Gare Joyce

Gare Joyce writes regularly on junior hockey for Sportsnet.ca. A veteran journalist, Joyce is the author of Future Greats and Heartbreaks: A Year Undercover in the Secret World of NHL Scouts, When the Lights Went Out: How One Brawl Ended Hockey's Cold War and Changed the Game and Sidney Crosby: Taking the Game by Storm. He also writes for ESPN The Magazine, espn.com and several Canadian magazines.

Okay, look at the scoresheet from Canada's tournament opener. Eleven players picked up points. John Tavares (two goals and an assist) you'd expect. Same with Cody Hodgson (two assists). Other names might not be so familiar. Hands up if you knew Chris Di Domenico before this tournament (and go to the front of the class if you can pronounce it correctly). You are more than the average junior hockey fan if you already knew Brett Sonne.

One of the names not on the scoresheet: Jamie Benn.

I still have confidence in the scout's doping out the tournament, however.   

You'll hear some talk and read some reviews suggesting that John Tavares doesn't have a winger that complements him. Yeah, it was a heart-warming stuff to see Angelo Esposito finish off JT's great pass for the third goal in the win over the Czechs on Friday night. And it would be great to see Esposito make keep on making good. That said, you could make the case that the best candidate to play next to JT was toiling away on the fourth line, an all-Dub trio featuring Tyler Ennis of the Hat, Sonne from the Hitmen, and Kelowna's Benn.

Ennis worked beside Benn on the WHL team that played the touring Russian team a few weeks back. Ennis's read on Benn? "The best finisher that I've ever played with," Ennis says. Benn's numbers from the Dub this year are pretty gaudy (24 goals in 27 games). So were his performances in the Canadian team's pre-tournament tune-ups: a goal in each of the three games skating on the fourth line. In Canada's game against the Swedes, Benn's clean steal in the neutral zone for a neatly finished breakaway was arguably the play of the night.  

Some people have the ability to blend into the background. Some have the desire not to stand out too much. Benn seems to be both. The Victoria, B.C native was playing for his hometown Grizzlies in the BCJL and was planning on going up to the University of Alaska-Anchorage to join his older brother there. (Presumably they can see Russia from the rink.) Even though he scored 42 goals in 53 games in the BCJL back in 2006-07, Benn wasn't invited to the Junior A Challenge. Or to the provincial under-17s. "I guess they missed me," he says. He doesn't say this with any anger or edge ... if he resents the snub at all, well, I wouldn't want to play poker against him. I went around for second opinions of those who know him and they assured me that it's just his make-up. It's just that Benn's impossibly soft-spoken, hanging his head and talking into his chest, a lot more cautious off the ice than on it. When I put in a request for Benn after the practice yesterday, the team's media-relations man Andre Brin assured me that no one along press row had asked to speak to him in recent days.

Dallas did notice Benn and drafted him straight out of the BCJL. In the fifth round. "Yeah, we were so smart we waited until then to take him," the Stars' associate GM Les Jackson says, irony dripping from every word. Turned out Benn was a talent that the team could justify trading up for. Credit the Stars' regional scout Dennis Holland with the find and the hard push to select him. Credit Benn for taking his game to a whole new level this season--the word out of Dallas' camp was that Benn was a threat to stick with the big club.

The Benn-Ennis-Sonne unit got more ice time as the game wore on Friday night. They were as good as any other trio. "I felt more confident as the game went on and I think [our line] was the same way," Ennis says.       

There's no knowing how settled coach Pat Quinn is on his line combinations. It just might be that Benn's play will attract attention.