Mete hardened by time in Montreal’s fish bowl

Experience should help defenceman at world juniors

PSt. Catharines, Ont. ressure? Ha, that’s a good one, thought Victor Mete.

No question, the largerthan-life expectations heaped on the teenagers Team Canada will pick this week to represent the country at the world junior hockey championship are immense. It’s gold or bust regardless of the year or the team. But for Mete, who played 27 games in the most pressure-filled market in the NHL, it’s nothing compared to the “chaos” he experienced the last three months.

“It’s not like Montreal or any other NHL team where you have all the media (all year long),” said the 19-year-old defenceman, who is on loan from the Canadiens. “This is only a two-week tournament.”

Consider Mete’s first weeks of the season: the Habs lost seven straight games and fielded questions regarding whether goalie Carey Price forgot how to stop the puck. During another two-week window, the Canadiens went 1-42 and became the first team this year to lose in regulation time to the last-place Coyotes.

So the Woodbridge, Ont., native is probably more battled tested than any other player at Tuesday’s selection camp, including the seven returning players who lost in a dramatic overtime shootout to the U.S. in the gold-medal game of last year’s tournament.

“Obviously, it’s a lot,” Mete said of the pressures in Montreal. “But some of the guys know how to handle it. When we were losing, there was a lot of chaos, but I thought that we did a good job of overcoming that and we’re now back to almost .500.”

It’s that NHL experience, combined with an increased confidence moving the puck, that makes Mete a far more valuable player than he was a year ago when he was one of the team’s cuts.

“Well, we see it with a lot of guys,” said head coach Dominique Ducharme. “One year can make a difference. Just remember (last year’s tournament MVP Thomas) Chabot in Finland (in the 2016 tournament) and Chabot last year. At that time and at that age, 365 days is a lot (in terms of) maturity and strength ... they’re all different players. He’s a little bit quicker, more experienced, stronger.”

Mete, who has four assists for the Canadiens this season, said he wasn’t surprised he was loaned to Team Canada. Though he had spent time on Shea Weber’s defence pairing — “He kind of took me under his wing and guided me everywhere,” said Mete — he hadn’t been in Montreal’s lineup the last two games and his ice time dipped below the 10-minute mark in three of the previous nine games.

Though he hasn’t been told whether the team plans on calling him back up when the tournament ends or re-assigning him to his junior team in London, Ont., he is looking toward the opportunity with a positive mindset.

“Playing here might be good for my development,” he said. “I’m going to trust them and try to win a gold here ... because obviously (winning gold is) probably the biggest thing I’ve wanted since I was a little kid.”

A smallish defender — he is listed as five-foot-10 and 178 pounds — Mete was able to handle bigger and stronger competition with his ability to skate the puck out of trouble. “He skates really well,” said Jake Bean, one of three returning defencemen. “He makes a lot of good first passes and with his mobility, guys can’t get around him.”

With Mete joining a defence corps that includes three returning players — Bean, Kale Clague and Dante Fabbro — as well as No. 4 overall pick Cale Makar, it’s obvious Canada’s strengths are on the back end, especially with Carter Hart returning as the starting goalie.

“I think we’re pretty deep everywhere, but for sure we’re happy with the guys we have on the back end,” said Ducharme, who is behind the bench for the third straight year, his second as head coach. “Again, it’s experience. Going through a tournament, as a coach, it’s the same thing ... you know the beat, the way the tournament is played, how thin the line is between losing, how much attention to detail is important.”

For Mete, it’s even more than that. He’s played against the best in the world. Now’s he’s playing against the best in his age group. Having faced the likes of Jonathan Toews and Joe Thornton and other star players, it’s something he knows he should be able to handle.

“I feel like I’ve been doing a pretty good job there, so hopefully I get the opportunity to go back after this,” said Mete. “Everyone there has welcomed me, so I feel like I belong there and hopefully I can get the opportunity to go back there.”

And hopefully, it’s with a gold medal around his neck.