The Hockey News has been providing the most comprehensive coverage of the world of hockey since 1947. In each issue, you'll find news, features and opinions about the NHL and leagues across North America and the world.

World Juniors 2006

The Hockey News World Junior Championship SIP

<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0043-03348/8757930-1-eng-US/f0043-032.jpg" title="f0043-03" width="249" height="92"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0043-04256/8757923-1-eng-US/f0043-042.jpg" title="f0043-04" width="377" height="409"></div><h2><b>MAREK SCHWARZ</b></h2><h3><b>Goalie</b></h3><p class="dropcap"><span>S</span>et for his thirdWJC, Schwarz was named best goalie when the Czechs won bronze in Grand Rapids. He is playing back home after a season in theWHL.</p><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0043-05218/8757916-1-eng-US/f0043-052.jpg" title="f0043-05" width="377" height="408"></div><h2><b>LADISLAV SMID</b></h2><h3><b>Defense</b></h3><p>If the Mighty Ducks make him available for the tournament, Smid will be the Czech&rsquo;s No. 1 blue-liner. He is a sound defender who makes smart plays.</p><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0043-06179/8757909-1-eng-US/f0043-062.jpg" title="f0043-06" width="378" height="409"></div><h2><b>PETR POHL</b></h2><h3><b>Right Wing</b></h3><p>Despite his small frame, Pohl&rsquo;s soft hands and patience with the puck make him dangerous. He was taken 133rd overall by Columbus in the &rsquo;04 draft.</p><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0043-07154/8757902-1-eng-US/f0043-072.jpg" title="f0043-07" width="378" height="408"><figcaption class="caption-body"><span class="photo-credit">(IHA)</span></figcaption></div><h2><b>DAVID KRECJI</b></h2><h3><b>Centre</b></h3><p>A second round pick of the Bruins in 2004, Krejci led the Czechs with seven points at last year&rsquo;s event. He is not afraid to play in high-traffic areas.<span class="end-marker"> &#9632;</span></p>

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IN THIS ISSUE

PLAYERS TO WATCH

<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0045-03218/8758041-1-eng-US/f0045-032.jpg" title="f0045-03" width="249" height="92"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0045-04188/8758034-1-eng-US/f0045-042.jpg" title="f0045-04" width="378" height="408"></div><h2><b>JESSE JOENSUU</b></h2><h3><b>Left Wing</b></h3><p class="dropcap"><span>T</span>he big winger has finally been given a chance on the top line on his Finnish team. Eligible for the 2006 draft, this will be Joensuu&rsquo;s second world junior event.</p><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0045-05166/8758027-1-eng-US/f0045-052.jpg" title="f0045-05" width="377" height="408"></div><h2><b>LAURI TUKONEN</b></h2><h3><b>Right Wing</b></h3><p>Los Angeles signed Tukonen in August to a multi-year contract. The speedy winger was the youngest member of the bronze-winning squad in 2004.</p><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0045-06142/8758020-1-eng-US/f0045-062.jpg" title="f0045-06" width="378" height="409"></div><h2><b>LAURI KORPIKOSKI</b></h2><h3><b>Left Wing</b></h3><p>Every team wants a hard-working finesse player like Korpikoski. The speedy, responsible winger has a great attitude and always wants to win.</p><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0045-07127/8758013-1-eng-US/f0045-072.jpg" title="f0045-07" width="377" height="409"><figcaption class="caption-body"><span class="photo-credit">(IHA)</span></figcaption></div><h2><b>PERTTU LINDGREN</b></h2><h3><b>Center</b></h3><p>Lindgren is a skilled playmaker who can score, too. He broke the record for the most points in the Finnish junior league playoffs last season with 17.<span class="end-marker"> &#9632;</span></p>

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<div class="image-hero"><img title="f0040-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0040-01724/8757819-1-eng-US/f0040-012.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body"><span class="photo-credit">(DAVE SANDFORD/GETTY IMAGES)</span></figcaption></div><span class="end-marker"> &#9632;</span>

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Rest of the World

<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0053-0395/8758485-1-eng-US/f0053-032.jpg" title="f0053-03" width="249" height="92"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0053-0483/8758478-1-eng-US/f0053-042.jpg" title="f0053-04" width="378" height="409"></div><h2><b>JACK JOHNSON</b></h2><h3><b>Defense</b></h3><p>Johnson is a two-way defenseman who is overflowing with confidence. He can quarterback the power play and is a devastating body-checker.</p><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0053-0560/8758471-1-eng-US/f0053-052.jpg" title="f0053-05" width="378" height="409"></div><h2><b>BLAKE WHEELER</b></h2><h3><b>Right Wing</b></h3><p>A first round pick of Phoenix, Wheeler is a big man with blazing speed. He is just starting to put his talent together and could end up as a linemate of Kessel.</p><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0053-0651/8758464-1-eng-US/f0053-062.jpg" title="f0053-06" width="377" height="408"></div><h2><b>ERIK JOHNSON</b></h2><h3><b>Defense</b></h3><p>Johnson, standing 6-foot-3 and weighing 215 pounds, is a big man who can distribute the puck. But he also likes to play a mean and physical style.</p><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0053-0738/8758457-1-eng-US/f0053-072.jpg" title="f0053-07" width="377" height="409"><figcaption class="caption-body"><span class="photo-credit">(GETTY IMAGES)</span></figcaption></div><h2><b>KEVIN PORTER</b></h2><h3><b>Left Wing</b></h3><p>Porter plays a dependable two-way game that coaches love. A member of last year&rsquo;s team, he provides offense, kills penalties and is a team player.<span class="end-marker"> &#9632;</span></p>

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<div class="byline">Jason Kay </div><div class="byline">The Hockey News Editor</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0004-021673/8757090-1-eng-US/f0004-022.jpg" title="f0004-02" width="264" height="218"></div><div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0004-011991/8757083-1-eng-US/f0004-012.jpg" title="f0004-01" width="1206" height="1164"><figcaption class="caption-body"><b>THE COACH</b> Brent Sutter is back, looking for another gold. <span class="photo-credit">(DAVE SANDFORD/GETTY IMAGES)</span></figcaption></div><p class="dropcap"><span>N</span>HL participation at the Olympics has been a blessing, providing hockey fans &ndash; and a wider audience &ndash; the absolute best the game has to offer. We wouldn&rsquo;t want it any other way.</p><p>But as the old trade cliche goes, you gotta give something to get something. In this case the innocence of amateurship has been sacrificed.</p><p>Fortunately, we have the World Junior Championship to fill that void. A day after watching our own children revel in the joy of Christmas, we settle in to watch other people&rsquo;s kids revel in the joy of the game and their country.</p><p>It&rsquo;s elite international hockey minus the perception of elite overpaid athletes.</p><p>This year&rsquo;s event is extra special for Canadians because of the location. Vancouver is riding a sporting high, having won the rights for the 2010 Winter Olympics and being home to one of the best teams in the NHL. The environment is fertile for magic.</p><p>To help guide you to and through the 2006 WJC wonderland, we&rsquo;ve created this 64-page primer. In the ensuing pages, among other stories, we:</p><p>&bull; set the scene for Vancouver<br>&bull; examine Canada&rsquo;s great rivalry with the Russians<br>&bull; profile the top candidates for this year&rsquo;s version of Team Canada<br>&bull; analyze the projected top players for the other elite teams<br>&bull; give you all the WJC stats you&rsquo;ll ever require&hellip;and more<br>&bull; explain why this tournament means so much to Canadians Happy holiday reading.<span class="end-marker"> &#9632;</span></p>

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A welcome slice of innocence

<div class="image-hero"><img title="f0006-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0006-012214/8757145-1-eng-US/f0006-012.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body">Men&rsquo;s Olympic and World Junior hopefuls pose for a group shot.</figcaption></div><span class="end-marker"> &#9632;</span>

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Team Canada 2006

<div class="byline">By Denis Gibbons</div><div class="image-hero"><img title="f0008-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0008-012105/8757183-1-eng-US/f0008-012.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body"><b>FIVE GOLD</b> Christian Dube, Martin Biron, Marc Denis, Jason Doig and Daniel Briere count &rsquo;em up. <span class="photo-credit">(IHA)</span></figcaption></div><p class="dropcap"><span>I</span>n the years between 1963 and 1972, the Soviet Union and Czechoslovakia won every gold medal at the World Championship. It was no surprise, therefore, that in 1973 the two nations proposed the creation of a World Junior Championship for players under 20.</p><p>Canada was in the midst of an international hockey boycott at the time after withdrawing from the 1970 worlds because the International Ice Hockey Federation refused to allow the use of minor league professionals.</p><p>The Peterborough Petes, coached by Roger Neilson, broke the ice by representing Canada at what was described as a test event in Leningrad during the 1973-74 season.</p><p>The Petes were no match for the Soviet national junior team, which thrashed them 9-0 on the final day to win the gold medal. But the seeds of a truly great tournament had been planted.</p><p>The first three tournaments were by invitation only, with Sweden, Finland, the United States and Czechoslovakia joining the two world powers, except for 1976 when the Americans did not participate.</p><p>In 1977, the first official IIHF-sanctioned tournament was held in the cities of Banska Bystrica and Zvolen, Czechoslovakia.</p><p>The gold medal game, which saw the Soviets down Canada&rsquo;s St. Catharines Fincups 6-4, was broadcast on a St. Catharines radio station. Canada&rsquo;s Dale McCourt led all scorers with 10 goals and 18 points.</p><p>In 1978, several games from the tournament, hosted by Montreal and other Quebec cities, were televised in Canada. But with not a single French-Canadian player selected to the Canuck roster, attendance was spotty. One game between the Soviets and Czechoslovakia, two outstanding teams, drew little more than 1,000 fans.</p><p>Canada reverted to sending club teams in 1979 with the Memorial Cup champion New Westminster Bruins, strengthened by eight players from other squads, travelling to Sweden and placing fifth. The Peterborough Petes placed fifth in Finland in 1980, while the Cornwall Royals finished seventh in West Germany in 1981.</p><p>It was becoming abundantly clear that club teams, even with additions, were not strong enough to contend for a medal at the WJC. In 1982, the Canadian Amateur Hockey Association introduced its Program of Excellence. For the first time in the event&rsquo;s history, Canada was represented by a truly national team at the 1982 tournament in Minnesota.</p><div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0010-012074/8757176-1-eng-US/f0010-012.jpg" title="f0010-01" width="1717" height="1301"><figcaption class="caption-body"><b>COOL KID</b> Russia&rsquo;s Alexander Ovechkin made a name for himself at the last three world juniors. <span class="photo-credit">(DAVE SANDFORD/GETTY IMAGES)</span></figcaption></div><p>The move produced immediate success, as Dave King coached Canada to its first gold medal, embarrassing the Soviets 7-0 along the way. Although the tournament was hosted by the U.S., the game was played on Boxing Day at the Winnipeg Arena, resulting in a belated, but welcomed, Christmas gift for Canadian fans.</p><p>The 1983 team, also coached by King, was able to bring home a bronze medal from Leningrad, despite losing 7-3 to the Soviets. But King and Canadian star Mario Lemieux had a conflict.</p><p>Lemieux sent a letter to coach Brian Kilrea stating he had no intention of representing his country in Sweden. Lemieux was upset with his lack of playing time the previous year.</p><p>&ldquo;I don&rsquo;t have a good relationship with King,&rdquo; Lemieux had told Kilrea. &ldquo;I only played three games out of seven last year, only a couple of shifts a game.&rdquo;</p><p>Without Lemieux, Canada placed fourth.</p><p>Canada was not even ranked in the top four going into the 1985 event in Finland. But somehow a team of grinders managed to win gold on the final day when Wendel Clark beat Dominik Hasek in the third period to give Canada the win.</p><p>In 1986, the United States won its first medal &ndash; a bronze in Hamilton &ndash; and the tournament was televised in the Soviet Union. The Soviets won easily in 1989 with the deadly line of Pavel Bure, Alexander Mogilny and Sergei Fedorov.</p><p>The Soviets began the 1991 WJC under the title of Soviet Union, but because of the official breakup of the union on Jan. 1, 1992, the club was known as the Commonwealth of Independent States when it claimed the gold medal.</p><p>Russia competed on its own for the first time in 1993 in Sweden, with no players from former Soviet republics such as Latvia, Kazakhstan, Belarus and Ukraine. The Russians found single life tough, suffering a 9-1 shellacking at the hands of Canada and finishing sixth.</p><p>Between 1993 and 1997, Canada won five consecutive gold medals, a record for IIHF-sanctioned world junior tournaments, while Sweden supplanted Russia as the team&rsquo;s chief rival.</p><p>In 1993, Sweden&rsquo;s Peter Forsberg set a new tournament scoring record with an amazing seven goals and 31 points in seven games. Japan competed in the A pool for the first time, but failed to win a game and was humiliated 20-1 by Sweden.</p><p>An eighth team was added for the 1996 tournament in Boston, and the IIHF switched to a playoff format in which, for the first time, there was a single gold medal game. Canada won the gold medal easily, with Jarome Iginla starring, but the tournament was a flop at the gate because of incredibly poor organization. Some games attracted fewer than 1,000 fans.</p><p>Under the old round robin format, medal contenders some-times benefited from upstart teams knocking off their rivals. It happened in Saskatchewan in 1991 when Finland scored with 15 seconds left to tie the Soviets and set up a Canada-Soviet gold medal game.</p><p>After the Canadians won it all, someone wrote on the dressing room blackboard: &ldquo;God is a Canadian&hellip;who occasionally goes to Finland for a holiday!&rdquo;</p><p>In 1998, the A pool of the world juniors was expanded to include 10 teams, but Canada embarrassed itself by finishing eighth after losing 6-3 to Kazakhstan in a placement game. The 1999 tournament in Winnipeg set a new attendance mark of 173,453.</p><p>Previously regarded as out-siders, Switzerland and Slovakia each claimed their first medals in the late 1990s, as the Swiss nabbed bronze in Finland in 1998 while Slovakia won the bronze in Winnipeg in 1999.</p><p>In 2000, Canada&rsquo;s roster included the two youngest players ever to wear the maple leaf at the WJC, Jay Bouwmeester and Jason Spezza. But the Canadian squad lost 3-2 to the Russians in a semifinal.</p><p>The Czech Republic captured its first gold medal at the 2000 event in Sweden, and repeated as champions in Russia in 2001. The title game at the 2000 event was the most boring in tournament history, as both Russia and the Czech Republic played a defensive trap from the outset. The game was still scoreless at the end of regulation time and overtime, before the Czechs finally won it in a shootout.</p><p>Maritimers flocked to the Halifax Metro Centre and Centre 200 in Sydney for the 2003 tourney, setting a new attendance record of 242,173, smashing the Winnipeg standard. The Canadian fans were treated to some inspired hockey, but Canada lost the gold medal game to a slick Russian squad.</p><p>With a lineup stocked with players from its hockey development program, the U.S., which had evolved into a serious contender in the last decade, finally won its first gold medal in 2004 in Finland, rallying from a 3-1 deficit after two periods to edge Canada 4-3.</p><h2><b>ALL-TIME HOST LEADERS</b></h2><h3><b>COUNTRY NO.</b></h3><p>1. Canada 7<br>2. Finland 6<br>3. Russia 4<br>4. Sweden 4<br>5. USA 4<br>6. Czech Rep. 3<br>7. Germany 2<br>8. Slovakia 1<br>9. Switzerland 1<span class="end-marker"> &#9632;</span></p>

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Let the kids show their stuff

<div class="byline">By Denis Gibbons</div><div class="image-hero"><img title="f0012-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0012-012019/8757221-1-eng-US/f0012-012.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body"><b>NO GLOVE LOST The Canada-Russia rivalry is never more heated than at the world juniors.</b> <span class="photo-credit">(IHA)</span></figcaption></div><p class="dropcap"><span>W</span>ith more than 17,000 fans roaring at the top of their lungs, you couldn&rsquo;t hear the person next to you when the Canadian and Soviet junior teams took to the ice at Hamilton&rsquo;s brand-new Copps Coliseum Jan. 2, 1986.</p><p>Both teams had perfect 5-0 records and, although there were still two rounds to play in the single round-robin format, it was already certain the winner of this showdown would capture the gold medal.</p><p>With less than three minutes left in the first period and Canada leading 1-0, Jim Sandlak hit Soviet center Alexander Semak so hard the Soviet was sent right over the boards. But instead of folding, as they had in the past, the Soviets fought back. Semak tied the game on the power play, changing the complexion of the contest as the Soviets skated to a 4-1 victory to clinch the gold.</p><p>It was just one of a half-dozen classic clashes between the two hockey powers in World Junior Championship history. Altogether, the Russians have a 16-11-2 record against Canada, that changes to 11-8-2 in favor of Canada if you drop the eight losses Canada suffered before icing a truly national team for the first time in 1982. (Prior to that, junior club teams were sent, the 1978 junior all-star team being the exception.)</p><p>When the two nations locked horns in the next-to-last round in Piestany, Czechoslovakia at the 1987 tournament, the Soviets were already out of contention. But Canada, with a 4-1-1 mark, still had a chance for gold if it could win by five goals.</p><p>With the Canadians leading 4-2 midway through the second period and dominating the game, a bench-clearing brawl broke out after Pavel Kostichkin slashed Theo Fleury. It got so bad the officials left the ice after 10 minutes and the arena manager turned the lights on and off to try to stop the fighting.</p><p>Eventually the players went to their dressing rooms, but following an emergency meeting the IIHF decided to suspend the game. The gold medal went to Finland.</p><p>The Canadians blamed the Soviets for provoking the incident in a game that meant nothing to them. Canada got its revenge the following year in Moscow, winning the gold medal on the Soviets&rsquo; home turf.</p><div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0013-011831/8757214-1-eng-US/f0013-012.jpg" title="f0013-01" width="2311" height="1710"><figcaption class="caption-body"><b>INFAMOUS BRAWL The 1987 Canada-Russia &lsquo;Punch-up in Piestany&rsquo; was a low point in WJC history.</b></figcaption></div><p>The next big meeting between the nations featured John Slaney&rsquo;s famous slapshot in Saskatoon, as the blueliner broke a 2-2 tie late in the third to give Canada the gold in 1991.</p><p>Following the breakup of the Soviet Union, Canada and Russia did not face each other in a meaningful game until Jan. 5, 1999 at Winnipeg Arena. The game went into overtime, when Russian winger Artem Chubarov beat Canadian goalie Roberto Luongo with a quick wrist shot to give his team a 3-2 victory.</p><p>The Russians also rallied for stirring wins in gold-medal showdowns in 2002 and 2003.</p><p>The 2005 gold-medal game in Grand Forks, N.D. matched Canada, with almost all of its best players available because of the NHL lockout, against a Russian team boasting the No. 1 and 2 picks in the 2004 NHL entry draft &ndash; Alexander Ovechkin and Evgeny Malkin.</p><p>Canada dominated from the opening whistle, posting a 6-1 victory and earning its first gold medal in eight years.</p><h2><b>By the</b>&nbsp;<b>Numbers</b></h2><p>Russia has far more people, but Canada has the advantage in rinks and players.</p><h3><b>CANADA</b></h3><p>Population 32,805,421</p><p>Registered Players 543,390</p><p>Indoor Rinks 3,000</p><p>Outdoor Rinks 11,000</p><h3><b>RUSSIA</b></h3><p>Population 143,420,309</p><p>Registered Players 77,202</p><p>Indoor Rinks 142</p><p>Outdoor Rinks 3</p><p>Source: IIHF 2004-05 Report<span class="end-marker"> &#9632;</span></p>

