Air Canada gives Canada a major advantage on Day 1 of World Junior Championship.

The World Junior Championships have not yet gotten underway but the tournament has already had some controversy thanks to an often criticized Canadian airline.

Air Canada, which has often been the target of criticism from Canadian travelers, has been accused of losing ALL of the equipment belonging to Columbus Blue Jackets defenseman David Jiricek, the 6th overall pick at the 2022 National Hockey League Entry Draft. Jiricek is set to represent Czechia at the World Junior Championships but now has no equipment to use and it sounds like he doesn't know when he might receive it either.

NHL player agent Allan Walsh took to social media on Sunday night to hammer Air Canada over the lost equipment, as well as over their response to losing that equipment.

Air Canada customer support is a disaster, an outrageous embarrassment of a company. NHL 6th overall pick David Jiricek flew from Cleveland (AHL) to Halifax thru Toronto. Numerous cancelled flights, now he’s in Halifax for [the World Junior Championship]with no gear, no skates, no sticks.

The last scan of David’s gear was Toronto. They don’t know where gear is or when will arrive in Halifax. The opening Czechia game of #WJC is against Canada tomorrow. Sat on hold for 2.5 hours, then line went dead. How about some accountability for [Air Canada] Michael Rousseau?

Now you might be thinking that Jiricek could just walk over to a local sporting goods store in Halifax and find himself some new gear, but things are a little more complicated than that. Jiricek is a large man and as a result requires custom-made equipment, specifically skates, to be able to play the game.

The game between Canada and Czechia is scheduled for later today and at the time of this writing there doesn't appear to have been a resolution to this problem.

Update: The news has now been corroborated by the Czechnian team as well.