Skill is the new Canadian way to compete internationally
TORONTO — It was supposedly the late Herb Brooks who had the famous line about not bringing an all-star team to the 1980 Olympics.
“I am not looking for the best players,” said Kurt Russell, who played the U.S. hockey team’s head coach in the movie Miracle. “I am looking for the right ones.”
For the longest time, that was how Canada also used to assemble its international teams.
Skilled scorers could be found on the top two lines. But from Rob Zamuner winning a roster spot over Mark Messier at the 1998 Olympics in Nagano to Kris Draper being chosen ahead of Sidney Crosby at the 2006 Olympics in Turin, bottom-six jobs often went to role players because the thinking was you could not ask a star player to get his hands dirty and block shots.
That thinking probably cost Canada a couple of Olympic medals and was part of the reason our top teenagers endured a fiveyear gold-medal drought at the world junior championships.
It was only after a disappointing fourth-place finish in 2014 in Malmo, Sweden, where Canada lost to Finland in the semifinal and then to Russia in the bronze- medal game, that the top-six and bottom-six formula was scrapped. The tipping point, said Hockey Canada head scout Ryan Jankowski, was Max Domi.
Domi had been left off the 2014 world junior team because Canada’s scouting staff was unsure whether a top scorer would be able to fit in and play a bottomsix role if necessary. In the process, the team lacked the offensive depth to compete with the top countries in the world.
Last winter, the team put the focus back on talent. Domi was fourth in scoring with five goals and 10 points in seven games. And Canada, which had the topfour scorers in the tourney won its first gold medal since 2009.
But the big change was with the bottom six. In the past, Canada’s bottom two lines were filled with role players who brought a responsible two-way game or simply played with energy.
But having Brayden Point as the 13th forward at last year’s tournament gave the coaching staff the versatility to move him up to the top line when Connor McDavid and Curtis Lazar were struggling to score.
In other words, it is much easier to teach a skilled player to play a grinding role than it is the other way around. It is a philosophy that Canada has adopted not just with the junior teams, but also for the Olympic, world championship and World Cup teams.
Scoring goals at this year’s tournament should not be a problem. Dylan Strome and Mitch Marner, who finished 1-2 in OHL scoring last season, headline a talented group of forwards that includes Point (43 points in 19 games this season), Anthony Beauvillier (35 points in 18 games) and Travis Konecny (39 points in 25 games).