U20 World Junior Championships Preview: Team Canada

In Canada, the nation takes Christmas Day off hockey, aside from playing the game with family and friends at the local rink or frozen pond.  It's the start of winter according to the seasons, but in Canada, it's really just a holiday with family after at least six weeks (upwards of ten where I live) of cold weather and permanent snow.  The national cable sports network, TSN, decided to broadcast the World Junior Hockey Championships during the holiday season, and in time it became a holiday tradition of sorts.  Today, it fills ten of the twelve days of Christmas with international junior hockey, only taking a break on New Year's Day, which is now being filled by an outdoor hockey game in the United States if you so desire.  From Boxing Day through January fifth, if you're in Canada, you can watch a ton of hockey. 

The early days of the World Juniors wasn't kind to Canada, as the USSR dominated the tournament in its beginnings in the 1970s through the 1980s.  It took until 1982 for Canada to strike gold, a tournament played in Minnesota.  In fact, Canada has won three of the four tournaments to be held on American soil, winning in '82, '96 (Boston), and '05 (Grand Forks).  The only time the Canadians have not won on American soil was in 1989 in Anchorage, Alaska, which ended with the Canadians finishing fourth (and the USSR winning).  So the United States has been kind territory to the Canadian team in the past, and with the games being held pretty much right on the USA-Canada border in Buffalo and Niagara, New York, this year's edition is going to get a ton of fan support. 

There's little to explain about Canadian hockey development:  Canada relies heavily on their own major junior hockey system, which has three independently run leagues with teams in nine of the ten Canadian provinces and five American states.  The players are mainly teenagers, though each team is allowed three twenty year olds and two import players from outside of North America.  Americans and Canadians are both classified as nationals, free to compete for the same roster spots with each other, although the content is primarily Canadian.   Most importantly for Canadians, the system works, and shows no signs of really being at risk.  Youth participation levels in hockey are still strong, though there are some concerns about recent immigrant populations not taking up the sport at the same rates as second or third generation Canadians.  There are rinks in nearly every community across the country, and if nothing else, there's usually an outdoor rink nearby that is usable for three months or so. 

So, quite simply,  we don't need too much of a big picture discussion on this one.  Canada had an amazing run of five straight gold medals from 2005-09, that all ended on January 5 of this year in my hometown of Saskatoon, when John Carlson of the USA put a goal short side past Canadian goaltender Martin Jones in overtime.  Payback is definitely a motivating factor for the Canadians, even though there is no guarantee that they'll even get to play the Americans at all this year.  I contacted Neate Sager, who runs the excellent Yahoo! Canadian Hockey League blog called Buzzing the Net, to ask some questions on the players.  I have a pretty good handle on the WHL talent, which is the league that's supplied the most players this year, while Sager pays more attention to the OHL in his backyard. 

2011 Draft Hopeful:  C Sean Couturier

Not Made Available:  C Matt Duchene (COL), LW Evander Kane (ATL), C Ryan O'Reilly (COL), LW Kyle Clifford (LA), LW Taylor Hall (EDM), C Tyler Seguin (BOS), C Jeff Skinner (CAR).

Notable Absentee/Cut:  C Brandon Pirri, D Ryan Murray, D Ryan Murphy, F Ryan Nugent-Hopkins, RW Scott Glennie, D Stefan Elliott (couldn't resist)

Team Staff:  Kevin Pendergrast (Head Scout), Scott Salmond (General Manager), Dave Cameron (Head Coach), Ryan Huska, Andre Tourigny and George Burnett (Assistant Coaches).

Considering this is supposed to be a team lacking in talent, this team sure is stacked.  Fifteen first round draft picks, four returning players, fifteen nineteen year olds, no seventeen year olds, and all but one player has been NHL drafted, and that one undrafted player is going in the top three in the next entry draft.  With such a large roster, the Canadians will surely be looking to physically intimidate other teams, but they'll have to watch the penalties that could result from such play.  There isn't going to be too many easy shifts against this team, and there's no reason to look at them heading into this tournament as any sort of underdog.  Canada is motivated, talented, and will have a ton of fan support.  Any team that beats them will have played an incredible game, but there are teams that here that can play that kind of incredible game. 

Prediction:  1st in Group B, silver medal.