Howden set to take ice with Team Canada Warriors captain looking forward to quest for gold at World Junior Hockey Championships
A year ago at this time, Moose Jaw Warriors captain Brett Howden was getting over the disappointment of being a late cut from Team Canada for the world junior hockey championships.
This year?
Disappointment has been replaced with outright joy and excitement. Despite battling through the first half of the Western Hockey League season with a upper body injury, Howden was one of 22 players named to the Canadian national team for the annual junior hockey showcase, which began Boxing Day in Buffalo, N.Y.
“It’s been a lot fun, when it was announced that was a really fun night for everybody,” Howden said shortly after a practice prior to the team’s first pre-season contest. “I was really excited for everybody and the next day it was right back to work and right back to getting ready for the tournament.” The final cutdown process is a brutal one — players are sequestered in their hotel rooms and wait for the dreaded phone call telling them to come and meet with the coaches. No call, and you’ve made Team Canada. “If you don’t hear anything, you just wait for a bit and kind of wait until they let you know what’s going on... it was a lot of pacing around and just waiting and hoping,” Howden said. “Nobody knew, you just had to wait.”
Finally, word comes down. And let the celebration begin.
“It was pretty crazy, I just called my dad and talked to my parents, they were both obviously happy for me,” Howden said. “It was almost surreal. You watch this tournament growing up and you dream of playing in it one day and it’s amazing that we’re going to get a chance to do it.” Howden is no stranger to represented Canada on the international stage, having been on Hockey Canada’s radar ever since his days in Bantam hockey — he’s played in the Western Canada Challenge Cup (now the WHL Cup), the World U-17 Hockey Challenge, Under-18 World Championships and the Ivan Hlinka Cup, and most recently suited up for the WHL all-stars in the Canada/Russia Series.
“It’s pretty amazing and pretty special to be a part of this program,” Howden said. “It’s a rare opportunity to be a part of Team Canada at any level, so it’s very humbling and a very special honour and I know all the guys here are going to try and do the best they can to win gold.”
While the team now has their line-up set for the tournament, at the beginning of last week things were still being finalized and Howden had yet to find out what his role might be. As with most players, he was ready to do whatever it took to help the team.
“We’ve been trying some stuff in practice but nothing is set in stone yet,” he said. “I’m pretty sure everyone is going to accept the role they’re given and are looking forward to being part of the team. There’s so much skill and talent up and down the lineup, but I think our team is going to be really good with our work ethic. That’s going to be our identity and a big part of our game.” Canada opened the tournament against Finland on Tuesday and takes on Slovakia Wednesday, United States Friday and Denmark on Saturday to close out the round robin.