Forget about the win yesterday over the Czechs, the world junior hockey championship could give Canadian hockey a much-needed wakeup call. Or if it doesn't it should.

We're no longer kings of the pond and the sooner we realize it the better off we'll be.

With Canada's almost perennial domination of the world junior - including winning the championships the past five years - we could delude ourselves into thinking everything is just peachy with our game. We have the best young players in the world and prove it annually when we beat the youngsters from the rest of the world.

But you have to look no further than the NHL scoring leaders to realize we no longer corner the market when it comes to skilled players. The leading scorer is Peter Forsberg, a Swede. Tied for runner-up are John LeClair of the U.S. and Pavel Bure, the Russian Rocket. Only three Canadians rank among the league's top 10 scorers.


ON BORROWED TIME

It's bad enough that only six of the 26 NHL teams are based in Canada. And at least one of them - the Edmonton Oilers - is living on borrowed time. Our game, at least at the NHL level, definitely has a made-in-the-USA look.

We always could console ourselves with the thought that at least most of the players are Canadians. It is true there are still more Canadians than those of any other nationality playing in the NHL. But the gap is closing.

As we found out in the past World Cup, and may discover again at the Olympics, the best hockey players in the world are not necessarily Canadians. When it comes to skill, the rest of the world is at least as good or better than we are.

The Canadian juniors, in their games against Finland and Sweden, had trouble scoring goals. It is a problem that seems prevalent among most Canadian players.

There was a time when all of the big scorers in the NHL were Canadians. From Rocket Richard to Guy Lafleur with a pause for Boom Boom Geoffrion and Jean Beliveau, the Montreal Canadiens were the mightiest scoring machine in hockey history. The current Habs don't have a honest-to-goodness goal-scorer in their lineup.

It is the same story only more so for the Toronto Maple Leafs. Did you ever think how bad they would be if Cliff Fletcher hadn't made the deal that brought Mats Sundin to Toronto? He's the one genuine goal-scorer on the roster.


NATION OF GRINDERS?

Surely we haven't become a nation of grinders and goons. I agree, tough guys who can check and even duke it out with their fists have their place in hockey. But so do scorers, a role Canadians seem to have abdicated.

It could be the reason Leafs president Ken Dryden has an entourage of four at the world junior championship. He isn't there to watch the Canadians. Neither are the rest of the scouts and general managers for NHL teams. They're scouting the Europeans because scorers are in such short supply in the NHL and Canadian hockey isn't producing them.

Perhaps it was inevitable the rest of the world would catch up to us in hockey. It happened to England in soccer, its game. At the past World Cup, England, the birthplace of soccer, didn't even qualify for the tournament.

It's time Canadian hockey took a good hard look at itself, especially at the midget and junior levels.

Why aren't we producing the scorers we once did? Is it the system we play, where checking has become the name of the game? Or is there another reason?

I think Canadians deserve an answer. If it's the system, let's do something about it before it's too late.