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This Cold War never died

<div class="byline">Gord Miller </div><div class="byline">Guest Columnist</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0014-011994/8757259-1-eng-US/f0014-012.jpg" title="f0014-01" width="488" height="405"></div><p>Narrowing down my favorite World Junior N Championship memory is difficult because there are so many and they are so similar.</p><p>Any time the event is held in Canada, it&rsquo;s special. Canadians embraced the world juniors in a major way in Saskatoon in 1991, and the three tournaments played in this country since then have all taken the competition to a new level.</p><p>To this day, players who took part in those tournaments talk about the ear-splitting ovations received by the Canadian team. In Winnipeg in 1999, the crowd was so loud in the moments before the gold-medal game that Canadian coach Tom Renney could barely be heard in the dressing room. Prior to the gold-medal contest in Halifax in 2003, Canadian coach Marc Habscheid looked down in amazement as the thunder from the stands above him rattled the coffee cup on his desk.</p><p>My favorite moment took place at the 1995 tournament. Red Deer was the host city, but Canada also played games in Calgary and Edmonton. On Dec. 30, the Canadians faced the Czech Republic at the Olympic Saddledome in Calgary.</p><p>That tournament took place in the midst of the NHL&rsquo;s first lock-out, which at that point was in its third month. Every nation had access to its best players, and the tournament was still a straight round robin, making each game crucial.</p><p>Twenty thousand fans filled the Saddledome that night and roared from start to finish. The Czech team &ndash; featuring future NHL stars such as Milan Hejduk, Petr Sykora and Vaclav Prospal &ndash; stunned the crowd by grabbing a two-goal lead.</p><p>The pace of play was dizzying. The seven-goal second period saw the Canadians battle back to tie the game 3-3, only to see the Czechs go ahead 4-3. Canada equalized as Canadian captain Todd Harvey sent the crowd into a frenzy, but again the Czechs responded, scoring a goal late in the period to take a 5-4 lead into the third.</p><p>The score stayed that way for the first 15 minutes of the tense final period. Finally, Wade Redden scored with 4:09 left to tie the game, once again sending the crowd over the edge.</p><p>It was at that point Jamie Rivers stepped into the spotlight.</p><p>A high-scoring defenseman, the &lsquo;Rivers-boat gambler&rsquo; had not endeared himself to coach Don Hay with his high risk style of play. With two minutes remaining and the puck in the Czech zone, Rivers pinched in from the blueline to corral a bouncing puck. As he did, two Czechs headed up the ice, waiting to be sprung on a break.</p><div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0014-031043/8757252-1-eng-US/f0014-032.jpg" title="f0014-03" width="2075" height="2445"><figcaption class="caption-body"><b>FLAG BEARERS</b> Canada&rsquo;s kids celebrate 1995 world junior win. <span class="photo-credit">(JIM MCISAAC/GETTY IMAGES)</span></figcaption></div><p>With Hay holding his breath at the Canadian bench, Rivers batted the puck down, swooped in and scored. &ldquo;It was hero or zero,&rdquo; he would say later.</p><p>Canada won the game 7-5 and the crowd stood for five minutes afterward, applauding what is still one of the greatest games ever played in that building.</p><p>Canada&rsquo;s next game was in Edmonton and many fans headed north that night.</p><p>It was bitterly cold, and yet as my colleague Bob McKenzie and I made our way up the highway we could see hundreds of people &ndash; some of them shirtless &ndash; leaning out of car windows waving Canadian flags in minus-20 degree weather. The three-hour drive was punctuated with honking horns and cheering fans, prompting Bob to turn to me and ask: &ldquo;Are these people crazy?&rdquo;</p><p>They were. And when we get to Vancouver for this year&rsquo;s tournament, I suspect we&rsquo;ll find they still are.</p><p><i>Gord Miller is the play-byplay voice of the NHL and the WJC on TSN. The 2006 tournament will be his 15th.</i></p><h2><b>CANADA&rsquo;S 1995 SCORING</b></h2><p><b>PLAYER, POS. G-A-PTS</b></p><p>Marty Murray, C 6-9-15</p><p>Jason Allison, C 3-12-15</p><p>Bryan McCabe, D 3-9-12</p><p>Eric Daze, LW 8-2-10</p><p>Alexandre Daigle, RW 2-8-10<span class="end-marker"> &#9632;</span></p>

f0014-01

Gut Czech time in ’95

<div class="byline">By Ryan Kennedy</div><div class="image-hero"><img title="f0015-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0015-011808/8757311-1-eng-US/f0015-012.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body"><b>NAUGHTY OR NICE?</b> Team Canada coach Brent Sutter knows the importance of players bonding. <span class="photo-credit">(JEFF VINNICK/GETTY IMAGES)</span></figcaption></div><p class="dropcap"><span>T</span>he World Junior Championship has become T a holiday tradition over the years; something for every-one to watch when the other channels are showing <i>It&rsquo;s a</i>&nbsp;<i>Wonderful Life</i> for the umpteenth time.</p><div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0016-011772/8757304-1-eng-US/f0016-012.jpg" title="f0016-01" width="1122" height="1205"><figcaption class="caption-body"><b>McTURKEY?</b> Brad Boyes ate fast food for Christmas dinner.<span class="photo-credit">(BOYES: JIRI KOLIS/GETTY IMAGES;)</span></figcaption></div><p>Ironically, the same event that brings families together during the holidays also means a first winter break without family for the teenagers lucky enough to be playing in the tournament.</p><p>When it comes to the holiday season, most people think of big meals with lots of courses, but for Boston Bruins center and two-time Team Canada member Brad Boyes, the team&rsquo;s 2001 trip to Moscow provided a different sort of Christmas feast.</p><p>&ldquo;We went to McDonald&rsquo;s for dinner,&rdquo; Boyes recalled. &ldquo;That was a first for me on Christmas.&rdquo;</p><p>Boyes said camaraderie builds on the team thanks to a two-week training session, helping the players forget how far they are from home.</p><p>&ldquo;It helped that there were so many people to hang out with,&rdquo; Boyes added. &ldquo;It was the first time overseas for a lot of guys.&rdquo;</p><p>Tampa Bay star Brad Richards also played in Moscow, but his fondest memories are from the year prior, when the WJC was held in Northern Sweden.</p><p>&ldquo;I&rsquo;ve never been to a place where the sun doesn&rsquo;t shine,&rdquo; recalled Richards, alluding to the arctic winters in Sweden, where the sun only peaks out three hours a day. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s tough the first couple of days; you&rsquo;re sleep deprived, it&rsquo;s dark all the time.&rdquo;</p><p>Richards did enjoy the local cuisine.</p><p>&ldquo;We had reindeer,&rdquo; he said. Part of the team-building exercise that year involved a field trip to a local amusement park, where the players tobogganed onto a frozen lake and ate reindeer in huts.</p><p>Team building is always an essential component of the world junior teams. The squad is only together for a week before the games begin, and melding a group of guys who are used to being the stars on their respective clubs is a key to success.</p><p>Minnesota Wild defenseman Nick Schultz recalled one of the more powerful ways the squad built trust.</p><p>&ldquo;Every guy stood up and dedicated the tournament to somebody,&rdquo; Schultz said. &ldquo;It can get pretty emotional if the guys have family or parents they&rsquo;re thinking of.&rdquo;</p><p>Schultz, who played in the 2001 and 2002 tournaments, said there are always a lot of phone calls home, but also a strong sense of team.</p><p>&ldquo;When you think of Christmas, you think of family,&rdquo; he noted, but during that special time, &ldquo;Team Canada is your family.&rdquo;</p><div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0016-021386/8757297-1-eng-US/f0016-022.jpg" title="f0016-02" width="1121" height="1205"><figcaption class="caption-body"><b>GAMER</b> Alyn McCauley&rsquo;s team played games off the ice. <span class="photo-credit">(MCCAULEY: SCOTT LEVY/GETTY IMAGES)</span></figcaption></div><p>Alyn McCauley of the San Jose Sharks, who played for the 1997 team that went to Geneva, Switzerland, also remembered the team&rsquo;s closeness.</p><p>&ldquo;There were laughs, but also some tears,&rdquo; he said.</p><p>McCauley credited the coaching staff with coming up with fun games to bring the players together, activities such as Family Feud or Comedy Night. &ldquo;It got our team closer in a short amount of time,&rdquo; he noted.</p><p>Of course, being the holiday season, the players, staff, and families that make the trip are in a festive mood, and gift exchanges are common. And, being young and free spirited, the players often get each other gag gifts.</p><p>&ldquo;I&rsquo;m a pretty small guy,&rdquo; admitted 5-foot-9 Los Angeles Kings right winger Mike Cammalleri, &ldquo;so for my gift, the guys got me a Santa suit that would fit a two-year-old.&rdquo;</p><p>Always the good sport, Cammalleri said moments like that helped the team gel.</p><p>&ldquo;It really got pretty intimate,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;It was kind of cool.&rdquo;</p><p>Dallas Stars prospect Shawn Belle will always be remembered for his hard play in last year&rsquo;s tournament, but he was laughing hard when his teammates distributed gifts.</p><p>&ldquo;Posters were big,&rdquo; Belle recalled. &ldquo;Anthony Stewart got Dion Phaneuf a Jay Leno poster, because they&rsquo;ve got the same chin, and Nigel Dawes got Lenny Kravitz because of his hair.&rdquo;</p><p>But Christmas isn&rsquo;t the only celebration the juniors have to play on the fly; New Year&rsquo;s also falls during the tournament&rsquo;s reign. With a tight schedule, the champagne doesn&rsquo;t exactly flow.</p><p>&ldquo;We did a countdown and went straight to bed,&rdquo; Belle said matter-of-factly. &ldquo;We had a game the next morning.&rdquo;</p><p>And it was that business-like mentality which brought home the gold for Canada.</p><p>&ldquo;We&rsquo;re doing something that every Canadian wants to do,&rdquo; Belle noted. &ldquo;It was an all-around special experience.&rdquo;</p><p>Heading up that special experience was coach Brent Sutter, who knew how to prepare his boys for a gruelling contest.</p><p>&ldquo;You leave in the middle of December and you have one focus,&rdquo; said Sutter, who also coaches the Western League&rsquo;s Red Deer Rebels. &ldquo;We keep all distractions away, and that includes Dec. 25 and 31.&rdquo;</p><p>Sutter is sure everyone knew what was at stake.</p><p>&ldquo;If you want to play for Canada, you have to be prepared to give up that Christmas,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;Their job is to participate for the front of the jersey.&rdquo;</p><div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0017-011579/8757290-1-eng-US/f0017-012.jpg" title="f0017-01" width="4657" height="2440"><figcaption class="caption-body"><b>GOLDEN COUNTDOWN</b> Shawn Belle missed NewYear&rsquo;s at theWJC, but the result was worth it. <span class="photo-credit">(JEFF VINNICK/GETTY IMAGES)</span></figcaption></div><p>Although Sutter recalled players relaxing between matches with video games or by playing mini-hockey in the hotel hall-ways, there is a certain gravity to the world juniors not lost on the coach.</p><p>&ldquo;You should see how down the kids who don&rsquo;t make the team are,&rdquo; Sutter explained. &ldquo;That&rsquo;s the toughest thing to do as a coach.&rdquo;</p><p>But from the lowest lows there are also the highest highs, like playing in front of a home crowd, as Minnesota&rsquo;s Pierre-Marc Bouchard did when the tournament rolled into Halifax for the 2003 installment.</p><p>&ldquo;People were going crazy,&rdquo; said Bouchard, recalling the dizzying scene. &ldquo;In the dressing room during the final game, all the guys are pretty excited. The atmosphere, the game faces&hellip;it was great.&rdquo;</p><p>Hall of Famer Mike Gartner played in one of the first World Junior Championship events, in 1978, and along with the thrill of playing in front of his country&rsquo;s fans in Montreal, he made some life-long friends out of the experience.</p><p>&ldquo;It worked out well,&rdquo; recalled the sniper. &ldquo;Steve Tambellini was my roommate and that&rsquo;s where I met Ryan Walter.&rdquo;</p><p>The bond with Walter would continue on for decades.</p><p>&ldquo;He was the best man at my wedding and we&rsquo;re still friends to this day,&rdquo; Gartner said.</p><p>Added McCauley, &ldquo;You end up playing with guys you may have never heard of. Your best friend could be a guy from the &lsquo;Q&rsquo; or the &lsquo;W&rsquo;.&rdquo;</p><p>In the end, that&rsquo;s what the WJC is all about &ndash; camaraderie and playing for your country.</p><p>&ldquo;It&rsquo;s not the traditional Christmas, but everyone was really excited to represent Canada,&rdquo; said Atlanta Thrashers defenseman Braydon Coburn, a veteran of the 2004 and 2005 squads.</p><p>&ldquo;Things are different; you&rsquo;re so focused. It could be Dec. 24 and guys will be like, &lsquo;hey, what day is it? I think it&rsquo;s Christmas Eve.&rsquo;&rdquo;</p><p>Richards, who won the Conn Smythe Trophy as part of the Lightning&rsquo;s championship run in 2004, knows the feeling.</p><p>&ldquo;When you&rsquo;re a kid, you always watch the world juniors on Christmas Day,&rdquo; he said.</p><p>&ldquo;You know the whole country is watching back home. It prepares you for a lot of later pressures.&rdquo;<span class="end-marker"> &#9632;</span></p>

f0015-01

The Price you pay

<div class="byline">By Alan Adams</div><div class="image-hero"><img title="f0018-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0018-011655/8757349-1-eng-US/f0018-012.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body"><b>NO SWEAT</b> Manny Legace proved the pundits wrong with his unforgettable performance in 1993. <span class="photo-credit">(SCOTT LEVY/GETTY IMAGES)</span></figcaption></div><p class="dropcap"><span>M</span>anny Legace isn&rsquo;t sure where he would be today and what he would be doing tomorrow if it wasn&rsquo;t for the impact one month of his life had on his hockey career in the early 1990s.</p><p>Legace was a small, nondescript goalie for the Niagara Falls Thunder of the Ontario League when he was invited to Canada&rsquo;s training camp for the 1993 World Junior Championship in Gavle, Sweden.</p><p>Going into the December camp, Legace was considered a longshot to make the team. He had been passed over in his NHL draft year and hot-shot Quebec league goalie Jocelyn Thibault was considered the frontrunner. The 19-year-old Legace was one of three hopefuls vying for the job as backup.</p><p>A month later, Legace was a world champion. A few months after that, his performance in Sweden paid more dividends. He was drafted by Hartford in 1993. More than a decade later, he has a Stanley Cup ring from Detroit&rsquo;s 2002 championship run in his treasure chest to go along with his WJC gold medal.</p><p>&ldquo;If it wasn&rsquo;t for that tournament I would have been another goalie lost in the shuffle; a little midget goalie lost in the shuffle,&rdquo; Legace said. &ldquo;Maybe I would have played in the East Coast League or something like that. But I would have not got the opportunity to play in the NHL. That tournament was a 110 per cent shot to my career.&rdquo;</p><p>Canada was coming off an embarrassing seventh place finish in Germany the year before when the invites left for Sweden. The Canadians had loads of talent up front and on the blueline. Legace&rsquo;s teammates included Paul Kariya, Chris Pronger, Martin Lapointe, Rob Niedermayer, Adrian Aucoin, Chris Gratton and Mike Rathje.</p><p>But like any tournament, a team only goes as far as its goaltending will take it, and the pre-tournament reviews weren&rsquo;t flattering for the Canadians.</p><p>&ldquo;What I remember going in was they were picking us to finish in sixth place,&rdquo; Legace recalled. &ldquo;Everybody was saying goaltending was going to be the weak part and they picked me and Philippe (DeRouville). What made me nervous was watching TSN every day, watching them say our goaltending was not going to carry us through.&rdquo;</p><p>Guess who had the last laugh.</p><p>The WJC at that time was a round-robin tournament and Canada had the proverbial uphill battle. They beat the United States 3-0 in the opener with Legace getting the shutout. Sweden was up next and Peter Forsberg set the stage by saying the Swedes were going to win. Forsberg was on a line with Markus Naslund and Mikael Renberg. Canada won 3-2 and outshot the host country 39-33.</p><p>&ldquo;That was a great game. They thought they were going to kill us. They had a chance at the end and if I don&rsquo;t touch the puck, they had Naslund standing there waiting to tap it into the open net,&rdquo; Legace said.</p><p>Canada then beat Russia 9-1. The Finns were next on the road to gold. A win all but guaranteed a world title, and Legace&rsquo;s performance in that game is what legends are made of. Scouts consider his 58-save effort in a 3-2 victory one of the top three ever by a Canadian goalie at the pressure-packed world junior tournament.</p><p>&ldquo;He had an amazing game,&rdquo; remembered Finland&rsquo;s Saku Koivu. &ldquo;We had something like 50 or 60 shots and he was amazing. They ended up going all the way.&rdquo;</p><p>So much for the questions about Canada&rsquo;s goaltending that year.</p><p>Legace laughs when he reflects on stuffing the Finns in the career-making match-up.</p><p>&ldquo;It was just one of those things. They were all over us and they were unbelievable,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;I remember coming in after the second period; we got outshot bad and we were sluggish. The coach came in and had the trainers clear off the table and we thought he was going to start breaking stuff. He came in and he put his world junior ring down from a couple of years before and he said &lsquo;This is what we are playing for&rsquo; and he left. We went out and scored in the first two minutes and we never turned back.&rdquo;</p><p>The Canadian juniors were in full celebration mode after the game. Their next two opponents were Germany and Japan before they finished against the Czechs. The road to gold was all but assured at that point, but Legace was going to wait until he hit the finish line.</p><p>Playing in the world juniors fulfilled a childhood dream for Legace. He watched the games on television growing up in Toronto and still keeps a keen eye on the event.</p><p>&ldquo;Every time I watch it, I get a sense of pride. You are there with the jersey on, the Canadian colors,&rdquo; said Legace, who finished the &rsquo;93 WJC with a 6-0 record and a 1.67 goals-against average.</p><p>&ldquo;I know what those guys are going through and what they feel like and how excited they are to play. And that is all they are doing &ndash; they are playing for Canada. They are not making money and they are not signing endorsements. They are there just to play for their country and that is all they want to do.&rdquo;</p><p>As things turned out, Legace had another chance to play for his country just over a year later. He was the backup to Corey Hirsch at the 1994 Winter Olympics in Norway. Canada was seeded seventh going into the tournament and lost the gold medal game in a shootout to Sweden.</p><p>&ldquo;I never played a game,&rdquo; said Legace. &ldquo;I was supposed to play every shootout. Corey struggled in the shootout all year and the plan was to use me in the shootout. Then in the goldmedal game, I took a slapshot on the knee (at practice) and I thought I broke my kneecap. Lo and behold we get into a shootout and I&rsquo;m out.&rdquo;</p><p>Forsberg scored on a deke and Legace isn&rsquo;t sure he would have made the save.</p><p>&ldquo;He would have scored on everybody but Dom,&rdquo; Legace said, referring to former teammate Dominik Hasek.</p><p>But as far as the WJC and his own professional career goes, Legace made all the stops that mattered.</p><h2><b>TOP 40 PLAYERS IN THE NHL</b></h2><p>Forty players from Canadian WJC teams have played 1,000 or more NHL games.</p><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0019-011514/8757342-1-eng-US/f0019-012.jpg" title="f0019-01" width="589" height="1938"></div><span class="end-marker"> &#9632;</span>

