Canadian Team Set for Action
After 4 days of practicing and scrimmaging the Canadian entry for the 2001 World Junior Hockey Championships is now set. On Monday morning the final cuts were made and the final roster was set.
In a surprise move the Canadian team management cut Kris Beech of the Calgary Hitmen and Pascal Leclaire of the Halifax Mooseheads on the final day. Also cut on Monday were Krys Kolanos and Luke Sellars. On Sunday, Rob Zepp, Garnet Exelby and Stephen Weiss were cut while Antoine Bergeron, Kurtis Foster, Jonathan Zion and Nathan Smith were cut on Saturday.
The goaltending on this team will be strong as Maxime Oullet and Alex Auld are going to backstop the Canadian team. From what’s been said by those who seen the camp, all four goaltenders (Oullet, Auld, Leclaire and Zepp) all played well.
The defensive corps on this team is somewhat young with just two 19-year-olds in Barret Jackman and Steve McCarthy. They should be solid nonetheless with three returnees in Jackman, McCarthy and Jay Bouwmeester. Four defensemen on this team are undrafted (Bouwmeester is draft eligible in 2002, while Dan Hamhuis, Jay Harrison and Mark Popovic are all eligible in 2001).
Offense should not be a problem for this team. Jamie Lundmark, Dany Heatley, Brandon Reid and Jason Spezza are all back from last year’s bronze-medal winning team. When you add Brad Boyes, Raffi Torres and Jason Jaspers to the mix you have an offence that should be capable of producing.
This year’s team seems to be more balanced than those of recent years where coaches tried to concentrate on one or two specific areas and hope that the others would just fall into place.
The Canadian entry for this years tournament should be able to contend for a medal. Here is a look at the final roster:
Goaltenders
Player C Ht. Wt. Birthdate Hometown 2000-2001 Team Drafted
Alex Auld L 6'03.5 198 01/07/81 Thunder Bay, On North Bay (OHL) FLA 99
Maxime Ouellet L 6'01.5 199 06/17/81 Beauport, Qc. Rouyn-Noranda (QMJHL) PHA 99
Defence
Player S Ht. Wt. Birthdate Hometown 2000-2001 Team Drafted
Jay Bouwmeester L 6'03.5 208 09/27/83 Edmonton, Ab Medicine Hat (WHL) Eligible 02
Dan Hamhuis L 6'00.5 193 12/13/82 Smithers, BC Prince George (WHL) Eligible 01
Jay Harrison L 6'03 204 11/03/82 Whitby, On Brampton (OHL) Eligible 01
Barret Jackman L 6'01 200 03/05/81 Kamloops, BC Regina (WHL) STL 99
Mark Popovic L 6'01.5 190 10/11/82 Stoney Creek, On St. Mike's (OHL) Eligible 01
Nick Schultz L 6'01 195 08/25/82 Strasbourg, Sk Prince Albert (WHL) MIN 00
Steve McCarthy R 6'00 205 02/03/21 Trail, BC Chicago (NHL) CHI 99
Forwards
Player S Ht. Wt. Birthdate Hometown 2000-2001 Team Drafted
Brad Boyes R 6'00 180 04/17/82 Mississauga, On Erie (OHL) TOR 00
Mike Cammalleri L 5'08.5 175 06/08/82 Toronto, On Michigan (CCHA) Eligible 01
Dany Heatley L 6'02.5 205 01/21/81 Calgary, Ab Wisconsin (WCHA) ATL 00
Jason Jaspers L 5'11 183 04/08/81 Thunder Bay, On Sudbury (OHL) PHO 99
Jamie Lundmark R 6'00 185 01/16/81 Edmonton, Ab Seattle (WHL) NYR 99
Derek MacKenzie L 5'10 178 06/11/81 Richmond Hill, On Sudbury (OHL) ATL 99
David Morisset R 6'01.5 203 04/06/81 Langley, BC Seattle (WHL) STL 00
Steve Ott L 6'00 180 08/19/82 Stoney Point, On Windsor (OHL) DAL 00
Brandon Reid R 5'09 170 03/09/81 Kirkland, Qc Val D'Or (QMJHL) VAN 00
Jason Spezza R 6'02 210 06/13/83 Brampton, On Windsor (OHL) Eligible 01
Jarret Stoll R 6'01 198 06/24/82 Yorkton, Sk Kootenay (WHL) CAL 00
Raffi Torres L 5'11.5 210 10/08/81 Markham, On Brampton (OHL) NYI 00
Mike Zigomanis R 6'01 193 01/17/81 Scarborough, On Kingston (OHL) BUF 99
The schedule for Team Canada is somewhat tough as they are scheduled to face Finland, Russia, the much improved team from Switzerland and Belarus. The Finns and Russians will be a true test and the Swiss definitely will not roll over and play dead for the Canadian team.
Before we look at the schedule, here is the division of teams for each pool:
Pool A Pool B
USA Canada
Kazakstan Russia
Sweden Switzerland
Czech Republic Finland
Slovakia Belarus
Here is a look at the entire schedule:
Gm # Pool Game Time (EST) Rink
12/26/2000
1 A USA vs Kaz 7 a.m. CSKA
2 B Can vs Blr 7 a.m. LUZH
3 A Swe vs Cze 10:30 a.m. CSKA
4 B Sui vs Rus 10:30 a.m. LUZH
12/27/2000
5 A Kaz vs Cze 7 a.m. CSKA
6 B Sui vs Fin 7 a.m. LUZH
7 A Swe vs Svk 10:30 a.m. CSKA
8 B Blr vs Rus 10:30 a.m. POD
10/28/2000
9 A Svk vs USA 10:30 a.m. CSKA
10 B Fin vs Can 10:30 a.m. LUZH
12/29/2000
11 B Blr vs Sui 7 a.m. LUZH
12 A Kaz vs Swe 10:30 a.m. POD
13 A Cze vs USA 10:30 a.m. CSKA
14 B Rus vs Can 10:30 a.m. LUZH
12/30/2000
15 A Svk vs Kaz 10:30 a.m. CSKA
16 B Fin vs Blr 10:30 a.m. LUZK
12/31/2000
17 A Cze vs Svk 7 a.m. CSKA
18 B Can vs Sui 9 a.m. POD
19 A USA vs Swe 10:30 a.m. CSKA
20 B Rus vs Fin 10:30 a.m. LUZH
01/01/2001
Day Off
01/02/2001
21 Q1 A2 vs B3 7 a.m. CSKA
22 Q2 B2 vs A3 7 a.m. LUZH
23 Q3 A1 vs B4 10:30 a.m. CSKA
24 Q4 B1 vs A4 10:30 a.m. LUZH
25 Relegation A5 vs B5 10:30 a.m. POD
01/03/2001
26 L21 vs L24 7 a.m. CSKA
27 S1 W22 vs W23 7 a.m. LUZH
28 L22 vs L23 10:30 a.m. CSKA
29 S2 W21 vs W24 10:30 a.m. LUZH
30 Relegation A5 vs B5 10:30 a.m. POD
01/04/2001
Day Off
01/05/2001
31 7th L26 vs L28 7 a.m. CSKA
32 Bronze L27 vs L29 7 a.m. LUZH
33 5th W26 vs W28 10:30 a.m. CSKA
34 Gold W27 vs W29 10:30 a.m. LUZH
Overall, judging by the talent that Team Canada has I would say that they have a good chance at winning a medal. Well, you don’t really win the silver, it’s more like losing the gold but we won’t get started on that. The Canadian team has the talent on paper to win gold, but remember the old saying: Championships are not won on paper.
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