The names on their backs will be unfamiliar to most, but the task at hand for the men on Canada’s Olympic hockey team is easy to identify.
They’ll have to find a way to take 25 players from across Canada, who are playing around the world, and meld them into one cohesive unit. And they’ll have just 19 days to do so. It’s a daunting assignment, but one head coach Willie Desjardins is familiar with.
Having been involved as coach of Canada’s world junior entries in 2009 and 2010, he knows time is short and the pressure is immense.
“I remember in the world juniors one of the first questions I had was, ‘how can you get all these guys together on the same page?’” said the former Vancouver Canucks coach who headed up Canada’s silver medallists in 2010 and was an assistant on Pat Quinn’s gold medal-winning team a year earlier.
“I said, ‘that’s going to be easy, because we all have the same goal.’ And we have it again.”
The goal, even in the absence of NHLers, is gold.
And as unlikely as that might seem given the 25-man roster of European-based players Hockey Canada unveiled Thursday, Desjardins believes his crew will be armed with a work ethic capable of conquering all obstacles.
“That’s the thing about this program – all our guys want it,” said Desjardins, 60.
“They want it and they don’t care what role they’ll be in. They’ll accept any role for this tournament and that’s what gives us a chance.”
Desjardins said what also gives them hope is that by virtue of selecting his team via seven international tournaments the last 14 months, his group has already shared some crucial bonding experiences
“The thing that really brings you together is tough times and we’ve had some of those already for these tournaments where things didn’t go our way,” said Desjardins, who will have Dave King, Scott Walker and Craig Woodcroft as assistants.
“So our process has already started.”
The Canadian squad will open camp in 17 days in Riga, Latvia, where the team will spend eight days practicing and playing two exhibition games. They’ll then fly to Korea where they’ll face Sweden in a warm-up game before playing their first Olympic test in PyeongChang against Switzerland Feb. 15 at 5 a.m. MT.
“We need to play games to form as a team,” said Desjardins, who had the bulk of his roster play in at least four tourney games during the evaluation process that looked at 100 players.
“That was the hardest thing in the tournaments – building chemistry. Our power play was one key reason we lost in some tournaments. Some teams’ power plays have played together forever, while we had five-man units who had played together one practice. That’s something we’ll have to work on to be successful. That will be our biggest challenge.”
While Canadians continue to try getting over the disappointment of not having NHLers defending the gold medal Canada has won three of the last four Games, the thrill of representing their country on the grandest of stages will be a strong motivator for the NHL castoffs making up the roster.
“There were reasons for them to quit – there were reasons for them to say, ‘I’ve had enough,’” said Desjardins, who has worked closely with team GM Sean Burke to select a squad featuring players like Ben Scrivens, Rene Bourque, Brandon Kozun, Mason Raymond and Derek Roy.
“They have a dream of representing their countries – for some guys that’s the only reason they’re playing this year. I think that’s pretty special. If I was a Canadian I’d appreciate they’ve taken their families to Europe with no family around just so they can be on this team.”
Speaking at a well-attended team unveiling in Calgary about the emotional phone calls informing players of their Olympic fate, Desjardins echoed the clear sentiment this will mean everything to these players.
“All our players somewhere along the line were told ‘no,’ and that they weren’t going to get a chance to continue their NHL career, or in some cases even start it,” said Desjardins, whose team may just have a strong shot at capturing the attention and love of Canadians who otherwise insist they’re not interested in B Level Olympians.
“A lot like other Canadians they’ve managed to battle and fight back. I think that’s the nature of Canadians. It says so much about them as people. I respect that and I think Canadians will as well. I think people can relate to our team and that we’ll be part of the Canadian fabric. You know you’ll get our all.”