f0018-01

Legace’s run is legendary

<div class="byline">By Mike Brophy</div><div class="image-hero"><img title="f0020-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0020-011420/8757387-1-eng-US/f0020-012.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body"><b>ON GUARD</b> Brent Tully was a key cog in Canada&rsquo;s golden repeat at theWJC in 1993 and &lsquo;94.</figcaption></div><p>Brent Tully once dreamed of playing in the NHL. Now he helps other people live out their dreams.</p><p>As an employee of Freedom 55 Financial, the 31-year-old Peterborough native helps others plan for their future so they&rsquo;ll be able to enjoy their golden years. Tully&rsquo;s golden years, well, they were in 1993 and 1994 when he helped Canada win gold at the World Junior Championship.</p><p>A 6-foot-3, 190-pound swift-skating defenseman, Tully was a tournament all-star in 1993 when Canada produced a 6-1 record to win gold in Gavle, Sweden. The following year, he was Canada&rsquo;s captain as the team went a perfect 6-0 in the Czech Republic.</p><p>A fourth round pick of Vancouver in 1992, Tully played three years in the American League with Syracuse before playing five years of pro hockey in Germany. Though he signed a contract with the Canucks, he never skated in an NHL game.</p><p>&ldquo;There&rsquo;s two ways of looking at everything,&rdquo; Tully said. &ldquo;You can sit and sulk thinking &lsquo;I should have done this or I shouldn&rsquo;t have been here, I should have been there.&rsquo; It&rsquo;s somewhat disappointing to have not made it to the NHL, but you have to pull the positives from your career.</p><p>&ldquo;I appreciate the fact I had some excellent opportunities through hockey, at the junior and the pro level. Having the chance to play in Germany for five years was great. Many people save up for their retirement years to travel and I got to do it at a very young age.&rdquo;</p><p>Tully isn&rsquo;t the only player to star for Canada who didn&rsquo;t go on to a successful NHL career. Canada has sent many players to the WJC who enjoyed international success, but were unable to parlay it into an NHL career.</p><p>John Slaney, the highest scoring defenseman in AHL history, scored a dramatic game-winning goal for Canada at the 1991 tournament, but has played most of career in the minors. Dale McMullin led Canada in scoring at the 1975 tournament with eight points in five games, but never played a game in the NHL. Mike Moller was a tournament all-star with 14 points in seven games in 1982 when Canada won gold, but only played 134 NHL games. Mike Moffat was the tournament&rsquo;s best goalie that year, yet managed just 19 NHL games with Boston.</p><p>Another Canadian goalie, Jimmy Waite, had an 8-0-1 record in two WJCs in 1987 and 1988, but never lived up to expectations at the pro level.</p><p>Marc Habscheid, Bruce Eakin, Mark Morrison, Dave Latta, Steve Nemeth, Rob Cimetta, Dave Chyzowski and Daniel Tkaczuk were other scoring stars who peaked at a junior age.</p><p>When Canada won gold in 1994, the team&rsquo;s top two scorers were Martin Gendron (six goals and 10 points in seven games) and Yanick Dube (five goals, 10 points in seven games). Gendron had seven points in seven games the previous WJC &ndash; for a total of 17 in 14 games &ndash; yet played just 30 NHL games with Washington and Chicago. He still plays pro hockey in Germany.</p><p>Dube played two seasons in the American League and currently plays in Switzerland.</p><p>&ldquo;Both were fast and tremendously skilled,&rdquo; Tully said. &ldquo;They were classic examples of players who were stars at the junior level with tremendous skill. They were really smart, too. They were key guys for us.&rdquo;</p><p>Bob Nicholson, president of Hockey Canada, said the team is selected each year with one thing in mind &ndash; winning the gold medal.</p><div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0022-011302/8757380-1-eng-US/f0022-012.jpg" title="f0022-01" width="1505" height="2143"><figcaption class="caption-body"><b>RED ROCKET</b> The speedy Tully was Canada&rsquo;s captain in 1994. <span class="photo-credit">(SCOTT LEVY/GETTY IMAGES)</span></figcaption></div><p>&ldquo;You can&rsquo;t just go with high NHL draft picks,&rdquo; Nicholson said. &ldquo;We&rsquo;ve had some very good players that weren&rsquo;t drafted high who came in and played well for us. In fairness, most of the stars of your team are the players who go on to be stars in the NHL. But there are always going to be players who are great for us, but for one reason or another don&rsquo;t make it in the pro game.&rdquo;</p><p>Though he was an established star in the Ontario League with the Petes, Tully remembers being quite nervous at his first Team Canada training camp.</p><p>&ldquo;You are meeting guys you don&rsquo;t know personally, be it from the Western League or Quebec League,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;You may have heard of them, but it&rsquo;s the first time you&rsquo;ve played with them. You can be one of the better players on your club team, but you are thrown in a situation where everyone is a star. Unfortunately there&rsquo;s not enough room for everybody. Probably everybody at the final tryout camp is capable of playing, but they can only take so many. Nervousness is a good thing. It keeps you on your toes.&rdquo;</p><p>Because he was fast, smart and creative, Tully&rsquo;s style was perfectly suited to the international game. His first year with Team Canada, he had the advantage of playing with his defensive partner from Peterborough, Chris Pronger. Tully finished with a goal and three points in seven games and was named to the tournament all-star team along with teammates Manny Legace in goal and Paul Kariya up front. The host Swedes finished second that year.</p><p>Tully particularly remembers one Swede who helped light a fire under Canada.</p><p>&ldquo;The year I played against Peter Forsberg, everyone was picking either Canada or Sweden to win the gold and he was dubbed to be the star of the tournament, which he was,&rdquo; Tully said. &ldquo;I remember Peter, in his home country, saying his team was quite confident it could beat us. Hey, it just gave us more incentive when some-one tells a Canadian team it isn&rsquo;t good enough to win.&rdquo;</p><p>At the following WJC, Tully managed just an assist in seven games, but was a key member of the club and served as captain.</p><p>&ldquo;Brent Tully was right there as one of the key ingredients,&rdquo; Nicholson said. &ldquo;He had a great junior career and a lot of people felt he would go on and have a successful NHL career. A lot were surprised he didn&rsquo;t make that next step, but when he put on the Canadian jersey he was a great player for us.</p><p>&ldquo;Like most kids in Canada his dream was to play in the NHL, so I&rsquo;m certain he would be disappointed he didn&rsquo;t make it. But when he played for us we have nothing but great memories of what he contributed.&rdquo;</p><p>The knock on Tully was he didn&rsquo;t play with enough of a physical edge to succeed in the NHL. Unfortunately, he didn&rsquo;t even get to play one big-league game to prove them wrong.</p><p>Tully has come to grips with not making it to the NHL and said playing at the WJC is a career highlight.</p><p>&ldquo;I have great memories,&rdquo; said Tully, whose two gold medals are framed and hang proudly in his home along with his sweater from the 1994 WJC.</p><p>&ldquo;You are put in a whirlwind situation where you are playing in a small town and all of a sudden you&rsquo;re trying out for the national team and within a two-week period you&rsquo;re in the prestigious tournament that means everything in our country.</p><p>&ldquo;It&rsquo;s one of the biggest honors in the world of hockey that you can have.&rdquo;</p><h2><b>WJC no NHL guarantee</b></h2><p>Here are five Canadian WJCers who, like Brent Tully, never made the NHL.</p><p>Sean Blanchard 1998</p><p>Yanick Dube 1994</p><p>Rick Girard 1994</p><p>Marc Laniel 1988</p><p>Dale Derkatch 1983/1984<span class="end-marker"> &#9632;</span></p>

f0020-01

Tully truly content

<div class="byline">By Mike Traikos</div><div class="image-hero"><img title="f0024-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0024-011264/8757418-1-eng-US/f0024-012.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body"><b>FEEL THE NOISE</b> Fans watching games at home get just as excited as fans with front row seats. <span class="photo-credit">(SEAN GALLUP/GETTY IMAGES)</span></figcaption></div><p>Like many Canadians, Pierre McGuire has a hard L time narrowing down his favorite memory from the World Junior Championship.</p><p>&ldquo;There&rsquo;s too many,&rdquo; McGuire said. &ldquo;I remember watching Sidney Crosby score his first goal in Helsinki. I remember the big hits of Dion Phaneuf. One time, I had goosebumps in Halifax before the puck dropped &ndash; the amount of noise there reminded me of being in the Stanley Cup final in Pittsburgh.&rdquo;</p><p>McGuire, color commentator for the tournament the past three years, has fond memories of watching the world&rsquo;s elite young skaters since 1989.</p><p>&ldquo;The hockey is so special,&rdquo; he mused. &ldquo;You&rsquo;re talking about the best young players in the world. This is their dress rehearsal.&rdquo;</p><p>Since TSN began broadcasting the tournament in 1991, the WJC has become a tradition. The gold medal game between Canada and Russia at the 2003 tourney in Halifax remains TSN&rsquo;s most-watched program ever, bringing in 3,453,000 viewers.</p><p>Shortly after TSN began broadcasting the event, Canada started a stretch of five consecutive gold medals. &ldquo;It was a smaller tournament (when CBC had the rights),&rdquo; said TSN president Phil King. &ldquo;Team Canada came of age &ndash; that helped.&rdquo;</p><p>The better Canada performed, the more people watched. Of TSN&rsquo;s top-watched programs, six WJC games are in the top 10.</p><p>&ldquo;When ratings go over the top, it tends to be when we wave the Canadian flag,&rdquo; King said. &ldquo;That&rsquo;s when you get the casual or non-sports fans, like with the Olympics. It unites the country.&rdquo;</p><p>In the beginning, TSN broadcast medal games exclusively, before upping its coverage to the point where &ndash; last year &ndash; games which did not include Canada were shown for the first time.</p><p>It proved to be a success.</p><p>&ldquo;It&rsquo;s like a World Cup,&rdquo; King said. &ldquo;The fans know Team Canada will be playing one of these teams, so they want to follow them and be knowledgeable about their future competition.&rdquo;</p><p>While the 1999 WJC gold medal game in Winnipeg between Canada and Russia brought in 1,816,000 viewers, last year&rsquo;s final between the same two teams in Grand Forks, N.D., was a highly anticipated event watched by 3,227,000.</p><p>For a tournament that centers around players who have yet to become household names, the ratings success is no small feat.</p><p>&ldquo;We&rsquo;ve got to educate every-one around Canada about every player,&rdquo; McGuire said.</p><p>Of course, with most of the country enjoying winter holidays, the tournament has a strangle-hold on viewers hungry for live sports. &ldquo;One of the main reasons (the tournament) gets watched is it&rsquo;s during the Christmas break,&rdquo; King said. &ldquo;If it wasn&rsquo;t, nobody would be home to watch it. It&rsquo;s the perfect time of year. The World Championship doesn&rsquo;t have the same meaning, because it&rsquo;s on during the playoffs. It gets lost in the mix of things.&rdquo;</p><p>McGuire agrees. &ldquo;In the U.S., you have the (NCAA football) bowl games (during the holiday season),&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;In Canada, it&rsquo;s our bowl games. It&rsquo;s a big celebration of hockey&hellip;Whether you&rsquo;re a Senators fan, a Leafs fans, a Canucks fan or whatever, when it comes to the world juniors, you&rsquo;re a fan of Canada.&rdquo;</p><h2><b>TOP 10 ON TSN</b></h2><p><b>Here are the 10 most-watched TSN programs and number of viewers:</b></p><p>1. 2003 gold-medal game WJC (Can vs. Rus) 3.45 million</p><p>2. 2005 gold-medal game WJC (Can vs. Rus) 3.23 million</p><p>3. NHL season opener (Oct. 5, 2005) 2.10 million</p><p>4. 2003 semifinalWJC (Can vs. USA) 2.01 million</p><p>5. 2005 semifinalWJC (Can vs. Czech) 1.89 million</p><p>6. 1999 gold-medal game WJC (Can vs. Rus) 1.82 million</p><p>7. Blue Jays Baseball (Sept. 29, 1989) 1.81 million</p><p>8. Blue Jays Baseball (Oct. 2, 1991) 1.59 million</p><p>9.World Cup Soccer (July 12, 1998) 1.55 million</p><p>10. 1991 gold-medal game WJC (Can vs. Rus) 1.44 million<span class="end-marker"> &#9632;</span></p>

f0024-01

Canadians love watching WJC

<div class="image-hero"><img title="f0026-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0026-011269/8757449-1-eng-US/f0026-012.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body"><span class="photo-credit">(JEFF VINNICK/GETTY IMAGES)</span></figcaption></div><span class="end-marker"> &#9632;</span>

f0026-01

The Home Team

<div class="byline">By Denis Gibbons</div><div class="image-hero"><img title="f0028-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0028-011253/8757487-1-eng-US/f0028-012.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body"><b>THREE ACES</b> From left: Corey Perry, Mike Richards and Danny Syvret of the stacked 2005 roster. <span class="photo-credit">(JEFF VINNICK/GETTY IMAGES)</span></figcaption></div><p class="dropcap"><b><span>N</span></b>o matter where they came from or where they ended up after, those who line up for Canada at the World Junior Championship earn the admiration of a nation.</p><p>Eight of these Canadian teams went through the tournament without losing a single game.</p><p>In many cases, the gold medals were won more on heart than talent, with Canadian players rising to the occasion against some tough odds.</p><p>Here&rsquo;s a look at Canada&rsquo;s top five world junior teams that woke us up during the holidays.</p><p><b>2005</b> With the NHL locking out its players for the second time, Canada was able to use not only center Patrice Bergeron &ndash; who had completed his rookie NHL season with Boston in 2003-04 &ndash; but also several out-standing prospects who might have been making their debut in the big time.</p><p>Coach Brent Sutter&rsquo;s roster included 12 returnees from the 2004 Canadian entry that came within an eyelash of striking gold. That squad lost to the U.S. on a fluke goal that got past Marc-Andre Fleury after bouncing off defenseman Braydon Coburn.</p><p>The Canadians outscored their opponents by a total of 41-7 and dominated a very good Russian team with the top two picks from the 2004 draft &ndash; Alexander Ovechkin and Evgeny Malkin &ndash; 6-1 in the gold-medal game.</p><div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0029-011114/8757480-1-eng-US/f0029-012.jpg" title="f0029-01" width="1844" height="1306"><figcaption class="caption-body"><b>PIPE DREAMS</b> Goaltending dynamic duo Jose Theodore and Marc Denis won gold in 1996. <span class="photo-credit">(JIM MCISAACGETTY IMAGES)</span></figcaption></div><p>Bergeron was named tournament MVP, Dion Phaneuf the best defenseman and Anthony Stewart the best forward.</p><p><b>1995</b> The first Canadian team to go undefeated and untied in WJC play was stacked with players who would have been playing in the NHL, only the league was in a lockout situation.</p><p>Two-thirds of the tournament all-star team &ndash; defenseman Bryan McCabe along with forwards Marty Murray, Eric Daze and Jason Allison &ndash; came from the Canadian team, which outscored its opposition by a total of 49-22. The goals for total was second only to the 54 scored by the 1986 team, which had the benefit of a lopsided 18-2 win over West Germany.</p><p>Two future NHL goalies &ndash; Jamie Storr and Dan Cloutier &ndash; protected the nets whenever Canada&rsquo;s rivals got near them. Don Hay was the coach.</p><p>Besides winning the gold medal in a cakewalk, Canada proved it could play winning hockey within the rules, earning the Fair Play Cup for the lowest team total of penalty minutes &ndash; just 68 in seven games. Canada set a tournament record with 23 power-play goals.</p><p><b>1996</b>&nbsp;The only other Canadian team to win every game at a WJC, the 1996 squad coached by Marcel Comeau was led by two future Hart Trophy winners; Jarome Iginla and Jose Theodore.</p><p>It was also the first year the IIHF used a playoff format with sudden-death games to decide the title.</p><p>The Canada-Russia semifinal turned out to be the key matchup. Theodore, who posted a remarkable 1.50 GAA overall, stood on his head as Canada won 4-3 despite being outshot in every period and 49-28 overall.</p><p>The gold-medal game against Sweden was little more than a formality with Canada breezing to a 4-1 win on the strength of two goals by Daymond Langkow.</p><p>The win stretched Canada&rsquo;s unbeaten streak at the world juniors to 20 games. A Canadian team had not lost since the final day of the 1993 tournament in Sweden, after the Canadians had clinched the gold medal.</p><p>Defenseman Nolan Baumgartner also made the all-star team in the tournament hosted by the U.S. in Boston and surrounding cities. Fifteen of the 22 Canadian players were in their last year of eligibility.</p><p><b>1982</b> Pioneers always have the toughest row to hoe, and that&rsquo;s why Dave King&rsquo;s national junior team of 1982 deserves its place in the top five.</p><p>In previous years, Canada had been represented mostly by club teams. Now the Canadian Amateur Hockey Association had introduced its Program of Excellence and a truly national team took to the ice.</p><p>Goalie Mike Moffat &ndash; who wound up playing only 19 NHL games &ndash; and defenseman Gord Kluzak and forward Mike Moller were named to the all-star team.</p><p>Although the U.S. hosted the tournament in Minnesota, the Canada-Soviet Union game was played on Boxing Day afternoon in the Winnipeg Arena and the Canadians delivered the knock-out punch with a 7-0 win.</p><p>On the final day, Canada had a perfect 6-0-0 record. Czechoslovakia, at 5-1-0, needed a win to deny Canada the gold medal and claim it themselves.</p><p>The Canadians led 3-2 with less than five minutes to play in the third period when Jiri Dudacek scored to tie the game. Although being outshot 41-19, Canada held on for the tie.</p><p>Following the game in a tiny rink in Rochester, Minn., the Canadian players stood at the blueline ready to hear &lsquo;O Canada,&rsquo; but there was no recording of the national anthem in the building, so the players started singing a heartfelt rendition themselves.</p><p><b>1988</b> What sets the 1988 team apart from Canada&rsquo;s 10 other gold-medal-winning teams is that they won the world title on Moscow ice in a year both teams were seeking revenge for the Piestany punch-up, which resulted in both sides being disqualified from the 1987 tournament in Czechoslovakia.</p><p>Coached by Dave Chambers, Canada was forced to start the tournament with five tough games in just seven days. They beat Sweden, Czechoslovakia, the U.S. and the Soviet Union while skating to a tie the Finland.</p><p>Jimmy Waite was spectacular in goal against a speedy Soviet team led by Alexander Mogilny. The Soviets outshot Canada 34-8 over the final two periods, but the Canadians held on for a 3-2 victory.</p><p>That all but clinched the gold medal. The Canadians made it official by waltzing to 8-1 and 9-1 wins over West Germany and Poland in the final two games.</p><p>Waite was named the tournament&rsquo;s top goalie while forward Theo Fleury and defenseman Greg Hawgood both made the all-star team.</p><h2><b>BEST OF THE</b>&nbsp;<b>BEST</b></h2><p><b>2005 POINTS</b></p><p>1. Patrice Bergeron 13</p><p>2. Ryan Getzlaf 12</p><p>3. Jeff Carter 10</p><p><b>1996</b></p><p>1. Jarome Iginla 12</p><p>2. Christian Dube 6</p><p>3. Daymond Langkow 6</p><p><b>1995</b></p><p>1. Marty Murray 15</p><p>2. Jason Allison 15</p><p>3. Bryan McCabe 12</p><p><b>1988</b></p><p>1. Greg Hawgood 9</p><p>2. Theo Fleury 8</p><p>3. Rob Brown 8</p><p><b>1982</b></p><p>1. Mike Moller 14</p><p>2. Marc Habscheid 12</p><p>3. Scott Arniel 11<span class="end-marker"> &#9632;</span></p>

