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“It was disappointing for us after having had a pretty good tournament as a team to that point,” he said. “We just didn’t play our best in the first period and in a short-term competition you don’t have much time for mistakes. We had a bad 21 minutes, including the very start of the second, and it ended up costing us.”
Guhle, who has played for the Prince Albert Raiders in the Western Hockey League the past two seasons and helped them to a championship in his rookie season in 2018-19, had a strong performance on a personal level in the event, finishing the World Juniors with two goals and an assist while playing in all seven games.
“I thought I played well,” he said. “It’s great to get to play with those players, everyone is so good on that team. There are so many good players around you, so it is pretty easy to just go out there and play with lots of players behind you who can get the job done. I thought it was a decent tournament for myself, and my teammates definitely made it a lot easier.”
The Park product admitted it was odd to be playing without fans in the COVID-19 pandemic bubble in Edmonton, but that it didn’t diminish the experience of getting to realize his dream of playing for Team Canada in the highly-viewed tournament.
“It was weird, but it wasn’t too bad,” Guhle said. “I thought it was going to be worse. The food was good and there were lots of things for us to do in our players’ lounge. You could hang out with the guys — five days after we got into the bubble we were allowed to hang out with everybody who was there. It was a lot of fun, actually. I enjoyed it.
