Canada’s late additions still relishing opportunity
Bouwmeester, Perry and Couture happy to be on World Cup roster
OTTAWA — Jay Bouwmeester is a late addition to Canada’s World Cup team again, but he doesn’t mind.
Bouwmeester, Corey Perry and Logan Couture were all tacked on to Canada’s roster after the initial announcement, but when it comes to representing Canada a late invitation is better than none.
Bouwmeester, 32, was also a late invite for the 2004 World Cup, replacing the injured Chris Pronger and appearing in four games.
“This is pretty different considering I was 20 years old for that one and was walking into a room with Mario Lemieux and Joe Sakic and I was just a kid,” recalled the 13-year NHL veteran. “It was cool to be around all those guys, but me and Scott Hannan were kind of the seventh and eighth defencemen, but a couple more guys got hurt and I ended up getting to play. The whole experience was great.”
This time around, Bouwmeester is the veteran guy in the room. He is the second oldest player on the roster behind 37-year-old Joe Thornton, the only other player who represented Canada in the 2004 World Cup.
Perry said that it was an honour just to pull on a Canadian sweater.
“I’m here, that’s all that matters,” Perry said on Monday. “You look around the room and all the great players on this team. There’s a lot of superstars in here and it’s good to be a part of it and we’re looking forward to getting going.”
Team Canada wraps up pre-tournament play Wednesday against Russia in Pittsburgh.