f0028-01

Golden boys gave their all

<div class="byline">By Denis Gibbons</div><div class="image-hero"><img title="f0030-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0030-011262/8757525-1-eng-US/f0030-012.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body"><b>NATIONAL PRIDE</b> Canadian national junior teams are always greeted by boisterous fans at home. <span class="photo-credit">(GRAY MORTIMORE/ALLSPORT/GETTY IMAGES)</span></figcaption></div><p class="dropcap"><span>T</span>he proud owner of 11 World Junior Championship gold medals and the undisputed global leader at the box office, Canada has still found the pressure of playing at home over-bearing.</p><p>The 2003 WJC in Halifax generated a profit of $7.8 million (Cdn.) and this year&rsquo;s event in Vancouver has been sold out for months. In fact, fan support in Canada has been so solid that in May of this year the IIHF announced Canada will host the world juniors every three years.</p><p>But although Canada has hosted the World Junior Championship seven times, it has won the gold medal at only two of those tournaments.</p><p>It has been just as difficult for the other countries. Russia (Soviet Union) is only 2-for-4 on home ice, Finland 1-for-6 and the Czech Republic (Czechoslovakia), Sweden and the United States all 0-for-4.</p><p>With a lineup that included future NHLers Bryan Trottier, Mel Bridgman, Rick Lapointe and Brian Sutter, the Western Canada League all-stars represented Canada in the 1975 tournament. Jackie McLeod was selected as coach because of his previous international experience with the Trail Smoke Eaters, who won a World Championship gold medal for Canada in 1961.</p><p>Canada and the Soviet Union went into final day of the sixnation tourney with identical 4-0 records, but the Soviets claimed the gold with a 4-3 victory at the Winnipeg Arena.</p><p>At the 1978 event in Quebec, Wayne Gretzky, then 16, led all tournament scorers with eight goals and 17 points in just six games, but the Canadians lost to both the Soviets and Swedes and had to settle for a bronze medal.</p><p>All 20 Canadian players &ndash; except Gretzky &ndash; had been drafted by NHL clubs. Gretzky was not yet eligible for selection.</p><p>Torchy Schell of the NHL&rsquo;s Central Scouting Bureau was impressed by Gretzky&rsquo;s play, but urged caution on tabbing him the next great superstar.</p><p>&ldquo;He stickhandles and passes well and knows what to do with the puck,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;But by the time he&rsquo;s 18, he may decide to be a doctor or something.&rdquo;</p><p>The Canadian team wore blue jerseys with white trim and only a small red maple leaf on the shoulder. The selection of coach Ernie &lsquo;Punch&rsquo; McLean of the New Westminister Bruins created some controversy because of his reputation for encouraging intimidation of opponents.</p><p>Facing the Soviets at Le Colisee in Quebec City, Canada jumped out to a 2-0 lead in the first period before the Soviets rallied with two unanswered markers in the second and one more in the third to win 3-2.</p><p>The scene shifted to the Montreal Forum on the afternoon of New Year&rsquo;s Day. A decidedly underdog Swedish team, led by Mats Naslund and Bengt-Ake Gustafsson, surprised the Canadians 6-5, outshooting them 42-32.</p><p>Canada needed only a tie going into that game to qualify for the gold-medal contest, but refused to played defensive hockey.</p><p>The Soviets then defeated Sweden 5-2 in the gold-medal game.</p><p>Hamilton&rsquo;s sparkling new Copps Coliseum and other Ontario venues hosted the 1986 world juniors. The event set a tournament record by attracting 154,172 fans.</p><p>After coaching Canada to a gold-medal triumph the previous year in Finland, Terry Simpson of the Prince Albert Raiders was given the task of defending the title on Canadian ice.</p><p>Eight nations played a single round-robin format, with Canada and the Soviets tied atop the standings at 5-0 entering their Jan. 2, 1986 showdown in Hamilton.</p><p>Canada had a superior goals for and against differential to the Soviets, and therefore could clinch the gold medal with a tie.</p><div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0031-011162/8757518-1-eng-US/f0031-012.jpg" title="f0031-01" width="4655" height="2727"><figcaption class="caption-body"><b>HOME ICE HARDSHIP</b> Canada has not won gold at home since 1995, despite two opportunities. <span class="photo-credit">(JIM MCISAAC/GETTY IMAGES)</span></figcaption></div><p>Before the game, Soviet players were promised $700, the story goes, to spend as they wished in Canada if they beat the home team. That did the trick. The Soviets won 4-1.</p><p>Buoyed by its success, Hamilton also bid for the 1991 tournament, guaranteeing a profit of $750,000 for the national program. But Saskatoon won out by promising a profit of $1 million.</p><p>Cameco, the huge uranium company, guaranteed to make up any shortfall. When the tournament books showed a profit of $900,000, the corporation delivered.</p><p>The Soviet Union, led by Pavel Bure, Sandis Ozolinsh, Sergei Zholtok and Slava Kozlov, cruised to victories in its first five games while Canada was 4-1-1. Canada was held to a tie by the United States and lost 6-5 to Czechoslovakia on a late goal by Martin Rucinsky.</p><p>When the Soviets took the ice Jan. 2 they needed only a win over Finland to clinch the gold medal with one round still to play. They were 15 seconds away from gold when Finland scored to tie the game 5-5.</p><p>Two nights later in Saskatoon, John Slaney scored late in the third to give the Canadians &ndash; coached by Dick Todd of the Peterborough Petes &ndash; a 3-2 win and the country&rsquo;s fifth world junior gold medal.</p><p>The offensive star of the tournament, next to Bure, was Eric Lindros, then 17. The monstrous center led scorers with six goals and 17 points in seven games.</p><p>With NHL players locked out in 1994-95, Canada was able to ice its very best players for the first time when Red Deer, Alta., hosted the 1995 world juniors.</p><p>Alexandre Daigle, Jason Allison, Ryan Smyth, Jeff Friesen and Todd Harvey had all made their NHL teams, but were still junior age. And since NHL play did not resume until January, they played for the national junior team.</p><p>Canada won the tournament easily, cruising to a 7-0 record. The Canadians clinched the gold medal with an 8-5 win over Russia on the second to last day. Chicago draft pick Eric Daze led the Canadian attack with three goals.</p><p>Don Hay, who had guided the Kamloops Blazers to a Memorial Cup title the previous season, was the coach of the Canadian team, which scored an average of seven goals a game.</p><p>After a disastrous eighth-place finish at the 1998 tournament in Finland, Tom Renney was given the job of restoring some respectability to Canadian junior hockey. He was named coach of the 1999 team for the tournament in Winnipeg. Slovakia, playing in only its fourth WJC A pool event following the breakup of Czechoslovakia, stunned the hockey world by holding Canada to a 0-0 tie.</p><p>Still the gold-medal game came down to a clash between Canada and Russia. The vocal support for Canada in the Winnipeg Arena was tumultuous. But the crowd was taken out of the game early when the Russians took a 2-1 lead. Canada eventually scored in the third period to send the game into overtime.</p><p>The Russians took charge in the extra period and Artem Chubarov ended the game with a wrist shot. The contest would never have reached overtime if not for the heroics of Canadian goalie Roberto Luongo. Canada was outshot 40-18.</p><p>For the first time in history, the Maritimes hosted the 2003 world juniors with Halifax as the main center.</p><p>Trailing Canada 2-1 after two periods in another gold medal showdown with their rivals, the Russians struck for goals by Igor Grigorenko and Yuri Trubachev in the third period to win 3-2. It was the fifth gold medal the Little Red Machine has won on Canadian ice.</p><p>Canada&rsquo;s Pierre Parenteau was robbed on three chances by Russian netminder Andrei Medvedev. Jordin Tootoo, a robust winger, became a fan favorite as he dashed around the rink knocking down opponents.</p><p>After this year&rsquo;s tournament in Vancouver, Canada will host 2009 and 2012 events. Then the IIHF will re-evaluate.</p><p>Some countries were not happy with the decision, but the Canadians agreed to pay some of the training and travel expenses for the other nations.</p><p>Hockey Canada president Bob Nicholson was thrilled.</p><p>&ldquo;What matters is that our fans are the winners here,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;They made this happen because of how they support the event and how they also buy tickets for non-Canadian games.&rdquo;<span class="end-marker"> &#9632;</span></p>

f0030-01

Feeling the pressure

<div class="byline">By Lucas Aykroyd</div><div class="image-hero"><img title="f0032-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0032-011241/8757563-1-eng-US/f0032-012.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body"><b>BIG CITY LIGHTS</b> International stars will be born under the bright lights of Vancouver.</figcaption></div><p class="dropcap"><span>W</span>hen it comes to Vancouver&rsquo;s burgeoning  reputation as a W venue for world-class events, &lsquo;synergy&rsquo; is more than a corporate buzzword or name for a high-tech hockey stick. Since being awarded the 2010 Winter Olympics, this scenic, multicultural city of two million has also earned the right to host the 2005 Grey Cup, the 2007 Memorial Cup, the 2008 World Triathlon Championships, and the 2006 International Ice Hockey federation World Junior Championship.</p><p>So where does this synergy come from?</p><h2><b>MINDS BEHIND THE MAGIC</b></h2><p>Partial credit belongs to forward-thinking minds in B.C. sports, business and politics. Vancouver Giants owner Ron Toigo and 2010 Olympics CEO John Furlong are prime examples. Toigo, who also runs the White Spot restaurant chain, has transformed the Giants from a bottom-feeding WHL expansion franchise &ndash; circa 2001 &ndash; into an exciting contender that&rsquo;s produced stars such as Gilbert Brule and Andrej Meszaros. The average attendance at Giants home games in 2004-05 surged to 8,400, fourth-highest in major junior.</p><p>Furlong, meanwhile, knows what it takes to bid successfully for an international event after edging out Pyeongchang, South Korea, and Salzburg, Austria, for the 21st Olympics back in 2003.</p><p>So when Toigo and Furlong joined forces to bid for the 2006 world juniors it was no surprise Vancouver landed the tournament over four other Canadian bids, guaranteeing a profit of $5.2 million. All 330,000 tickets available for games at the Pacific Coliseum and GM Place were sold out eight months in advance.</p><p>The success of the Vancouver Canucks has also enhanced the city&rsquo;s reputation. Canucks GM Dave Nonis and his predecessor, Brian Burke, have iced one of the NHL&rsquo;s most skillful and fiscally sound teams since the start of the new millennium. While the Canucks haven&rsquo;t hoisted the Stanley Cup yet, Markus Naslund and Todd Bertuzzi are perennial all-star contenders and box-office attractions. Trevor Linden and Brendan Morrison are solid, beloved Vancouver citizens on and off the ice. All of this has increased the community&rsquo;s appetite for hockey.</p><h2><b>BEYOND THE RINKS</b></h2><p>Life outside hockey rinks in Vancouver is a nice selling point too. Outgoing mayor Larry Campbell has strived to revitalize local sports, arts and community life, overturning Vancouver&rsquo;s former and unjust reputation as &ldquo;No Fun City.&rdquo; While Premier Gordon Campbell has been criticized at times, it&rsquo;s widely conceded his government has spurred B.C.&rsquo;s economic growth. (The premier was recently spotted shopping at The Bay wearing a leather jacket from Electronic Arts, whose local studios produce the acclaimed NHL video game series).</p><p>In 2004, travel agents selected Vancouver as Canada&rsquo;s top destination for the second straight year according to Travel Weekly magazine. A 2005 Economist Intelligence Report picked Vancouver as the world&rsquo;s best place to live in terms of personal risk, infrastructure and availability of goods and services.</p><p>If you&rsquo;re in this West Coast metropolis to catch the WJC action, there are many ways to entertain yourself between games.</p><p>Go for a 10-kilometer run around the Stanley Park Seawall, or chill out with the beluga whales and dolphins at the Vancouver Aquarium. Enjoy a panoramic view of the city from Grouse Mountain after taking the Skyride gondola to the summit, or traverse the swaying 450-foot Capilano Suspension Bridge in North Vancouver. It&rsquo;s only a two-hour drive to Whistler, the international ski mecca that will host alpine events in 2010.</p><div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0033-011119/8757556-1-eng-US/f0033-012.jpg" title="f0033-01" width="1975" height="1717"><figcaption class="caption-body"><b>HOCKEY HERITAGE</b> The Canucks are a big part of Vancouver&rsquo;s long, rich sporting history. <span class="photo-credit">(BBS/GETTY IMAGES)</span></figcaption></div><p>Culinary buffs love Vancouver&rsquo;s restaurants, which are among the world&rsquo;s best. Tojo&rsquo;s on West Broadway attracts rock stars with its cutting-edge sushi. With Hollywood movies constantly shooting here, you may find the likes of Al Pacino or Jennifer Lopez at Yaletown hotspots such as Elixir and Cioppino&rsquo;s. NHLers favor down-town eateries like Joe Fortes and Gotham Steakhouse. Families dine well at the Old Spaghetti Factory in Gastown or Red Robin on Robson Street.</p><p>Whether you&rsquo;re shopping at mega-malls like downtown&rsquo;s Pacific Centre or Metrotown in Burnaby, sampling the nightlife at the Roxy or the Shark Club, you&rsquo;ll enjoy Vancouver&rsquo;s laid-back brand of hospitality.</p><h2><b>HISTORY OF EXCITEMENT</b></h2><p>Since the early 20th century, Vancouver has experienced some incredible sports moments. Cyclone Taylor led the Vancouver Millionaires to the city&rsquo;s only Stanley Cup win in 1915, defeating the Ottawa Senators in three straight games at the old Denman Street Arena. 1979 saw wild celebrations as the Vancouver Whitecaps beat the Tampa Bay Rowdies to capture the North American Soccer League championship.</p><p>Inspired by &lsquo;Towel Power,&rsquo; the Canucks charged to the 1982 Stanley Cup final where they succumbed to the New York Islanders in four games. The 1994 final was a tighter affair, as Pavel Bure and Kirk McLean played key roles in Vancouver&rsquo;s seven-game thriller with the eventual Cup champion New York Rangers.</p><p>That fall, Vancouver celebrated its third Grey Cup title after Lui Passaglia&rsquo;s stunning last-minute field goal at B.C. Place Stadium lifted the B.C. Lions past Baltimore.</p><p>Even though the 2006 WJC marks the first IIHF tournament Vancouver has hosted, the city is no stranger to international hockey. The Pacific Coliseum hosted games in both the 1972 Summit Series and the 1974 WHA-USSR series. In 1977, the Canucks played their first-ever Superseries match against a Russian club, defeating Spartak.</p><p>In the 1984 Canada Cup, Sweden beat the host team 4-2 in Vancouver. It was the Tre Kronor&rsquo;s first win over Canada on North American ice since 1962.</p><p>In 1996 Mark Messier and Wayne Gretzky had two assists each as Canada beat Russia 5-3 in its World Cup opener.</p><p>Visitors are guaranteed to feel the synergy in Vancouver, whether watching a tic-tac-toe scoring play at GM Place or admiring the snow-capped North Shore Mountains beyond the Lion&rsquo;s Gate Bridge. It&rsquo;s easy to see why this is the right choice on the Left Coast.<span class="end-marker"> &#9632;</span></p>

