CANADA Selection Camp Roster

Canada’s big edge: Home-ice advantage

If you know Scottie Upshall at all, you know this has been the longest year of his young life. Upshall, 19, has been waiting and hoping for one more chance to don the maple leaf and play for Canada at the World Junior Championship. The Fort McMurray, Alta., native, who is in his third season with the Western League’s Kamloops Blazers, quite enjoyed the 2002 tournament. He just didn’t like the way it finished. You may recall Upshall, a lefthand shot who can play either wing, scored 37 seconds into the second period of the gold medal game in Pardubice, Czech Republic, giving Canada a 3-1 lead over Russia. Eventually, though, the Russians rallied to win 5-4 and take home the gold. “It has been a long wait to get back at it,…

Top prospect Eaves to miss WJC after breaking bone in freak play

A freak on-ice accident has ended the dreams of Boston College freshman forward Pat Eaves to represent the U.S. at the World Junior Championship, but the injury won’t affect his first round status for the 2003 NHL draft. Eaves will be out until early February with a broken vertebra sustained during the Eagles’ 2-2 tie with the Maine Black Bears Dec. 7. Maine forward Robert Liscak and Boston College’s Chris Collins were fighting for control of Collins’ stick, creating a clothesline that Eaves, who was skating backwards, crashed into. Eaves dropped face forward to the ice and lay motionless for several minutes while being attended to by training staff. He was eventually helped to his feet and off the ice. “The chances of that happening were one in a million. I’ve never seen that…

Manon Rheaume in market for job after round of layoffs

Canada’s first lady of women’s hockey is looking for a new start. Manon Rheaume, 1998 Olympic silver medallist, two-time world champion, first woman to play an NHL exhibition game and for three years the director of women’s hockey at equipment manufacturer Mission Hockey, is looking for a new line of work. The former goalie was a noticeable casualty in a Dec. 5 round of cutbacks at Santa Ana, Calif.-based Mission’s staff. “I’m disappointed, but I understand these decisions have to be made,” said Rheaume, who retired from playing in 2000 to pursue the Mission job. “The last three years have been a great learning experience for me on the business side of the game. I retired from hockey because I needed a challenge and getting into the business part of the sport provided…