OTTAWA – Easton Cowan might have played the worst hockey game of his junior hockey career on Tuesday night.

To set the scene, Canada lost 4-1 to the United States in the final game of the 2025 World Junior Championship round robin. It was the first game in which Cowan didn’t register a single point, despite leading all Canadian forwards with 18:35 in ice time. Cowan struggled to generate much noteworthy at 5-on-5 or on the power play.

But, more importantly, he took an egregious boarding penalty late in the game that led to the 3-1 goal, only to then blindly pass the puck from behind Canada’s goal line to cause the 4-1 goal. Those final five minutes, in particular, took Canada out of the running to flip the script and prevented them from at least finishing second in Group A.

Cowan was the talk of the town during the pre-tournament. He scored three goals in the first game against Switzerland was the catalyst on Canada’s top line. He has been glued to Colorado Avalanche prospect Calum Ritchie since the get-go, with a couple of other wingers drafting in as the tournament as gone on.

But for a player riding a 56-game point streak in the OHL – a returning player, too – Canadians have understandably expected more from Cowan than the three points he has in four games.

Canada is set to take on fellow Leafs’ prospect Miroslav Holinka and Czechia on Thursday at 7:30 PM ET. On paper, Canada has so much more depth and the better goaltending. But Canada hasn’t looked confident since the 4-0 win over Finland. Since then, they lost to Latvia, needed a fluky goal to beat Germany (who is off to the relegation round) and fell apart against the United States. Undisciplined hockey and a lack of scoring has sunk this team, and Cowan – who took two minor penalties on Tuesday – isn’t immune to it.

Cowan isn’t playing well enough. And if this continues, Canada’s tournament will be short-lived.

Cowan isn’t the world’s best skater. However, one of the most fascinating aspects of his game was that he never stopped moving. That’s what made him interesting as a fourth-liner on Canada a year ago – he wasn’t there to score, but he was there to push the limit of what other teams could do with the puck. He then went on to win MVP honors for both the OHL regular season and the playoffs, so expectations quickly ramped up.

The 2023 first-rounder hasn’t exploded offensively with the London Knights this year, but he is on pace to score over 40 goals. His shot looks more lethal and his work ethic has only improved, but we haven’t seen the results in Ottawa over the past week. Again, that’s not just on him. Ten players have scored for Canada, nobody has scored more than once, and the team has just one 5-on-5 goal since the game against the Finns. Cowan needs to be better, but so does Ritchie, Berkly Catton, Bradly Nadeau, Gavin McKenna and Brayden Yager.

A two-week tournament isn’t going to define Cowan’s career. In fact, he could flip the script with the biggest game of his life on Thursday. But with the country watching closely – and the added pressure of being a Leafs prospect – Canada needs Cowan to figure it out – and fast. Cowan has a chance to become a tournament hero by helping to make a positive impact the rest of the way, but he needs to move past Tuesday’s performance and pull a complete 180.