f0032-01

Welcome to the West Coast

<div class="byline">By Robin Short</div><p class="dropcap"><span>H</span>e&rsquo;s 6-foot-2, 225 pounds, and for a brief spell last fall he had Montreal Canadiens fans in a quasi frenzy with a headline-grabbing show at training camp. All this and Guillaume Latendresse won&rsquo;t turn 19 until May.</p><p>Latendresse was born and raised on Montreal&rsquo;s south shore in the community of Ste-Catherine. The Canadiens, naturally, were his favorite team and he fondly recalls the 2002 NHL playoffs when the Habs knocked off the heavily favored Bruins. Little did he know it, but three years later Latendresse would be in the Montreal media spotlight with an overtime winner against Boston and a two-goal game versus the defending Stanley Cup champs from Tampa Bay.</p><p>Granted, they were only exhibition games, but his efforts were enough to draw chants of &lsquo;Guy! Guy! Guy!&rsquo; from the 18,323 Bell Centre patrons on hand for the Tampa tilt. Last time that name was heard around Montreal, Guy Carbonneau was leading the Habs to the 1993 Stanley Cup championship when Latendresse was just six.</p><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0034-011256/8757608-1-eng-US/f0034-012.jpg" title="f0034-01" width="265" height="265"></div><p>&ldquo;It was pretty overwhelming, an amazing experience,&rdquo; Latendresse said. &ldquo;I didn&rsquo;t go out a lot &ndash; I mostly stayed in my (hotel) room &ndash; but when I did people noticed me on the street and that was pretty different.&rdquo;</p><p>Latendresse almost made the team, but GM Bob Gainey and coach Claude Julien decided it was better for his development to spend another year with the QMJHL&rsquo;s Drummondville Voltigeurs. There he&rsquo;s assured tons of ice time, including power play and penalty-killing duty.</p><p>He&rsquo;ll also be counted on as a key performer when Canada looks to defend its gold medal at the 2006 World Junior Championship. That&rsquo;s when fans outside Quebec will get a first-hand look at a player many compare to current Vancouver Canucks winger Todd Bertuzzi.</p><p>&ldquo;He&rsquo;s big and strong, has good hands, can play physical and isn&rsquo;t afraid to play on the road,&rdquo; said Drummondville coach Dominic Ricard. &ldquo;Yes, I think a comparison to Bertuzzi is accurate.&rdquo;</p><p>The Canadiens traded up to nab Latendresse at 45th overall in the June draft. His stock had slipped following a sub-par 2004-05 that saw him net 29 goals. That&rsquo;s only five more than his rookie total, which came during an injury-shortened season. Latendresse suffered a shoulder injury that first year, requiring off-season surgery. He fought to regain his conditioning last season.</p><div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0034-03669/8757601-1-eng-US/f0034-032.jpg" title="f0034-03" width="1121" height="1553"><figcaption class="caption-body"><b>RED ALERT!</b> Guillaume Latendresse may end up being a steal. <span class="photo-credit">(GETTY IMAGES)</span></figcaption></div><p>&ldquo;That first off-season was very difficult,&rdquo; Ricard said. &ldquo;He knows what it&rsquo;s like to face adversity. He worked very hard over the summer. I was sure he&rsquo;d have a strong camp because of his commitment to conditioning, but it was still a surprise to see him play as well as he did.&rdquo;</p><p>Latendresse, however, isn&rsquo;t hanging his hat on past performances. He&rsquo;s smart enough to know his &rsquo;05 NHL pre-season won&rsquo;t mean a thing at the WJC, or next year when he attends Canadiens camp again.</p><p>&ldquo;All the media, the fans chanting your name &ndash; for sure it was a lot of fun,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;But those were exhibition games. I have to look ahead.&rdquo;</p><p>And if you&rsquo;re a fan of Canada&rsquo;s juniors, hopefully you&rsquo;ll hear chants of &lsquo;Guy! Guy! Guy!&rsquo; raining down in GM Place this Christmas.</p><h2><b>2006 CANADIAN FUTURE STAR</b></h2><p><b>GUILLIAME LATENDRESSE</b></p><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0034-02847/8757594-1-eng-US/f0034-022.jpg" title="f0034-02" width="590" height="337"></div><span class="end-marker"> &#9632;</span>

f0034-01

New ‘Guy’ puts on show

<div class="byline">By Neil Hodge</div><p class="dropcap"><span>L</span>uc Bourdon didn&rsquo;t spend his childhood dreaming L about playing in the NHL. &ldquo;I grew up around boats,&rdquo; said the 18-year-old defenseman, drafted 10th overall by the Vancouver Canucks in 2005. &ldquo;My father is a fisherman and I was always on the boat with him when I was a kid. I don&rsquo;t know how much I helped him, but it was fun.&rdquo;</p><p>Bourdon is from Shippigan, a remote New Brunswick fishing town with a population of 2,920. The Val d&rsquo;Or Foreurs drafted him third overall in 2003 and he&rsquo;s now in the spotlight as a star in the Quebec League.</p><p>&ldquo;I played a lot of street hockey and I was on the outdoor rink every day growing up, but I never thought about the NHL,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;I was 15 before I realized there&rsquo;s a chance for me to go far in hockey. That&rsquo;s when the scouts started to watch me and talk to me.&rdquo;</p><p>Bourdon, 6-foot-2 and 215 pounds, was the first French Canadian selected in the draft. He stayed in Vancouver&rsquo;s camp until the decision deadline on 18-year-olds, drawing four assists in four exhibition games.</p><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0035-011174/8757653-1-eng-US/f0035-012.jpg" title="f0035-01" width="265" height="265"></div><p>He&rsquo;s a multi-dimensional defenseman who patterns him-self after Colorado&rsquo;s Rob Blake. Solid in his own zone, he plays a physical game and has offensive skills with 13 goals and 32 points in 70 games last season.</p><p>Bourdon was named the top defenseman at the 2005 IIHF world under-18 championship. He was the third ranked blueliner for this year&rsquo;s NHL draft.</p><p>&ldquo;There&rsquo;s not many complete defensemen like him around, so I think that&rsquo;s why he went so early in the NHL draft,&rdquo; said Val d&rsquo;Or coach Claude Bouchard. &ldquo;He&rsquo;s one of the seven or eight best junior defensemen in Canada.</p><p>&ldquo;The biggest change for him when he came here at 16 was getting used to playing in a system. I think in his minor hockey he was used to always being the best player on his team and being able to go end-to-end with the puck. It doesn&rsquo;t work that way in major junior.&rdquo;</p><p>Bourdon lists playing the guitar, golfing and fishing among his hobbies. He played several sports as a kid and finished second in Canada at a baseball skills competition in Toronto.</p><p>&ldquo;I was about 10 then,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;Baseball was just a pastime. Hockey was always my first passion.&rdquo;</p><p>Bourdon is a popular figure in Shippigan and the surrounding French communities that make up northeastern New Brunswick.</p><div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0035-03670/8757646-1-eng-US/f0035-032.jpg" title="f0035-03" width="1121" height="1553"><figcaption class="caption-body"><b>BIG BOY</b> Luc Bourdon will be Canada&rsquo;s top defenseman in B.C. <span class="photo-credit">(GETTY IMAGES)</span></figcaption></div><p>&ldquo;Even before the NHL draft he was well known in the region,&rdquo; said Shippigan mayor Jonathan Noel. &ldquo;Just say Luc and everybody knows who you&rsquo;re talking about.</p><p>&ldquo;The young kids in hockey really look up to him. He&rsquo;s a source of inspiration because it shows that when you&rsquo;re serious you can reach dreams.</p><p>&ldquo;He comes back home each summer. He&rsquo;s really focused on his training. He&rsquo;s not the type of guy who goes out partying. He&rsquo;s very low key. Sometimes you ask yourself if he&rsquo;s too shy for his own good.&rdquo;</p><p>Bourdon played midget AAA for Miramichi, a 90-minute drive from his hometown. That meant several trips per week for games and practices.</p><p>&ldquo;He made a lot of sacrifices at a young age,&rdquo; Noel said. &ldquo;You can see in his eyes that he wants it. We can&rsquo;t wait to see him in the NHL.&rdquo;</p><h2><b>2006 CANADIAN FUTURE STAR</b></h2><p><b>LUC BOURDON</b></p><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0035-02816/8757639-1-eng-US/f0035-022.jpg" title="f0035-02" width="588" height="337"></div><span class="end-marker"> &#9632;</span>

f0035-01

Big catch within grasp

<div class="byline">By Rob Vanstone</div><p class="dropcap"><span>C</span>arey Price&rsquo;s scholastic average is comparable to his save percentage, which is saying something. The Tri-City Americans netminder stopped 92 per cent of the shots he faced during the 2004-05 Western League season. Meanwhile, he was completing high school with an average in the 90s.</p><p>&ldquo;School is pretty important,&rdquo; Price said. &ldquo;I always took care of that. I owe a lot of that to my mom. She made sure I had good grades in everything. There&rsquo;s a life after hockey.&rdquo;</p><p>The paternal influence is just as important to the 18-year-old son of Jerry and Lynda Price.</p><p>&ldquo;My dad was a goalie,&rdquo; Carey recalled. &ldquo;He taught me a lot of things growing up.&rdquo;</p><p>The long drives were not restricted to shots he faced from the point. Jerry would frequently chauffeur his son from their home base of Anahim Lake to another B.C. community &ndash; Williams Lake &ndash; for practices and home games. That was a three hour drive in each direction. In 2000, the family moved to Williams Lake to enable Carey to develop as a player without commuting.</p><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0036-011143/8757698-1-eng-US/f0036-012.jpg" title="f0036-01" width="265" height="265"></div><p>Jerry Price spent three full seasons in the Western League toiling for the Calgary Centennials and Portland Winter Hawks. The Philadelphia Flyers selected Jerry in the eighth round of the 1978 draft. He played in the minor leagues throughout a pro career which lasted from 1978 to 1983.</p><p>Despite his father&rsquo;s goaltending background, Carey did not automatically become a puck-stopper.</p><p>&ldquo;I started out as a defenseman,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;I threw on the pads one day and I&rsquo;ve been there ever since. I think I was about nine when I switched over to goalie. I used to score a lot &ndash; I was an offensive defenseman.&rdquo;</p><p>&ldquo;Sometimes I wonder what I would have been like if I would have stuck to playing defense. I could skate pretty well when I was younger. I think it has turned out pretty well though.&rdquo;</p><p>That is an understatement. The Montreal Canadiens were so impressed by Price they drafted him fifth overall in 2005. The Habs had not chosen a goaltender so high since 1968, when Michel Plasse went first overall.</p><p>&ldquo;They have a long legacy of good goalies,&rdquo; said the 6-foot-4, 204-pound Price. &ldquo;Every goalie who has played there has been really good. It&rsquo;s just something that I&rsquo;m going to have to deal with and follow up.</p><p>&ldquo;When I walk into that rink and see guys like Jean Beliveau and Rocket Richard all up on the wall, it&rsquo;s amazing. There are all the Stanley Cup banners up in the rafters.&rdquo;</p><div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0036-03616/8757691-1-eng-US/f0036-032.jpg" title="f0036-03" width="1121" height="1553"><figcaption class="caption-body"><b>PRICE IS RIGHT</b> Carey Price is penciled in as Canada&rsquo;s starter. <span class="photo-credit">(GETTY IMAGES)</span></figcaption></div><p>Price &ndash; a second cousin of Phoenix Coyotes captain Shane Doan &ndash; played in two pre-season games with the Canadiens before being returned to the Americans, who are based in Kennewick, Wash., for a third WHL season.</p><p>He played in 63 of the Americans&rsquo; 72 games last season, registering a 2.34 goals-against average and a franchise-record eight shutouts.</p><p>Agility, quick reflexes and good puck-handling ability are his best attributes.</p><p>&ldquo;He&rsquo;s not a kid with a big head,&rdquo; said Americans GM and part-owner Bob Tory. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s not like he came back and had a Montreal jersey on. He came back to be a Tri-City American. He&rsquo;s competitive and proud and works extremely hard.&rdquo;</p><h2><b>2006 CANADIAN FUTURE STAR</b></h2><p><b>CAREY PRICE</b></p><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0036-02744/8757684-1-eng-US/f0036-022.jpg" title="f0036-02" width="588" height="337"></div><span class="end-marker"> &#9632;</span>

f0036-01

Price hopes to cash in

<div class="byline">By Jim Cressman</div><p class="dropcap"><span>D</span>avid Bolland has Brendan Shanahan to thank for the fact he&rsquo;s a Chicago Blackhawks prospect. If it wasn&rsquo;t for Bolland meeting Shanahan while playing hockey and lacrosse for Brendan&rsquo;s older brother, Brian Shanahan, the 19-year-old Memorial Cup champion London Knights center might have been at a university in the U.S. today on a lacrosse scholarship.</p><p>&ldquo;We didn&rsquo;t know much about hockey &ndash; my parents are from Scotland &ndash; and we didn&rsquo;t know who the Shanahans were,&rdquo; Bolland recalled.</p><p>Bolland&rsquo;s first minor hockey coach was Brian Shanahan. During one summer ice session, Brendan met the players.</p><p>&ldquo;That was awesome,&rdquo; Bolland said. &ldquo;He was a really nice guy and he played in the NHL.&rdquo;</p><p>About the same time, Brian, an accomplished lacrosse player, introduced young Bolland to that sport.</p><p>&ldquo;He told my dad to put me in lacrosse to help me get grittier for hockey,&rdquo; Bolland said. &ldquo;You&rsquo;ve got to take it in lacrosse. You go hard every night.&rdquo;</p><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0037-011019/8757743-1-eng-US/f0037-012.jpg" title="f0037-01" width="265" height="265"></div><p>Bolland became a big lacrosse fan. &ldquo;I was thinking about maybe going to the U.S., but after I met Brendan, I wanted to play in the NHL.&rdquo;</p><p>Today, Brian Shanahan is a TV lacrosse analyst in Canada and the U.S., while Brendan Shanahan is a part owner of the National Lacrosse League&rsquo;s Toronto Rock.</p><p>In 2002, Bolland was London&rsquo;s first round pick in the OHL draft.</p><p>Brendan Shanahan e-mailed Knights trainer Don Brankley.</p><p>&ldquo;He said &lsquo;You&rsquo;ve got a good one.&rsquo; Brendan had high praises for David,&rdquo; Brankley recalled. &ldquo;I like to say David is Brendan Shanahan-approved.&rdquo;</p><p>When Bolland arrived he wanted No. 19, just like his hockey hero. But that was already worn by Dylan Hunter. So Bolland just reversed the numbers. But what about Shanahan&rsquo;s comments? Seal of approval? Or kiss of death? Heady stuff when an NHL star sings your praises, and it&rsquo;s a lot to live up to for a 16-year-old making the jump from bantam.</p><p>But Bolland hasn&rsquo;t disappointed, and in 2004 he was the second round pick of the Chicago Blackhawks. Last year, he was the last player cut at camp in Winnipeg for the tournament in Grand Forks, N.D.</p><p>&ldquo;It would mean a lot to play this year,&rdquo; Bolland said. &ldquo;I remember as a kid on Christmas Day opening the gifts while we watched Canada&rsquo;s first game. After being the last cut last year, I vowed I&rsquo;d make it this year.&rdquo;</p><div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0037-03551/8757736-1-eng-US/f0037-032.jpg" title="f0037-03" width="1121" height="1553"><figcaption class="caption-body"><b>MEMORIAL MAN</b> David Bolland has big game experience. <span class="photo-credit">(GETTY IMAGES)</span></figcaption></div><p>Hockey Canada chief scout Blair Mackasey is usually reserved when talking about players &ndash; at least until they make the team. But during the 2005 tournament, he spoke highly of Bolland.</p><p>&ldquo;He brings that intensity and energy we like,&rdquo; Mackasey said. &ldquo;He was real close to making the team to be honest with you.&rdquo;</p><p>Bolland doesn&rsquo;t brag about his game. He&rsquo;s even a tough interview. He&rsquo;s naturally shy, but just wait until he gets on the ice.</p><p>&ldquo;That&rsquo;s when you see all my energy come out. I&rsquo;m not like Schrempie (teammate Rob Schremp). I don&rsquo;t have the big mouth,&rdquo; Bolland said, breaking into a laugh.</p><p>There is one thing Bolland will brag about, and that&rsquo;s about hailing from Mimico. He never says Toronto &ndash; just like Brendan Shanahan.</p><h2><b>2006 CANADIAN FUTURE STAR</b></h2><p><b>DAVID BOLLAND</b></p><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0037-02691/8757729-1-eng-US/f0037-022.jpg" title="f0037-02" width="588" height="337"></div><span class="end-marker"> &#9632;</span>

f0037-01

NHL stamp of approval

<div class="byline">By Matthew Wuest</div><p class="dropcap"><span>W</span>hen a scrawny Benoit Pouliot arrived at his first Sudbury Wolves training camp, the late Bert Templeton &ndash; then coach of the team &ndash; was astounded.</p><p>It was September, 2002, and Pouliot had just been selected in the 11th round of the OHL draft. He was 16, with barely 150 pounds on his 6-foot-2 frame, but he stepped on the ice and flashed the silky-smooth talent that would eventually make him one of hockey&rsquo;s hottest prospects.</p><p>&ldquo;Bert watched him play for five minutes and said, &lsquo;How the hell did we get this kid in the 11th round? He&rsquo;s got first round skills,&rsquo;&rdquo; said Mike Schutte, who was Sudbury&rsquo;s head scout at the time. &ldquo;Bert was really excited.&rdquo;</p><p>Templeton&rsquo;s sentiment would be echoed throughout the hockey community two years later, when Pouliot finally cracked Sudbury&rsquo;s lineup full time.</p><p>Pouliot won Canadian Hockey League rookie-of-the-year honors last season and was drafted fourth overall by the Minnesota Wild in July&rsquo;s NHL draft.</p><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0038-011108/8757788-1-eng-US/f0038-012.jpg" title="f0038-01" width="275" height="265"></div><p>&ldquo;It&rsquo;s pretty crazy when you think about it &ndash; being picked in the 11th round and then going fourth overall,&rdquo; admitted Pouliot, who had 29 goals and 65 points in 67 games last season. &ldquo;A good year pays off.&rdquo;</p><p>Pouliot, who is back with the Wolves this season and is a candidate for Canada&rsquo;s national junior team, has faced plenty of adversity in his young career.</p><p>After wowing Templeton in 2002, the St. Isadore, Ont., native was deemed too skinny for major junior and ended up playing junior B. A year later he was Sudbury&rsquo;s final cut &ndash; still not strong enough for the OHL &ndash; and spent 2003-04 playing junior A.</p><p>Things got especially tough on Valentine&rsquo;s Day, 2004, when Pouliot&rsquo;s father, Sylvain, died of leukemia. The tragedy happened a day after Pouliot scored his first career OHL goal. He had been called-up by the Wolves.</p><p>&ldquo;Those are all opportunities for a player to back away and back down,&rdquo; said Wolves coach Mike Foligno. &ldquo;Benoit stared it right in the face and said, &lsquo;No way.&rsquo; He said, &lsquo;It&rsquo;s happened, I&rsquo;m going to deal with it, and I&rsquo;m going to make people proud.&rsquo;&rdquo;</p><p>Pouliot, whose first language is French, now stands 6-foot-3 and 186 pounds and draws comparisons to Tampa Bay Lightning star Vincent Lecavalier.</p><p>&ldquo;The truth of the matter is he always had those skills,&rdquo; Schutte said. &ldquo;At the time, he was skinny and shy. He&rsquo;s grown out of that now.&rdquo;</p><div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0038-03598/8757781-1-eng-US/f0038-032.jpg" title="f0038-03" width="1121" height="1553"><figcaption class="caption-body"><b>WILD RIDE</b> Benoit Pouliot has dynamite finishing skills. <span class="photo-credit">(GETTY IMAGES)</span></figcaption></div><p>That said, Pouliot still has growing to do. The Wild decided he wasn&rsquo;t quite ready for prime time, making him their final training camp cut.</p><p>The 19-year-old said he understands it&rsquo;s just part of the process, and is approaching the season with a positive attitude. After he was cut, he called Foligno to reserve a spot in Sudbury&rsquo;s lineup the next day.</p><p>He arrived at the airport in Sudbury at 11 a.m. for a 2 p.m. game, and scored a hat trick in a 7-4 win over Peterborough.</p><p>&ldquo;I wanted to play in that game,&rdquo; Pouliot said. &ldquo;Minnesota wanted me to come back here and I don&rsquo;t mind at all. Hopefully, we go all the way.&rdquo;</p><p>It was vintage Pouliot, who is used to this sort of thing.</p><p>&ldquo;I guess I never quit,&rdquo; he said matter-of-factly. &ldquo;You just don&rsquo;t quit and you get what you want to achieve. That&rsquo;s what happened with me.&rdquo;</p><h2><b>2006 CANADIAN FUTURE STAR</b></h2><p><b>BENOIT POULIOT</b></p><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0038-02737/8757774-1-eng-US/f0038-022.jpg" title="f0038-02" width="588" height="337"></div><span class="end-marker"> &#9632;</span>

