Brossoit primed to show his stuff
WORLD JUNIOR CAMP SET TO BEGIN
Laurent Brossoit knows what lies ahead. The criticism, the pressure, the big stage — the Edmonton Oil Kings netminder has experienced it all.
And Monday, he’s bracing himself to go through it all over again in a bid to start in net for Team Canada at the 2013 IIHF world junior championships in Russia.
Brossoit is one of 36 players arriving in Calgary Monday for the 2013 national junior team selection camp which starts Tuesday at WinSport.
“I’m so excited,” he bubbled. “It was a dream come true to be invited. I just have to make sure I can show what I can do to make the team.”
As luck would have it this year, mathematics are on his side. Because the tournament is in Ufa, Russia, Hockey Canada says it’s taking three netmind- ers for emergency purposes.
Brossoit is one of four at this week’s camp along with Owen Sound Attack goalie Jordan Binnington, Jake Paterson of the Saginaw Spirit, and Malcolm Subban of the Belleville Bulls. Brossoit is the lowest drafted goalie in the group (sixth round, 164th to the Calgary Flames), but his resume is deep.
Earning the approval of Edmonton’s Rexall Place (which adopted the chant “L.B.”) Brossoit played lights-out to lead his team last to a season 2012 WHL and championship Memorial Cup appearance, the club’s first in its modern day history.
At the national tournament, fatigue set in and his performance dipped as the Oil Kings bowed out. Following the Cana- dian world junior goalie camp and the Flames development camp this summer, he went to the Canada-Russia Challenge in August. It wasn’t his finest hour. Questions were raised early this year about his ability to come through in prominent games. He battled through.
“To go in the summer and deal with that kind of struggle kind of helped me realize what I needed to do to get to the next level,” said Brossoit who played one game and let in five goals against the Russians but posted a 1-0 shootout win for Team WHL in November’s Subway Super Series.
Given Canada’s recent issues in that area, it adds intrigue to this year’s junior camp.
“You have to know that,” he said. “There’s going to be even more pressure (at the world juniors) going into it because of the lockout and the last two years the goaltending hasn’t been too strong. I’m kind of looking forward to it. I feel like I strive in pressure situations.”
Consider this week the first of a month’s worth of pressure situations. Team Canada’s camp is short and sweet — one practice and an intersquad game Tuesday, the first round of cuts Wednesday, with the team likely named Thursday.
Last year, it was favoured Medicine Hat Tigers netminder Tyler Bunz cracking under pressure, paving the way for Plymouth Whalers goalie Scott Wedgewood to make the team along with returning netminder Mark Visentin.
“The biggest thing for a goaltender in a situation like that is to not change a thing,” Brossoit said. “A lot of goaltenders go in there and try to up their intensity because they think the game is faster. You just have to do what made you successful and got you there.”