Star-studded Canada set to begin quest for 20th world juniors gold medal | CBC Sports
Connor Bedard sees the reminder each time he is again dwelling.
His gold medal from the final world junior hockey championship — a match that was moved to the summer time and virtually did not occur due to COVID-19 — hangs within the 17-year-old phenom’s bed room.
And the presumptive No. 1 choose on the 2023 NHL draft is raring for extra.
“Feels like when you win it, it lasts 10 minutes,” Bedard stated. “You want that again right away.”
Another alternative is correct across the nook.
Apart from the North Vancouver, B.C., product, already being in comparison with the likes of Connor McDavid and different franchise-altering abilities, Canada boasts a trio of NHL gamers loaned to the nationwide workforce in Shane Wright, Dylan Guenther and Brandt Clarke.
“World juniors are something that you grew up watching as a kid and dream playing in,” stated Wright, a centre chosen No. 4 general by the Seattle Kraken on the 2021 draft. “A huge honour.”
“We don’t want to get too ahead of ourselves,” added Guenther, a ahead with the Arizona Coyotes. “One last shot at winning a world junior championship is special.”
Bedard stated Canada’s roster will characteristic “a bit of everything.”
“Whenever you’re assembling a team across Canada, it’s going to be pretty good,” he stated. “We’ve got a lot of size, we’ve got speed, skill. It’s huge getting those [NHL] guys back.
“Those are all influence gamers in one of the best league on this planet.”
WATCH | Canada beats Slovakia in men’s world juniors pre-tournament game:
Josh Roy scored and added an assist as Canada defeated Slovakia 6-1 in World Junior pre-competition action Wednesday.
Adam Fantilli — also in the conversation at the top of the upcoming NHL draft — has been impressed with the roster top-to-bottom.
“The greatest gamers within the nation in a single spot,” he said. “Great to see what all people can do.”
Canada opens the tournament Monday against Czechia, the country commonly known as the Czech Republic, as part of a group playing out of Halifax’s Scotiabank Centre that includes Sweden, Germany and Austria.
The other side of the bracket is set for Moncton’s Avenir Centre and will feature the United States, Finland, Switzerland, Slovakia and Latvia.
Like at the reimagined August event in Edmonton, Russia is banned due to the country’s invasion of Ukraine. The 2023 tournament was originally slated for the Russian cities of Novosibirsk and Omsk before being moved to North America.
Home-soil crowd, sky-high expectations
Canada, which sits as the favourite, also enters with the pressure of a home-soil crowd and sky-high expectations.
“A privilege,” said head coach Dennis Williams. “You need to be put in these positions. We have to verify we now have our gamers capable of be play uncomfortable — being snug at being uncomfortable in these conditions.”
Canadian winger Brennan Othmann said the group will be able to attack in a number of different ways.
“Our again finish is imply and stable and difficult, and our forwards are expert and large and powerful,” he said. “You’re going to get an unbelievable Canada workforce coming at you.”
Hockey Canada director of player personnel Alan Millar said there’s no doubt skill was a focus in roster construction.
“But on the identical time, we need to have heaviness all through our lineup,” he said. “We need to play quick, we need to play exhausting, and we need to compete and put groups on their heels.”
The tournament also comes at a time where the sport’s national organization is undergoing significant change following a disastrous 2022 of ugly headlines related to its handling of sexual assault allegations and payouts to victims.
Hockey Canada has a new board of directors and should have a freshly minted CEO in the new year.
WATCH | Documents reveal new details about alleged junior hockey sexual assault:
Recently filed court documents lay out why police are seeking search warrants to further their investigation into five members of the 2018 World Junior hockey team they believe were involved in an alleged sexual assault of a woman in London, Ont. None of the police allegations have been tested in court and no charges have been laid.
The players and coaching staff at the world juniors have no connection to the scandals, but they’re still going to be wearing the logo — and know there will be a lot of scrutiny.
“We need to be sure that we hold that concentrate on how we do issues each on and off the ice,” Willliams said. “We need to reduce any distractions — whether or not it is by means of the strain or something on the skin.
“Our guys are coming in excited, our guys are coming in determined.”
And gold — identical to each different worldwide match Canada enters — is on their thoughts.
“All the guys that are coming back really want that,” Bedard stated of the nation’s eight returning gamers from the summer time.
“And for the guys that are new, it’s something that we want to give them.”
Excitement comes with powerful conversations
Some Nova Scotia hockey followers say their pleasure for the world junior hockey championship is accompanied this 12 months by powerful conversations about Hockey Canada`s dealing with of sexual assault allegations.
Halifax hockey dad Kyle Wagner says the scandals inside Hockey Canada have sparked conversations within the dressing room of his eight-year-old son’s workforce, forward of this 12 months’s match hosted collectively by Halifax and Moncton, N.B.
The nationwide sport group has been mired in controversy for months after it was revealed in May that it settled a lawsuit with a lady who alleged she had been sexually assaulted by a number of members of the 2018 world junior workforce.
Wagner says it is lengthy been a practice for his household to observe the occasion starting every Boxing Day, including that his household is happy to cheer on workforce Canada once more this 12 months.
However, Wagner says that he and his household have talked in regards to the controversy and the “horrible” issues which have taken place inside the hockey world.
He says it is vital that hockey households take note of these main points and maintain the nationwide sport group accountable to “make sure something like this doesn’t happen again.”
WATCH | New Brunswick units phrases for gamers’ conduct throughout World Juniors:
New Brunswick, co-host of the World Juniors, is placing direct monetary strain on Hockey Canada to maintain its gamers from partaking in unlawful or unethical conduct in the course of the match, in keeping with the province’s contract with the hockey group.