f0038-01

Big Pouliot a rising star

<div class="byline">By Pavel Barta</div><p class="dropcap"><span>I</span>n much the same way Jack Johnson, Gilbert Brule, Bobby Ryan and Benoit Pouliot spent the bulk of last season proving themselves as the &lsquo;best of the rest&rsquo; in the Sidney Crosby draft sweepstakes, Michael Frolik wants to take it one step further this year.</p><p>The 2006 NHL draft has been heralded as the Phil Kessel derby, but that doesn&rsquo;t mean there isn&rsquo;t a horse race going on behind the University of Minnesota star. Frolik, just 17 and already playing his second season among men in the Czech Elite League, is leading the peloton now and hopes to use the 2006 WJC in Vancouver as his platform to chase down Kessel.</p><p>&ldquo;He has game-breaking skill,&rdquo; said Dennis MacInnis, director of scouting at International Scouting Services, when asked to compare the best prospects in both the 2005 and 2006 drafts. &ldquo;I wouldn&rsquo;t put him up with Crosby or Kessel now, but I would put him ahead of the next best guys (like Johnson, Brule, Pouliot and Ryan.) He has exceptional hockey sense.&rdquo;</p><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0042-01634/8757871-1-eng-US/f0042-012.jpg" title="f0042-01" width="265" height="265"></div><div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0042-02384/8757864-1-eng-US/f0042-022.jpg" title="f0042-02" width="1383" height="1109"><figcaption class="caption-body"><b>YOUNG GUN</b> Michael Frolik will attract plenty of attention from NHL teams at the 2006 draft. <span class="photo-credit">(IHA)</span></figcaption></div><p>Frolik made his debut in the Czech Elite League in 2004-05 when the competition was crowded by locked-out NHLers. It was baptism by fire for the young teen as he had to stop himself from gawking in awe at players he idolized.</p><p>One of his greatest idols &ndash; superstar Jaromir Jagr &ndash; was skating with his hometown club of Kladno early in the season. Another was Toronto defenseman Tomas Kaberle.</p><p>Frolik was one of the few players who made his debut among the Czech elite at 15, scoring three goals and four points in 27 games.</p><p>Although Frolik has Ottawa Senators forward Martin Havlat as his main role model, the young phenom received the thrill of a lifetime when Jagr asked Kladno&rsquo;s coach to place Frolik on his line.</p><p>After Jagr left for the Russian League in November, Frolik moved to a line with two other stars, veteran forwards Pavel Patera and Martin Prochazka. Both have been long-time Czech national team players who won four World Championship titles and an Olympic gold medal at the 1998 Olympics in Japan.</p><p>This season, Frolik&rsquo;s linemates were veteran Radek Gardon and Michael&rsquo;s older brother, Martin Frolik &ndash; until Martin separated his shoulder.</p><p>The talented, younger Frolik is still improving and working hard to develop his game and physical conditioning.</p><div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0043-01626/8757857-1-eng-US/f0043-012.jpg" title="f0043-01" width="1180" height="927"><figcaption class="caption-body"><b>STYMIED</b> The Czechs want to build on last year&rsquo;s bronze.</figcaption></div><p>The scouting report on him is glowing. ISS says he &ldquo;loves to dangle and has the speed/quickness to gain separation and back defenders off. He is thick through the trunk and is blessed with tremendous vision.&rdquo;</p><p>What stands out above his attributes is Frolik&rsquo;s incredible hockey sense. Like a select few, he plays the game a second or two ahead of his peers. One scout says Frolik doesn&rsquo;t complicate the game, which makes him a safe player defensively as well.</p><p>&ldquo;The best players always choose the most simple option when they have two or more choices,&rdquo; one scout said. &ldquo;Doing so, they limit turnovers. Frolik has that maturity.&rdquo;</p><p>Frolik was a rookie on the Czech national junior squad that won the bronze medal at the 2005 WJC in Grand Forks, N.D. He didn&rsquo;t steal the spotlight like Kessel, but he opened a lot of eyes and won some fans.</p><p>&ldquo;He is smart on the ice and is, most of all, a good guy,&rdquo; said Petr Misek, GM of the under-20 Czech national team.</p><p>The six-foot, 176-pound right winger was the only 1988-born player in the tournament, and one of three skaters eligible for the 2006 draft, along with Kessel and Finn Jesse Joensuu. Frolik scored the Czech&rsquo;s first goal of the tournament in a win over Belarus, and added another in the bronze-medal triumph over the U.S., which saw the Czechs claim a 3-2 overtime win.</p><div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0043-02415/8757850-1-eng-US/f0043-022.jpg" title="f0043-02" width="1184" height="841"><figcaption class="caption-body"><p><b>HOW THEY DID&hellip; 10-YEAR SCAN</b></p><p><b>Where Czech placed at the past 10 World Junior Championships</b></p></figcaption></div><p>Frolik was fourth on the Czech team with three goals and four points in seven games.</p><p>&ldquo;I was happy to be there,&rdquo; Frolik said. &ldquo;The team was playing well and it was good for my future to play against the best junior players in the world.&rdquo;</p><p>Coach Alois Hadamczik had Frolik on the ice with two minutes remaining in the bronzemedal clincher over the U.S. That said a lot about the confidence the coach had in Frolik&rsquo;s ability to handle pressure.</p><p>Three months later, Frolik captained the under-18 Czech squad that played on home ice at the worlds in April.</p><p>The slick forward admits his steady position in Kladno was the reason he wanted to stay in the Czech League another season rather than go the major junior route in Canada.</p><p>That doesn&rsquo;t mean there wasn&rsquo;t interest. Frolik received an offer from Rimouski of the Quebec League, which claimed him 38th overall in the import draft. (Frolik made it known he was not interested in making the move to major junior, which scared a lot of teams away.)</p><p>&ldquo;A lot of Czech players choose to go over to the CHL,&rdquo; Frolik said. &ldquo;I was considering that possibility with my parents, my brother and my agent. I don&rsquo;t conceal the proposition was very attractive.</p><p>&ldquo;But I&rsquo;m not in a hurry to go there. I have a chance to play regularly in Kladno. Why should I join the junior league?&rdquo;</p><p>Frolik may yet change his mind about coming to North America, but it&rsquo;s unlikely given he is scoring at a rapid pace at home in the Czech Republic.</p><p>&ldquo;There are still many games to be played,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;I&rsquo;m continuing with Kladno. Then there is the World Junior Championship. Those are the things I&rsquo;m focused on right now. I don&rsquo;t care that much about what comes after.&rdquo;</p><p>His performance at the world juniors and the scouting fraternity  will then decide what comes next.</p><p><b>For roster updates <a href="http://thehockeynews.com">thehockeynews.com</a></b></p><h2><b>CZECH&rsquo;S ALL-TIME BEST JUNIORS</b></h2><p><b>PLAYER, POS. YEAR</b></p><p>Dominik Hasek, G &rsquo;85</p><p>Jiri Slegr, D &rsquo;90-91</p><p>Rostislav Klesla, D &rsquo;01-02</p><p>Vaclav Nedorost, LW &rsquo;00-01</p><p>Robert Reichel, C &rsquo;88-90</p><p>Vladimir Ruzicka, RW &rsquo;81-83</p><h3><b>THE COACH</b></h3><h2><b>RADIM RULIK</b></h2><p>Rulik is a good motivator, extracting the most from his players. He was an assistant coach on the Czech squad that claimed its first-ever gold medal in 2000 and his subtle approach was considered a positive and calming influence behind the bench.<span class="end-marker"> &#9632;</span></p>

f0042-01

Playing with the big boys

<div class="byline">By Risto Pakarinen</div><p class="dropcap"><span>T</span>uukka Rask is a year older, a little taller, a little T heavier and a little better. The changes bode well for a better finish for the Finns at this year&rsquo;s WJC.</p><p>Rask had a close relationship with his first hockey idols. They were all in the family. His uncle Jussi was a goalie on the local Savonlinna team.</p><p>Another uncle was a defenseman in the Finnish Division I and another a center in the Elite League.</p><p>Watching his uncle Jussi stop the puck was the coolest thing Tuukka ever saw and he wanted to follow in Jussi&rsquo;s footsteps.</p><p>Only the next generation is always better. Way better.</p><p>At 16, Rask was playing for the local Savonlinna junior team when he was picked to join the under-16 national team for a three-game tournament against Sweden.</p><p>Rask played two of the games, giving up just one goal.</p><p>&ldquo;After that the phone started to ring,&rdquo; he said.</p><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0044-01516/8757982-1-eng-US/f0044-012.jpg" title="f0044-01" width="265" height="265"></div><div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0044-02295/8757975-1-eng-US/f0044-022.jpg" title="f0044-02" width="1716" height="1279"><figcaption class="caption-body"><b>SQUEEZE PLAY</b> Tuukka Rask&rsquo;s 6-foot-3 solid frame limits a shooter&rsquo;s scoring options. <span class="photo-credit">(IHA)</span></figcaption></div><p>There wasn&rsquo;t an Elite League club in Finland that didn&rsquo;t want the young phenom. &ldquo;I made up my mind right away to leave Savonlinna. However, all the attention came as a big surprise. I played on a second-tier midget team in Savonlinna and the following season I played for a major junior team in Tampere,&rdquo; he said.</p><p>At 16, he also played for the Ilves under-16 team.</p><p>Last season, Rask was fighting for a spot in the Elite League, but he ended up playing just four games. The struggling Ilves Elite League team acquired locked-out NHLer Vesa Toskala.</p><p>Back on the junior team, facing shooters from his own age group, Rask dominated the competition.</p><p>He played 27 games with a save percentage of .935. In the playoffs Rask showed he&rsquo;s a clutch player with nerves of steel. In 10 playoff games, he had six shutouts and gave up just nine goals, leading his team to the championship.</p><p>This year, Rask has seen more action in the Elite League and has shown he can handle it. According to Ilves goalie instructor Arto Koivisto, Rask wasn&rsquo;t ready to win games for the Elite League team last year.</p><p>&ldquo;Not that he lost them, either,&rdquo; Koivisto said. &ldquo;But he was and still is a young goalie, so he needs to take that last step.&rdquo;</p><p>This year the coaches have been happy with Rask, who is amazingly balanced and calm outside the rink, especially for an 18-year-old.</p><p>At 6-foot-3, Rask fits the modern-day prototype of a big NHL goalie. He moves well, has fast reflexes, sees the game well and has a solid head on those not so broad shoulders of his. If there ever was a balanced goalie, Rask is it. But he still has that same fire he has always had.</p><div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0045-01439/8757968-1-eng-US/f0045-012.jpg" title="f0045-01" width="1896" height="1495"><figcaption class="caption-body"><b>PAST GLORY</b> Finland hopes to build on recent successes.</figcaption></div><p>&ldquo;I&rsquo;ve learned to be calmer in the net and to try to just focus on the next shot,&rdquo; Rask said. &ldquo;When I was younger I would throw sticks and the equipment around if we lost a game.</p><p>&ldquo;I remember a game we played against our dads in Savonlinna when I was maybe 11. We lost the game by something like five goals and after I had tilted the nets to the ice, I kicked the boards so hard that my skate got stuck in it. My dad had to come and get it out,&rdquo; he said laughing.</p><p>Dad doesn&rsquo;t need to come to the rescue anymore as Rask leaps from one level to the next in a breathtaking pace. Peewees to major junior to Elite League&hellip;to the NHL?</p><p>In August, Rask was at his girlfriend&rsquo;s apartment glued to the computer screen as they watched the NHL draft unfold live on the Internet. Having talked to a couple of teams in advance, Rask says he was expecting to hear his name announced in the first round.</p><p>But the fact that it was GM John Ferguson of the Toronto Maple Leafs who called his name at the 22nd position was a surprise.</p><p>&ldquo;It was a relief, I guess. I didn&rsquo;t even know who they had in goal for this season,&rdquo; Rask said. &ldquo;I was talking to somebody a couple of days after the draft and it was then I realized that Ed Belfour has to retire soon. Maybe it&rsquo;ll be my turn then,&rdquo; he said in a way that&rsquo;s confident without being the slightest bit cocky.</p><div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0045-02267/8757961-1-eng-US/f0045-022.jpg" title="f0045-02" width="1184" height="841"><figcaption class="caption-body"><p><b>HOW THEY DID&hellip; 10-YEAR SCAN</b></p><p><b>Where Finland placed at the past 10 World Junior Championships</b></p></figcaption></div><p>Not having any other bluechip prospects in goal, the Maple Leafs could look to Rask as their future goaltender sooner rather than later, perhaps putting Rask on a fast track to the NHL.</p><p>Being chosen in the first round was a relief for Rask and it will help him focus on hockey when the world juniors rolls around. Last year, Rask may have been distracted by the scouts and the expectations. Not this time.</p><p>Team Finland showed in an early fall tournament against Sweden, Russia and the Czech Republic that it can beat its European rivals. Finland only gave up two goals in three games, all wins, and Rask shut out both the Czechs and Swedes.</p><p>&ldquo;We have a great team and a lot of skilled players, so I am looking forward to the world juniors,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;It helps to have already played in one tournament. Now I know what it&rsquo;s all about.&rdquo;</p><p>After winning bronze at the 2004 WJC in Helsinki, Finland failed to win a medal last year, placing fifth.</p><p>This time around, coach Hannu Aravirta is back behind the bench as he was in 2004. High expectations surround his return.</p><p>&ldquo;Our goal is to win a medal,&rdquo; Rask said. &ldquo;And we know it&rsquo;s a realistic one. We can do it.&rdquo;</p><p>With NHL draftees Lauri Tukonen of the Los Angeles Kings and Lauri Korpikoski of the New York Rangers up front, the Finns will certainly challenge.</p><p>And if not, maybe John Ferguson Jr. can help Rask should his skate get stuck in the boards again.</p><p>No, wait. That was the old Tuukka Rask. The new mature version is too cool for that.</p><p>Cool as ice.</p><p><b>For roster updates <a href="http://thehockeynews.com">thehockeynews.com</a></b></p><h2><b>FINLAND&rsquo;S ALL-TIME BEST JUNIORS</b></h2><p><b>PLAYER, POS. YEAR</b></p><p>Markus Ketterer, G &rsquo;87</p><p>Risto Siltanen, D &rsquo;77-78</p><p>Reijo Ruotsalainen, D &rsquo;80</p><p>Esa Tikkanen, RW &rsquo;83-85</p><p>Raimo Helminen, C &rsquo;83-84</p><p>Esa Keskinen, LW &rsquo;84-85</p><h3><b>THE COACH</b></h3><h2><b>HANNU ARAVIRTA</b></h2><p>Coach Aravirta will be back at the helm of Team Finland after a year&rsquo;s hiatus. His teams always play disciplined, smart and mature hockey. Aravirta is a coach who knows how to get his players to perform at their best level.<span class="end-marker"> &#9632;</span></p>

