the 18-year-old Sass-Jensen to get up there and say in a mock-serious tone, "We come here, big favourites, we lost 10-2."
One could see where that would come off as insubordination, especially to a coach like Bjorkstrand, who's trying to impart to his Danish players that this is a serious competitive endeavour. Any coach worth his whiteboard would have disciplined his players for acting out, although a suspension might have been excessive.
However, they're teenagers. The whole little vignette was over in less than two minutes. They were also put up to it by some adult volunteers who perhaps saw potential for a friendly moment between some Canadians and some Scandinavians whose paths might not cross again. It was a nice moment to witness, to be honest.
The act of observing changes the observed. The Canadian or U.S. players know they're under a microscope and have plenty of handlers making sure they don't have a hair or word out of place. Hockey Canada probably has more media relations staff than Denmark's hockey federation has staff, period, full stop. The Danes were just being funny after enduring a virtual no-win situation. What was the harm in that?
Neate Sager is a writer for Yahoo! Canada Sports. Contact him at neatesager@yahoo.ca and follow him on Twitter @neatebuzzthenet (video: Buzzing The Net).