Junior nats hatching plan for worlds
TORONTO • Hockey Canada has the raw materials for its junior team. Now it’s time to starting putting it together.
Canada’s roster of 27 players had their first practice in Imatra, Finland, on Tuesday to prepare for three pre- competition exhibition games this weekend as the coaching staff and Hockey Canada’s management team evaluates who will make the final roster for the world junior championship.
“I think that everyone that comes to Europe has a chance to make the team,” said Ryan Jankowski, director of player personnel for the team. “The job isn’t done and that’s what we’ve got the week for and that’s what we’ve got the three exhibition games for, to help sort that out.”
After a four- day selection camp in Toronto where four players were cut, Canada’s junior team now has 15 forwards, nine defencemen and three goaltenders. The three goalies — Mackenzie Blackwood, Mason McDonald and Samuel Montembeault — are the only ones guaranteed spots. Blackwood will be unavailable for Canada’s opening game against the United States on Dec. 26 and the Canadians’ second game on Dec. 28 against Denmark as he serves out the end of an eight-game suspension.
That means forwards and defencemen will have to be cut over the next week to get Canada down to a 23-man roster.
An emphasis has been placed on speed and playmaking ability throughout the evaluation process with players and coaches alike using the word “fast” as a desired quality throughout the selection camp.
“I think it’s going to be a fast, skilled team,” said centre Brayden Point, who returns from last year’s gold medalwinning team. “That’s what ( head coach Dave Lowry) has been wanting and I think it’s going to be fast.”
Each day of training camp Lowry’s coaching staff and the management team — which includes Jankowski, Tim Speltz and Scott Salmond — will meet to discuss which players are impressing them and who might be cut. Canada will play Belarus in a pre- competition exhibition on Saturday, the Czech Republic on Sunday and Sweden on Dec. 23.
“We go into a room and we discuss players,” said Jankowski. “We talk about our feelings, where they’re at. I’m responsible for kind of bringing the history and the big picture of these players. The coaches see the right now and we try and form that and merge that.”
At the same time, Lowry will be trying to build team chemistry through bonding exercises and establishing systems on the ice.
“We’re going to continue working on our game,” said Lowry.
“We want to simplify the process. We understand that it’s a short competition but we want to make sure that our goal going is that we’re going to be the best prepared team.”
Although Jake Virtanen of the Vancouver Canucks was added to the roster late Sunday, there’s still an outside chance that more NHLers will be joining the team. Jankowski had said that Robby Fabbri of the St. Louis Blues and Jared McCann of the Canucks were both desired targets before the NHL’s rosters are frozen at midnight on Dec. 19.