f0044-01

Rask has Finns on medal track

<div class="byline">By Alan Adams</div><p>The top junior-aged player in the world won&rsquo;t be in Vancouver for the 2006 World Junior Championship.</p><p>But watch out for 1A, other-wise known as Evgeni Malkin of Russia.</p><p>Malkin is considered the best player in the world not in the NHL. With him in the lineup the Russians have a chance of mining gold in Vancouver. Without him, they qualify as also-rans.</p><p>Malkin was the second overall pick in the 2004 NHL draft behind Alexander Ovechkin. Rather than join the Penguins and give Pittsburgh a dynamic 1-2 punch with Sidney Crosby, Malkin chose to remain in Russia this season. He plays for Magnitogorsk and has been among the top 10 scorers all season.</p><p>Malkin doesn&rsquo;t have the dynamic goal-scoring touch of Ovechkin but he has the potential to be a force at both ends of the ice. Think of Peter Forsberg when he was in his prime.</p><p>&ldquo;He is like the Russian players of old,&rdquo; said Dave King, the ex-NHL bench boss who is Malkin&rsquo;s coach in Russia.</p><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0046-01429/8758093-1-eng-US/f0046-012.jpg" title="f0046-01" width="265" height="265"></div><div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0046-02262/8758086-1-eng-US/f0046-022.jpg" title="f0046-02" width="1716" height="1279"><figcaption class="caption-body"><b>HIGH PRAISE</b> Evgeni Malkin is considered the best player in the world not in the NHL. <span class="photo-credit">(IHA)</span></figcaption></div><p>&ldquo;He can stick-handle in traffic if he needs to. He is very dangerous when he gets open ice and he gets room to work. He can play in tight spaces when he has to.&rdquo;</p><p>King, the first North American to coach in Russia&rsquo;s Super League, didn&rsquo;t stop the praises there.</p><p>&ldquo;I think he is the best forward in Russia,&rdquo; he added. &ldquo;He has been the most dominant player so far and he is the guy who, when he gets the puck and goes up the ice, everybody stands up to watch. He is a real entertainer.&rdquo;</p><p>Malkin is a veteran of the international stage. He played for Russia at the WJC in North Dakota a year ago and then suited up for the motherland at the World Championship in Vienna, Austria.</p><p>He did not look out of place against NHL stars such as Joe Thornton, Daniel Alfredsson and Jaromir Jagr.</p><p>After Vancouver, his next stop on the world stage will be the 2006 Winter Olympics in Turin, Italy, in February.</p><p>Malkin caught the eye of Penguins scout Greg Malone at the Under-18 World Championship in 2003. Malone knew then the Russian teenager was more than a cut above the rest of the competition.</p><p>&ldquo;He passes the puck when he should and he shoots when he should,&rdquo; he said.</p><p>&ldquo;And the other thing that makes him the complete player is his defensive game. He is dangerous offensively and he gets back and plays hard. If he gets the puck he gets it up ice and then he catches up to it. A lot of guys will hang on to the puck and carry it. Not him.&rdquo;</p><div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0047-01427/8758079-1-eng-US/f0047-012.jpg" title="f0047-01" width="1180" height="927"><figcaption class="caption-body"><b>BLINDSIDED</b> Russia had a hard time against Canada in 2005.</figcaption></div><p>Already 6-foot-3 and 185 pounds, Malkin is still growing. He has the same kind of range on the ice as Rick Nash of the Columbus Blue Jackets. Malkin&rsquo;s ability to accelerate and change speeds quickly are key to his game.</p><p>&ldquo;He has exceptional skills. You never have to talk to him about his intensity,&rdquo; King said. &ldquo;He practices at a terrific tempo.</p><p>&ldquo;One of the things you look for in a player is if he&rsquo;s out there before practice (starts) and is out there when it is over. He comes out early and stays out late and he is a real throwback. He loves the game. He is really upbeat and he always has a smile on his face. He is always happy, always relaxed. You never have to prod him to get him going because he is always going on his own.</p><p>&ldquo;He also has such an incredible reach and he takes passes away,&rdquo; added King. &ldquo;I don&rsquo;t know how many times already I have seen him intercept a pass because of his reach and his anticipation.&rdquo;</p><p>Malkin comes from a modest background. His father, Vladimir, was a 5-foot-9 winger who had a couple cups of coffee with Magnitogorsk and it was Vladimir who introduced his son to skating when he was three years old &ndash; and hockey two years later.</p><div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0047-02284/8758072-1-eng-US/f0047-022.jpg" title="f0047-02" width="1184" height="841"><figcaption class="caption-body"><p><b>HOW THEY DID&hellip; 10-YEAR SCAN</b></p><p><b>Where Russia placed at the past 10 World Junior Championships</b></p></figcaption></div><p>It did not take long for hockey to become the consuming passion in his son&rsquo;s life.</p><p>Malone has spent time with Malkin and said he&rsquo;s not a dour, subdued Russian.</p><p>&ldquo;He has a good personality but at the same time he is all business. He takes the game very seriously and I don&rsquo;t think he takes many shifts off. He just wants to compete.&rdquo;</p><p>The Penguins wanted to have Malkin under contract for this season but he signed a deal with Magnitogorsk that didn&rsquo;t include an out-clause in the event the Russian hockey federation signed a transfer agreement with the NHL, which it didn&rsquo;t.</p><p>Malone salivates when he thinks of when Crosby and Malkin will be teammates. The Penguins lost out on the Crosby sweepstakes in 2004, but winning the rights to Malkin still has the team excited.</p><p>&ldquo;That 1-2 punch will be very strong,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;Both are superior players.&rdquo;</p><p>Malone admitted to not keeping close tabs on Malkin, saying he isn&rsquo;t worried about his development being stymied or anything like that.</p><p>Malone thinks the Russian teenager will benefit from having King as his coach.</p><p>The idea is King will teach Malkin a few tricks that will help him once he lands on this side of the Atlantic Ocean for good.</p><p>&ldquo;But Malkin also is the type of player who can play for anybody,&rdquo; Malone pointed out. &ldquo;He is getting stronger and this year I expect him to take his game to another level.&rdquo;</p><p>The last time Malone saw Malkin play was against Canada at the World Championship in April. The Canadians thanked their lucky stars after they hung on to win the game 4-3. Malone pointed out that among veteran NHL players and proven international stars, Malkin did not look out of place.</p><p>&ldquo;This could be the case of a man playing with boys,&rsquo;&rsquo; Malone said of Malkin playing in the 2006 world juniors.</p><p>Time will tell.</p><p><b>For roster updates <a href="http://thehockeynews.com">thehockeynews.com</a></b></p><h2><b>RUSSIA&rsquo;S ALL-TIME BEST JUNIORS</b></h2><p><b>PLAYER, POS. YEAR</b></p><p>Andrei Medvedev, G &rsquo;02-03</p><p>Slava Fetisov, D &rsquo;77-78</p><p>Darius Kasparaitis, D &rsquo;92</p><p>Pavel Bure, F &rsquo;89</p><p>Alexander Ovechkin, F &rsquo;03-05</p><p>Alexander Mogilny, F &rsquo;89</p><h3><b>THE COACH</b></h3><h2><b>SERGEI GERSONSKY</b></h2><p>Gersonsky will rely heavily on Evgeni Malkin to be the catalyst for his squad. Scoring goals won&rsquo;t be a problem with two solid lines, but the coach will need to keep his team focused to make up for a suspect group of blueliners.<span class="end-marker"> &#9632;</span></p>

f0046-01

Russia’s man takes on world

<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0047-03225/8758152-1-eng-US/f0047-032.jpg" title="f0047-03" width="249" height="92"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0047-04172/8758145-1-eng-US/f0047-042.jpg" title="f0047-04" width="378" height="409"></div><h2><b>ENVER LISIN</b></h2><h3><b>Right Wing</b></h3><p class="dropcap"><span>L</span>isin, Phoenix&rsquo;s second round pick in 2004, is lightning fast and is a great scorer. Lisin also has soft hands and good hockey sense, but his game is speed.</p><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0047-05132/8758138-1-eng-US/f0047-052.jpg" title="f0047-05" width="378" height="409"></div><h2><b>DENIS PARSHIN</b></h2><h3><b>Right Wing</b></h3><p>Parshin is a small and quick forward with a great set of hands and can be very dangerous. The Colorado third-rounder in 2004 has that &ldquo;wow&rdquo; factor.</p><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0047-06107/8758131-1-eng-US/f0047-062.jpg" title="f0047-06" width="377" height="409"></div><h2><b>ALEXANDER RADULOV</b></h2><h3><b>Left Wing</b></h3><p>Radulov is playing in his second Quebec League season. He has great skill and a good feel for the game and will be expected to contribute offensively.</p><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0047-0787/8758124-1-eng-US/f0047-072.jpg" title="f0047-07" width="377" height="409"><figcaption class="caption-body"><span class="photo-credit">(IHA)</span></figcaption></div><h2><b>KIRILL LYAMIN</b></h2><h3><b>Defense</b></h3><p>There was a buzz about Lyamin when Ottawa drafted him in 2004, but then his play dropped off. The tournament in Vancouver will be a character test.<span class="end-marker"> &#9632;</span></p>

f0047-03

<div class="byline">By Pavel Barta</div><p>Don&rsquo;t let the Feb. 14 birthday fool you, this guy is anything but a sweet-heart.</p><p>At 6-foot-7 and 225 pounds, Boris Valabik is the latest giant to come out of Slovakia. Slovakia has produced a good number of hulking defensemen in the past few years, including Zdeno Chara, Kristian Kudroc, Branislav Mezei and Ivan Majesky. But Valabik, who plays with the Ontario League&rsquo;s Kitchener Rangers, just might evolve into the meanest blueliner ever from Europe.</p><p>The Atlanta Thrashers drafted the native of Nitra 10th overall (third among defensemen) in the 2004 draft after his first season with Kitchener. Valabik left Slovakia to get accustomed to the North American game and to get on the inside track to the NHL.</p><p>&ldquo;It&rsquo;s such an unbelievable feeling,&rdquo; said Valabik after being called to the podium by Atlanta GM Don Waddell.</p><p>&ldquo;I was watching this ever since I was a little guy on the TV and now it came. It&rsquo;s like dreams come true and I&rsquo;m saying that because I mean it like that. Lots of people say dreams come true, but now I know how that feels.&rdquo;</p><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0048-01287/8758204-1-eng-US/f0048-012.jpg" title="f0048-01" width="265" height="265"></div><div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0048-02183/8758197-1-eng-US/f0048-022.jpg" title="f0048-02" width="1716" height="1279"><figcaption class="caption-body"><b>MONSTER IN MAKING?</b> Boris Valabik will be a feared NHL defender in a few short seasons. <span class="photo-credit">(GETTY IMAGES)</span></figcaption></div><p>Valabik helped Slovakia earn a silver medal at the 2003 World Under-18 Championship in Yaroslavl, Russia, and returned the following year when the tournament was held in Minsk, Belarus. Slovakia was ranked sixth, but Valabik was a physical presence for his team again, adding another 26 penalty minutes to the 34 he collected during his first stint.</p><p>The bruising defender continued his tough play at the 2005 World Junior Championship in Grand Forks, N.D., leading Slovakia with 20 penalty minutes.</p><p>While his rugged play often landed him in the penalty box in Slovakia, Valabik&rsquo;s physical style is tailor-made for the North American brand of hockey, which features smaller arenas and more tolerant officials. He uses every inch and pound to make life miserable for opposing forwards. The smaller rinks help reduce the negative effects of Valabik&rsquo;s lack of first-step quickness.</p><p>&ldquo;It was a benefit for me,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;I learned the language, improved my game a lot and got used to a different living style. For a player like me who wants to play physical hockey, Canada is the only place to be. My agent told me that there was a possibility that I could go to Canada when I was 15 and I left when I was 17, so it wasn&rsquo;t really a tough call. It was a thing I wanted to do and I&rsquo;m happy with that. It helped me a lot. I think it&rsquo;s different than back home. I wouldn&rsquo;t have had a chance to be claimed in the NHL draft so early.&rdquo;</p><div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0049-01254/8758190-1-eng-US/f0049-012.jpg" title="f0049-01" width="1182" height="924"><figcaption class="caption-body"><b>IN TOUGH</b> The Slovaks rely on a few stars to carry the team.</figcaption></div><p>Valabik can make a good first pass and isn&rsquo;t afraid to shoot, but opponents will learn quickly he enjoys putting the lumber to other uses as well.</p><p>He recorded three goals and 15 points in 68 games and led the team with 278 penalty minutes in his first season with Kitchener. Last season he added another 231 penalty minutes in 43 games.</p><p>&ldquo;I&rsquo;m used to playing rough since being a kid,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;You have to play aggressive, but I wouldn&rsquo;t like to get known as a bad guy. I am always trying to help my team.&rdquo;</p><p>Back home in Slovakia, Valabik played on the bigger ice sheet, which didn&rsquo;t allow him to use his talents to the max.</p><p>&ldquo;Playing physical is more difficult in the bigger rinks,&rdquo; he said.</p><p>&ldquo;You always have choices to make whether you should go into the corners or not. In the bigger rinks it&rsquo;s more difficult because those guys are flying, they have more time to pass and you have to make a decision on who you&rsquo;re going to hit.</p><p>&ldquo;European referees and international referees are different. They call the game different when it comes to hitting. But what I like about the smaller rinks is that you can get a chance to hit everything that moves.&rdquo;</p><div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0049-02171/8758183-1-eng-US/f0049-022.jpg" title="f0049-02" width="1184" height="841"><figcaption class="caption-body"><p><b>HOW THEY DID&hellip; 10-YEAR SCAN</b></p><p><b>Where Slovakia placed at the past 10 World Junior Championships</b></p></figcaption></div><p>Valabik is not trying to hurt people. But he plays with a high level of intensity and he protects teammates.</p><p>He has the potential to become one of the biggest defensemen in the NHL, as he may not be done growing and could easily add more weight to get stronger.</p><p>Much like Chara in his Western League days with Prince George Cougars, Valabik&rsquo;s early days in the OHL were quite a spectacle. Fans and scouts regarded him as more of a showtime attraction than a serious prospect. But he quickly won them over with his feisty style of defensive hockey and his quick adjustment to the North American game.</p><p>With similar size and reach to his famous Slovak predecessor, Valabik is often considered a younger clone of the Ottawa Senators defenseman. Some people even believe he is a better skater than Chara was at the same age.</p><p>&ldquo;It&rsquo;s a great honor to be compared to Chara. He&rsquo;s a really exceptional defenseman,&rdquo; Valabik said. &ldquo;I watched him as a boy some years ago back home, but I still have lots of work to do and I&rsquo;ll see in five or six years.</p><p>&ldquo;I&rsquo;m a defensive defenseman who tries to play hard every single shift and I always try to finish my checks.</p><p>&ldquo;There are a lot of guys I like and admire from the NHL,&rdquo; Valabik added, &ldquo;but I just want to be myself.&rdquo;</p><p>With the way things are going and his determination to keep improving, there is every chance Valabik eventually will become an NHL star just like Chara and fellow Slovaks Peter Stastny, Peter Bondra, Ziggy Palffy and other Slovak players he watched on television.</p><p>&ldquo;I remember seeing Slovakia at the Olympics for the first time, reaping success at the World Championship,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;They all showed a way to other players. I would like to be like them one day.&rdquo;</p><p><b>For roster updates <a href="http://thehockeynews.com">thehockeynews.com</a></b></p><h2><b>SLOVAKIA&rsquo;S ALL-TIME BEST JUNIORS</b></h2><p><b>PLAYER, POS. YEAR</b></p><p>Jan Lasak, G &rsquo;99</p><p>Ivan Cerny, D &rsquo;78-79</p><p>Lubomir Visnovsky, D &rsquo;95-96</p><p>Zigmund Palffy, RW &rsquo;91-92</p><p>Ernest Homak, C &rsquo;83</p><p>Anton Stastny, LW &rsquo; 78-79</p><h3><b>THE COACH</b></h3><h2><b>BRANISLAV SAJBAN</b></h2><p>Sajban tends to prefer players who work well together as a unit and are mentally tough enough to face the pressure of a big tournament. He has coached in Hungary, Belarus and Holland as well as Trencin in the Czech league.<span class="end-marker"> &#9632;</span></p>

f0048-01

Slovak giant heir to Chara

<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0049-03122/8758263-1-eng-US/f0049-032.jpg" title="f0049-03" width="249" height="92"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0049-04106/8758256-1-eng-US/f0049-042.jpg" title="f0049-04" width="378" height="409"></div><h2><b>MAREK ZAGRAPAN</b></h2><h3><b>Center</b></h3><p class="dropcap"><span>Z</span>agrapan is a quick, dangerous center with great balance; it&rsquo;s tough to knock him off the puck. Buffalo selected him 15th overall in the 2005 NHL draft.</p><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0049-0573/8758249-1-eng-US/f0049-052.jpg" title="f0049-05" width="378" height="409"></div><h2><b>JURAJ GRACIK</b></h2><h3><b>Right Wing</b></h3><p>Gracik shoots first and asks questions later. The Atlanta prospect has an excellent nose for the net and good puck control. He&rsquo;s playing in theWHL.</p><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0049-0658/8758242-1-eng-US/f0049-062.jpg" title="f0049-06" width="377" height="405"></div><h2><b>LADISLAV SCURKO</b></h2><h3><b>Center</b></h3><p>Drafted by the Flyers in 2004, Scurko relies on his work ethic to make up for his lack of natural skill. He&rsquo;s great defensively and does the dirty work.</p><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0049-0744/8758235-1-eng-US/f0049-072.jpg" title="f0049-07" width="378" height="409"><figcaption class="caption-body"><span class="photo-credit">(GETTY IMAGES)</span></figcaption></div><h2><b>MICHAL VALENT</b></h2><h3><b>Goalie</b></h3><p>Valent is very athletic and has quick reflexes for a taller goalie. He burst onto the scene as the best netminder in Slovakia within his age group.<span class="end-marker"> &#9632;</span></p>

