THE CANADIAN PRESS
Canada’s team at the world junior hockey championships looks to be fast and skilled with the puck. But the Team Canada braintrust also expects it to use a little muscle.
On Wednesday, coach Pat Quinn and Hockey Canada unveiled the 38 players bidding to make the final roster of 22 for the tournament that opens Dec. 26 in Ottawa. The host country’s games will be played on the narrower North American ice surface at Scotiabank Place compared to the larger European ice of the last two tournaments.
Quinn expects his players to make the ice feel even smaller for opposing players.
"I think we have a real solid skill level and a deep skill level so that we can play a skating game, a puck-moving game and hopefully be a possession-style of team," Quinn said Wednesday on a conference call.
"But on the smaller ice, when we don’t have the puck, (we want to) have an edge and have that good physical balance of play to get that puck back and make sure people know we’re out there."
Age wasn’t a barrier to making the Dec. 11-15 selection camp in Ottawa — almost half the players invited to camp are 18 or under, even though the junior championship is considered a showcase of the world’s best 19-year-old players.
But maturity will be needed to survive the selection process. Quinn wants players who can handle the distractions and pressure of playing in front of a country that expects nothing less than gold.
"It’ll be about maturity and let’s face it, some 18-year-olds are more mature than some at 19 or 25," Quinn said. "If we’re young, that’s what we are.
"It’s how those skills blend together to become stronger as a unit and that’s what we’re looking for whether they’re 18 or 19."
Eight Canadian teenagers currently playing in the NHL made room on the camp roster for five 17-year-olds.
The NHL players are Steven Stamkos (Tampa Bay), Colton Gillies (Minnesota), Kyle Turris (Phoenix), Brandon Sutter (Carolina), Drew Doughty (Los Angeles), Luke Schenn (Toronto), Sam Gagner (Edmonton) and Josh Bailey (New York Islanders).
Although Hockey Canada hasn’t given up on getting those players, the Canadian team wants them by the first day of selection camp.
The camp roster was compiled by Hockey Canada head scout Al Murray, who evaluated a pool of 65 players before whittling it down.
"We pick the players who are best prepared at this time," Murray said.
From four goaltenders, 14 defencemen and 20 forwards, Quinn and assistants Dave Cameron, Guy Boucher and Willie Desjardins are expected to choose two goalies, seven defencemen and 13 forwards to open the tournament Dec. 26 against the Czech Republic.
The roster currently has four returning players from the team that won gold in 2008 in Pardubice, Czech Republic: forwards John Tavares of Oshawa and Zach Boychuk of Lethbridge and defencemen P.K. Subban of Belleville and Thomas Hickey of Seattle.
Tavares was 17 in the Czech Republic. The projected No. 1 draft pick for 2009 aims for a bigger role on this team.
"I want to bring that leadership aspect and some of the experience I gained from last year, but you can’t take it for granted you’re on the team," Tavares said. "I’m a little nervous as well.
"I want to make sure I play well in the games and I show the staff what I can do and what I can bring to the table. I’ve got to make sure I earn my spot and be a guy who can be counted on for leadership and setting a good example."
Quinn was appointed head coach in September after Benoit Groulx stepped down to take a job in the American Hockey League. Quinn did not oversee the summer evaluation camp so many of the players invited are new to him.
"It gives a lot more guys opportunity and it’s really tough to tell who has a really good shot and who you think is going to play where and things like that," Tavares said.
There were no major surprises on the camp roster, although a subplot of the five days in Ottawa will be whether Montreal Junior forward Angelo Esposito can crack the lineup after three years of trying and getting cut.
Windsor forward Taylor Hall, who just turned 17 last month, and defenceman Ryan Ellis, also 17, are two of the five of players invited who were born in 1991.
"Coaches of the past think it’s a 19-year-old tournament, but Hall and Ellis are younger and have terrific skill level and they’ll get a good chance," Quinn said.
It’s not unusual for the Canadian team to have a 17-year-old player in the lineup, or the odd 16-year-old, but five invited to camp is high. Brandon Wheat Kings forward Brayden Schenn, younger brother to Toronto Maple Leafs defenceman Luke Schenn, is also one of the young invitees.
Goaltending is a pivotal position in this tournament and the four heading to camp are Montreal’s Jake Allen, who is 18, Spokane’s Dustin Tokarski, Vancouver’s Tyson Sexsmith and Chet Pickard of the Tri-City Americans.
Quinn, a part-owner of the Vancouver Giants, said he did not have influence over the naming of Sexsmith and 17-year-old forward Evander Kane to the roster.
"They made it on their merit, not on mine," Quinn said.
Four players come from the college ranks: Wisconsin defencemen Cody Goloubef and Brendan Smith, Cornell forward Riley Nash and Denver forward Patrick Wiercioch.
Notes(at) — Pickard, Tokarski, Wiercioch, Saint John’s Chris DiDomenico, Sarnia’s Jamie Benn and Spokane defenceman Jared Spurgeon haven’t played for a Canadian team before . . . The Western Hockey League led selections with 18, followed by the Ontario Hockey League with 11, the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League with five and four out of U.S. colleges . . . The highest NHL draft picks on the list are Hickey and defenceman Alex Pietrangelo, who went fourth overall in the 2007 and 2008 to Los Angeles and St. Louis respectively.
