Goalie jobs on juniors open competition, coach says
No goalie feels more pressure at the world junior hockey championship than Canada’s starter, says the man cultivating the next one.
Ron Tugnutt is the Canadian team’s goal-tending coach and has personally experienced that kind of pressure. In addition to a long NHL career, Tugnutt twice represented Canada at the world championship.
“There’s a lot more pressure on our goalie than on the other teams,” Tugnutt said Tuesday at selection camp in Calgary.
When European teams win the semifinal, they’re thrilled at the prospect of “at least” a silver medal, but Canadian players aren’t interested in anything but gold, he explained.
“When we win the semifinal game, we’re only thinking one thing,” Tugnutt added.
With no incumbent from the previous world junior championship, a major subplot of selection camp in Calgary this week is who will be Canada’s starter, backup and alternate at the 2013 world junior championship starting Dec. 26 in Ufa, Russia.
In a new development, Canada will take a third goaltender as insurance against injury because of the travel time required to get to southcentral Russia.
Malcolm Subban of the Belleville Bulls, Laurent Brossoit of the Edmonton Oil Kings, Jordan Binnington of the Owen Sound Attack and Jake Paterson of the Saginaw Spirit are the four invitees.
There’s little time for them to impress head coach Steve Spott as the 23-player team will be finalized Thursday afternoon.
Spott tried to dampen speculation that Subban, the younger brother of Montreal Canadiens defenceman P.K. Subban, has the inside track on the starting job because he plays on European-sized ice at Belleville’s Yardman Arena.
After four years on North American ice, the world junior tournament returns to a surface four metres wider with just over a half-metre more space between the back of the net and the end boards.
“Contrary to belief, there’s no starting job being given out, I can tell you guys that,” Spott told reporters. “That’s going to be a really good subplot to this training camp, to see which guys we take over. That third goalie is a unique position. He may not see any action at all.”
Tugnutt says Subban’s big-ice experience is one check mark in his favour.
“I know myself as a goalie I struggled with the bigger ice,” Tugnutt said. “I think it is an advantage for him just because it is a different visual. He sees it every day. But that’s not going to be the determining factor on what happens here.”
Subban:, the six-foot-two, 201-pound Toronto native has some of the flamboyance of his older brother, according to Tugnutt. The first-round pick of the Boston Bruins posted a 15-7-3 record with Belleville. “He’s extremely athletic. You think you have an easy goal and it’s taken away,” Tugnutt said.