Team Canada's P.K. Subban celebrates scoring his team's fourth goal in what would end as a 15-0 victory over Kazakhstan on Sunday afternoon. (Tom Hanson/Canadian Press)

The Kazakhs trailed by a converted touchdown and a field goal when the man in charge of global junior hockey development strolled into Day 3 of the world junior hockey championship.

Frank Gonzalez is used to seeing lopsided scores and while he felt for the Kazakhs, Canada's eventual 15-0 romp on Sunday in Ottawa didn't surprise him one iota.

Gonzalez has seen it before and expects to see it again.

"What are we supposed to do?" said Gonzalez, a Canadian who now lives in Madrid and is Spain's representative on the International Ice Hockey Federation's powerful executive council.

"If we go down to eight teams [instead of 10 at the tournament], then it is the same eight teams every year.

"Our job is to promote hockey and you don't do that by going to eight teams. Our job is to grow the game."

He noted Kazakhstan doesn't have the same number of players as Canada and other countries.

"It is a numbers issue. We send them money to help them develop the game."

One of the problems is lesser teams like Kazakhstan earn promotion to the world junior championship from the world B Pool a year before the showcase event happens.

Most of the players who helped Kazakhstan are now too old for the world juniors, and their replacements aren't up to the task.

So how about changing how teams qualify?

The way it now works is two teams from the A Pool drop down to the B Pool at the end of the 2009 world juniors, and two teams from B Pool will move up to the 2010 tournament in Regina and Saskatoon.

How about having those four teams play a tournament in November, with the top two teams qualifying for the world juniors?

Gonzalez said the IIHF looked at this but nixed the idea.

"But what this [Kazakhstan's loss] tells us is not to go to a 12-team tournament," he said.

The Kazakhs are light years away from being on the same level as the Canadians, the four-time defending world junior champions.

And they were dog tired because they were playing their second game in less than 24 hours.

Kazakhstan lost 9-0 to Germany on Saturday and combined with the thumping by Canada, surrendered 24 goals in less than 24 hours without scoring one of their own.

Canadian netminder Chet Pickard faced two shots in the first period, one in the third and 11 overall. The Canadians always had more goals on the scoreboard than the Kazakhs had shots.

At least the Canadian juniors were polite enough to stop hot dogging it after they scored.

Ten players scored goals in the lopsided victory.

Jamie Benn had a hat trick, while John Tavares, Cody Hodgson and Jordan Eberle each had a pair of goals.

Chris DiDomenico, P.K. Subban, Tyler Ennis, Evander Kane, Stefan Della Rovere and Tyler Myers also scored in the rout.

Canada also set team records in power play goals.

Their three goals with the man advantage in the second and third period tied a team record for most power play goals in a period (done seven times before) and their total of eight in the game beat the previous record of six that was set in 2002.

Canada has had an easy ride in consecutive wins over the Czech Republic and Kazakhstan and doesn't expect the road to gold to get bumpy against Germany on Monday.

The Canadians have an issue to deal with, and that is who to start in net against the United States on New Years' Eve.

The winner will get the bye to the semifinals, provided everything keeps going the way it is going.

Neither Pickard nor Dustin Tokarski has been tested, and if head coach Pat Quinn sticks with his rotation, Tokarski will be in goal against the Germans and Pickard will get the call against the U.S.

That could change, however.

"Clearly we have a decision to make," said Quinn. "I thought young Tokarski was good last night but he let in a couple of weak ones, one that didn't count, but that sometime shows concentration [lapses].

"I liked the way young Pickard stayed sharp tonight. He didn't get much work yet he looked sharp. I am not sure where we are going with them."

The plan was to have the coaching staff meet, mull things over and maybe make a decision.

"The low number of shots might suggest we come back with Pickard after we get in a good practice," said Quinn.

At this point, a good practice may be better than the scrimmage the Canadians had against Kazakhstan.