f0049-03

<div class="byline">By Risto Pakarinen</div><p>No longer is Niklas Backstrom Sweden&rsquo;s N best kept secret. Not after his coach publically compared him to Peter Forsberg.</p><p>Last season, Backstrom, 17, became the fourth-youngest player ever to step on the ice in a Swedish Elite League game. The only three younger were Thomas Steen, Mats Naslund, and Johan Davidsson.</p><p>If that company is any indication, Backstrom will be NHL-bound in a few years.</p><p>Backstrom comes from a hockey family. His father, Anders, played 10 seasons in the Swedish Elite League, winning one championship. A teammate and a friend on that championship team was Mats Naslund, who went on to a Stanley Cup, an Olympic gold medal and a World Championship.</p><p>Today, Naslund is manager of Team Sweden and may, in a few years &ndash; or perhaps even as soon as this spring &ndash; welcome the son of his good friend on to a World Junior Championship team. Backstrom had been flying under the radar until last fall, when the then 16-year-old center, blessed with astounding natural ability, made his debut in the highest league in Sweden.</p><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0050-01248/8758315-1-eng-US/f0050-012.jpg" title="f0050-01" width="265" height="265"></div><div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0050-02162/8758308-1-eng-US/f0050-022.jpg" title="f0050-02" width="1716" height="1279"><figcaption class="caption-body"><b>THE NEXT ONE?</b> Niklas Backstrom, right, is drawing comparisons to past Swedish greats. <span class="photo-credit">(IHA)</span></figcaption></div><p>As expected, he didn&rsquo;t take the league by storm, but played in five games there while spending most of his season with the junior team. This year, he impressed the team&rsquo;s new coach in the pre-season enough to take a spot on the fourth line and has played all Brynas games in the Elite League.</p><p>On the eve of this year&rsquo;s Elite League season, Brynas coach and former Team Sweden boss Leif Boork &ndash; Sweden&rsquo;s version of Don Cherry &ndash; said Backstrom can be &ldquo;the next Forsberg.&rdquo;</p><p>&ldquo;He has the same hockey sense,&rdquo; Boork said. &ldquo;He can see openings. His balance is very good so he&rsquo;s good in 1-on-1s and can take solid hits, even though he lacks that Forsberg toughness.&rdquo;</p><p>There are definitely similarities between Backstrom&rsquo;s game and that of Forsberg. Backstrom is an all-round player capable of handling any situation.</p><p>He has high-end skill, his stickhandling is good, he has good on-ice vision and he has good timing. He can score goals and he&rsquo;s not afraid of the physical game. Standing at 6-foot-1 and 180 pounds, Backstrom is a little taller and a little lighter than last season and he&rsquo;s in better shape, too.</p><p>Despite the high expectations, Backstrom has both feet planted firmly on the ground.</p><p>&ldquo;I am not sure you can compare a 17-year-old player to the world&rsquo;s best player,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;I have a lot of work to do, for example my skating and shot.&rdquo;</p><div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0051-01241/8758301-1-eng-US/f0051-012.jpg" title="f0051-01" width="1179" height="927"><figcaption class="caption-body"><b>TRIPPED UP</b> Sweden looks to end a nine-year medal drought.</figcaption></div><p>Last season, he scored 17 goals and 34 points in 29 games with the junior team.</p><p>Backstrom didn&rsquo;t hesitate when he got his chance in the Swedish Elite League, scoring five points in Brynas&rsquo; pre-season games and then netting his first career Elite League goal in the first game of the season &ndash; a game-winning goal, no less.</p><p>In Leif Boork&rsquo;s system, even the fourth line sees plenty of action, so seven games into the season, Backstrom was tied for second in shots on goal and faceoffs taken, while ranking eighth in scoring on his team.</p><p>Also worth noting is that Backstrom&rsquo;s first goal was a power play goal &ndash; a power play he organizes and leads with great confidence.</p><p>A couple of nights after the opener, Brynas got a second-period power play and Boork wanted to put the game away, so he sent Backstrom to lead the charge.</p><p>One shift later, Backstrom drew an assist on the game-winning goal. His early success garnered him first star honors in the first two games of the season.</p><p>Backstrom was so hot, he even caught the attention of Sweden national team coach Bengt-Ake Gustafsson, who contemplated trying him out on the senior team.</p><p>&ldquo;I don&rsquo;t think he&rsquo;s ready for the national team in the November tournament, but there will be exhibition games played just before the Olympics as well,&rdquo; Gustafsson said. &ldquo;He&rsquo;s always fun to watch.&rdquo;</p><div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0051-02171/8758294-1-eng-US/f0051-022.jpg" title="f0051-02" width="1183" height="840"><figcaption class="caption-body"><p><b>HOW THEY DID&hellip; 10-YEAR SCAN</b></p><p><b>Where Sweden placed at the past 10 World Junior Championships</b></p></figcaption></div><p>And why not?</p><p>Backstrom is a prototype of a modern day forward &ndash; one who has skills, good hockey sense and the drive to the net, while at the same time possessing good leadership qualities and playing diligently in his own end.</p><p>And with the rule changes implemented by the NHL, Backstrom&rsquo;s smaller size compared to some of the giants playing in the world&rsquo;s top league should not be a factor in his pro career.</p><p>Backstrom is much like the Detroit Red Wings&rsquo; Henrik Zetterberg, to draw a comparison to another Swedish star.</p><p>Zetterberg was an alternate captain on the 2000 Swedish junior team and was regarded by many as Team Sweden&rsquo;s best player, recording three goals and five points in seven games.</p><p>Not only does Backstrom have the potential to become a player like Zetterberg, but that&rsquo;s who the teenager also looks up to.</p><p>&ldquo;Zetterberg is a good role model,&rdquo; Backstrom said. &ldquo;He&rsquo;s somebody who plays an excellent two-way game and that&rsquo;s what I want.&rdquo;</p><p>On the ice, Backstrom shows no mercy or excess respect to his elders.</p><p>Off ice, he comes across as modest and very down to earth. Maybe that&rsquo;s what happens in a dressing room full of grown men when you&rsquo;re only 17.</p><p>&ldquo;Last year I was shy in the locker room and didn&rsquo;t really talk much,&rdquo; he said.</p><p>&ldquo;There wasn&rsquo;t much to say. Now it&rsquo;s a lot easier, but I still keep a pretty low profile.&rdquo;</p><p>But he can&rsquo;t fly under the radar anymore. Not with the way he&rsquo;s playing, and not with the world juniors set to provide the biggest showcase of his life.</p><p>A year ago, Backstrom wasn&rsquo;t among the top 50 prospects for the 2006 NHL draft, according to International Scouting Services. Now, ISS has him 15th and suggests he&rsquo;s apt to climb higher.</p><p><b>For roster updates <a href="http://thehockeynews.com">thehockeynews.com</a></b></p><h2><b>SWEDEN&rsquo;S ALL-TIME BEST JUNIORS</b></h2><p><b>PLAYER, POS. YEAR</b></p><p>Lars Eriksson, G &rsquo;81</p><p>Kenny Jonsson, D &rsquo;93-94</p><p>Mattias Ohlund, D &rsquo;97</p><p>Markus Naslund, RW &rsquo;93</p><p>Peter Forsberg, C &rsquo;93</p><p>Michael Nylander, LW &lsquo;91-92</p><h3><b>THE COACH</b></h3><h2><b>TORGNY BENDELIN</b></h2><p>Bendelin is an experienced coach who will make this year&rsquo;s version of Team Sweden play a more disciplined style. He will ice a hard-working team that works well together and will take the shortest route to the net.<span class="end-marker"> &#9632;</span></p>

f0050-01

Sweden’s secret hits world stage

<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0051-03119/8758374-1-eng-US/f0051-032.jpg" title="f0051-03" width="249" height="92"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0051-0494/8758367-1-eng-US/f0051-042.jpg" title="f0051-04" width="377" height="408"></div><h2><b>JOHANNES SALMONSSON</b></h2><h3><b>Center</b></h3><p class="dropcap"><span>S</span>almonsson led Sweden in goals and points last year. He is capable of carrying the team on his shoulders if needed while creating havoc and scoring.</p><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0051-0567/8758360-1-eng-US/f0051-052.jpg" title="f0051-05" width="378" height="408"></div><h2><b>FREDRIK PETTERSON</b></h2><h3><b>Left Wing</b></h3><p>The Calgary Hitmen forward got off to a good start this year. He&rsquo;s super-skilled and super-fast, and now Petterson is learning to add a physical element to his game.</p><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0051-0658/8758353-1-eng-US/f0051-062.jpg" title="f0051-06" width="377" height="408"></div><h2><b>ANTON AXELSSON</b></h2><h3><b>Left Wing</b></h3><p>Axelsson brings the same level of intensity as his older brother, Bruin P-J Axelsson. He&rsquo;s an excellent playmaker and an asset when Sweden plays shorthanded.</p><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0051-0741/8758346-1-eng-US/f0051-072.jpg" title="f0051-07" width="378" height="408"><figcaption class="caption-body"><span class="photo-credit">(IHA)</span></figcaption></div><h2><b>NICKLAS BERGFORS</b></h2><h3><b>Center</b></h3><p>Started the season as the youngest player in the AHL (Albany). The crafty hardworker may not be available to Sweden due to his pro commitment to the Devils.<span class="end-marker"> &#9632;</span></p>

f0051-03

<div class="byline">By Kevin Allen</div><p>When Phil Kessel is reminded he is called &lsquo;America&rsquo;s Sidney Crosby,&rsquo; you can almost feel his discomfort through the phone line.</p><p>&ldquo;I didn&rsquo;t remember that until you brought it up,&rdquo; Kessel said. &ldquo;I don&rsquo;t worry about that kind of stuff. I&rsquo;m just worrying about this season, trying to have a good season and trying to help my (University of Minnesota Golden Gophers) team win any way I can.&rdquo;</p><p>On the ice, Kessel is a dynamic teenage hockey star. Off the ice, Kessel is reserved and quite humbled by his status as the projected No. 1 pick in the 2006 NHL entry draft. He&rsquo;s not like his confident countryman Jack Johnson, the third player picked in 2005, who is as exciting a conversationalist as he is a player, or Crosby, whose verbal skills might be as valuable to the NHL as his talent.</p><p>Kessel is a low key, selfeffacing person until he hits the ice. Then he is dramatically transformed into one of the most dangerous young players in the world.</p><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0052-01230/8758426-1-eng-US/f0052-012.jpg" title="f0052-01" width="265" height="265"></div><div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0052-02135/8758419-1-eng-US/f0052-022.jpg" title="f0052-02" width="1716" height="1279"><figcaption class="caption-body"><b>SHOOTING STAR</b> Opposing forwards will have difficulty shutting down America&rsquo;s Phil Kessel. <span class="photo-credit">(GETTY IMAGES)</span></figcaption></div><p>&ldquo;Since I&rsquo;ve been involved in NHL management, he&rsquo;s the best young American player I&rsquo;ve witnessed,&rdquo; said Atlanta Thrashers GM Don Waddell.</p><p>On Kessel being called &lsquo;America&rsquo;s Crosby&rsquo; Waddell said, &ldquo;that&rsquo;s a fair and accurate statement.&rdquo;</p><p>Some have compared Kessel to fellow American Mike Modano, while others suggest he&rsquo;s the USA&rsquo;s best prospect since Pat LaFontaine was drafted by the New York Islanders in 1983.</p><p>&ldquo;I wouldn&rsquo;t put any limits on this kid, even if you are talking about great players,&rdquo; said U.S. national junior team coach Walt Kyle. &ldquo;This kid is going to be his own man. He&rsquo;s going to make a name for himself outside the boundaries of other players. He&rsquo;s going to be the next Phil Kessel. That&rsquo;s how good he is.&rdquo;</p><p>A Wisconsin native who played in the U.S. national team development program in Ann Arbor, Mich., Kessel decided to play college hockey at Minnesota where coach Don Lucia has a reputation for allowing his horses to run. Right or wrong, the prevailing wisdom is Lucia is just slightly more offensive-minded than many of the nation&rsquo;s top coaches.</p><p>&ldquo;The style of play was important, and their big rink, and their coaches and I had some buddies there,&rdquo; Kessel said. &ldquo;All of those factors played a role in my decision.&rdquo;</p><p>Kessel&rsquo;s return to Team USA. is a major reason why the Americans are expected to be a medal factor at the World Junior Championships in Vancouver.</p><div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0053-01214/8758412-1-eng-US/f0053-012.jpg" title="f0053-01" width="1180" height="928"><figcaption class="caption-body"><b>REVENGE</b> The U.S. has a good chance to return to the podium.</figcaption></div><p>&ldquo;We are going to have a great team and it&rsquo;s going to be exciting,&rdquo; Kessel said.</p><p>Last spring, Kessel led Team USA to a gold medal at the World Under-18 Championship. Netting 16 points in six games, Kessel was named the tournament&rsquo;s top forward. Much like Crosby, Kessel has produced gaudy offensive numbers throughout his young career.</p><p>As a bantam player in Madison, he had 176 goals and 286 points in 86 games.</p><p>Playing midget hockey in the same city, he scored 113 goals in 71 games. In his first season in Ann Arbor, he scored 52 goals in 62 games for the U.S. national team development program, before netting seven goals to lead the U.S. to a silver medal at the World Under-18 Championships in 2004. Even at 17, he was an impact player at last year&rsquo;s WJC.</p><p>&ldquo;There are two things that I liked about this kid,&rdquo; Kyle said. &ldquo;No. 1, he is fearless when he creates offense. Second, the people who coached him have instilled in him knowledge and desire to play defensively.&rdquo;</p><p>Coincidentally, Kyle, a former Northern Michigan University Wildcats hockey player, knew Kessel&rsquo;s father when Phil Sr. was a record-breaking quarterback on the NMU football team. He is a member of the school&rsquo;s Hall of Fame.</p><div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0053-02138/8758405-1-eng-US/f0053-022.jpg" title="f0053-02" width="1184" height="841"><figcaption class="caption-body"><p><b>HOW THEY DID&hellip; 10-YEAR SCAN</b></p><p><b>Where the USA placed at the past 10 World Junior Championships</b></p></figcaption></div><p>&ldquo;His mom and dad both went to college with me,&rdquo; Kyle said. &ldquo;He knows how to deal with the day-to-day aspects of being an athlete. He&rsquo;s a good kid who is going to be a great player.&rdquo;</p><p>Kyle clearly sees evidence of athletic DNA being passed down from father to son. The elder Kessel had a tryout with the NFL&rsquo;s Washington Redskins.</p><p>&ldquo;He was a great athlete and leader,&rdquo; Kyle said. &ldquo;It was Division III football, but he wasn&rsquo;t a Division III player. He could have played at a higher level.&rdquo;</p><p>Kyle calls Kessel Jr. &ldquo;a phenomenal player&rdquo; based on watching him perform at the WJC training camp.</p><p>&ldquo;What impressed me is that I really enjoyed working with him,&rdquo; Kyle said. &ldquo;Often times you get a kid with that much skill and talent and there are ego issues that make it unenjoyable to work with a kid.&ldquo;</p><p>Jim Johannson, USA Hockey&rsquo;s director of hockey operations, has been impressed by Kessel&rsquo;s ability to increase his strength while not sacrificing speed.</p><p>&ldquo;He will literally blow you away with his speed and the ease by which he moves up the ice,&rdquo; Johannson said.</p><p>One of Kessel&rsquo;s goals this season is to &ldquo;get stronger to make it easier to adapt to playing against bigger players.&rdquo;</p><p>Before last summer&rsquo;s NHL draft, TSN analyst Pierre McGuire said if Kessel had been available there would be &ldquo;17 NHL GMs who favored Crosby and 13 who favored Kessel.</p><p>&ldquo;He has the skating ability of Pat LaFontaine and the shooting ability of Brett Hull &ndash; that&rsquo;s a lethal combination,&rdquo; McGuire praised.</p><p>&ldquo;He may not be the ambassador that Sid is going to be because Sid is so polished.&rdquo;</p><p>When Johannson was asked whom Kessel might play with in Vancouver, he laughed and suggested that probably wasn&rsquo;t one of Kyle&rsquo;s biggest concerns.</p><p>&ldquo;Wherever Kessel has played, his linemates haven&rsquo;t mattered,&rdquo; Johannson said. &ldquo;He just continues to score at every level.&rdquo;</p><p><b>For roster updates <a href="http://thehockeynews.com">thehockeynews.com</a></b></p><h2><b>USA&rsquo;S ALL-TIME BEST JUNIORS</b></h2><p><b>PLAYER, POS. YEAR</b></p><p>Al Montoya, G &rsquo;04-05</p><p>Brian Leetch, D &rsquo;86</p><p>Scott Lachance, D &rsquo;92</p><p>Doug Weight, F &rsquo;91</p><p>Jeremy Roenick, F &rsquo;88-89</p><p>Zach Parise, F &rsquo;04</p><h3><b>THE COACH</b></h3><h2><b>WALT KYLE</b></h2><p>Kyle is serving his third tour of duty as coach of Team USA. His teams are built around puck pressure and Kyle thinks he&rsquo;ll get that with this group of youngsters, saying several good players won&rsquo;t make the team.<span class="end-marker"> &#9632;</span></p>

f0052-01

A star is born in America

<div class="image-hero"><img title="f0054-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0054-01220/8758530-1-eng-US/f0054-012.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body"><span class="photo-credit">(SEAN GALLUP/GETTY IMAGES)</span></figcaption></div><div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0057-01153/8758523-1-eng-US/f0057-012.jpg" title="f0057-01" width="5097" height="3335"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0059-01144/8758516-1-eng-US/f0059-012.jpg" title="f0059-01" width="5096" height="3334"><figcaption class="caption-body"><span class="photo-credit">(GETTY IMAGES)</span></figcaption></div><span class="end-marker"> &#9632;</span>

f0054-01

Statistics

<div class="byline">Mark Brender </div><div class="byline">Senior Writer</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/c0004-01296/8758568-1-eng-US/c0004-012.jpg" title="C0004-01" width="264" height="218"></div><p class="dropcap"><span>W</span>henever memory fails, I can at least say I&rsquo;m used to it. Some people are able to recount what happened to their favorite team in Game 6 of the second round of the &rsquo;86 playoffs. I am in awe of those people. On a Monday afternoon I can draw a total blank when asked how my weekend went. I have covered several Stanley Cup finals over the past decade, but am ashamed to admit that off the top of my head, I don&rsquo;t know exactly which ones they are.</p><p>Fortunately, it&rsquo;s not total loss on the memory front. The names of the kids on Canada&rsquo;s 2003 world junior team in Halifax are on instant recall. Marc-Andre Fleury was in goal wearing those loud yellow pads. Cult hero Jordin Tootoo and Derek Roy and Scottie Upshall were up front. Jeff Woywitka, Steve Eminger and Carlo Colaiacovo patrolled the blueline.</p><p>And then there was the Russian team: Alexander Ovechkin and Nikolai Zherdev and a great two-way center named Yuri Trubachev up front, plus Fedor Tyutin on defense. And who can forget roly poly Andrei Medvedev in goal? They said Medvedev could have swallowed half the East Coast.</p><p>I&rsquo;ve often wondered why the memory does not fail here as well. It&rsquo;s probably because at the time the entire country was going stark-raving mad over a bunch of teenage boys with the maple leaf on their sweaters.</p><div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/c0004-02182/8758561-1-eng-US/c0004-022.jpg" title="C0004-02" width="1716" height="958"><figcaption class="caption-body"><b>PURE PASSION</b> The world juniors are proof positive Canadians love hockey beyond just the NHL. <span class="photo-credit">(GETTY IMAGES)</span></figcaption></div><p>The Canada-Russia 2003 world junior gold medal game was without a smidgen of doubt the loudest, craziest, most frenetic hockey game I&rsquo;ve ever wit-nessed. Inside the Halifax Metro Centre were several hundred thousand horns, kazoos, sirens and cymbals.</p><p>&ldquo;We still talk to each other about it and it&rsquo;s something I will cherish forever,&rdquo; Tootoo says. &ldquo;The first game when we stepped on the ice in front of 15,000 fans that were screaming and hollering just sent chills up and down my spine.&rdquo;</p><p>Except the place only holds 10,600. It just felt like 15,000.</p><p>The Canadian kids were clearly outmatched in that final. The 2003 team struggled to keep up with the Russians. Silver after a 3-2 loss in the final was no disgrace. What they accomplished they did on heart and guts, and they pounded and scraped and scratched for every inch, just like every year. In return, this country gives them two weeks of national fame and adulation.</p><p>For some, the name recognition lasts far longer. John Slaney has played nearly 300 NHL games over the past decade for seven different teams and I&rsquo;d be hard-pressed to name two of them. But go score one huge goal for Canada in the 1990 WJC and your name is set.</p><p>No, it&rsquo;s not the NHL. That&rsquo;s why everyone loves it so much.</p><p>The world juniors are the one place in the hockey world where the NHL doesn&rsquo;t matter. From the time kids put on double runners, they&rsquo;re dreaming of the NHL. From atom to midget and up the line the NHL is there; the lure of its riches and the fame forever lurking beneath the surface &ndash; if not for the elite-level teens then certainly for some of their overzealous parents.</p><p>But when the Canadian kids put on the Canadian sweater at the WJC, as Canadian families sit down to watch them over the holidays, it all stops. It doesn&rsquo;t matter to anyone where or if the players have been drafted or where they&rsquo;re playing or where they&rsquo;re going. The scouts and GMs watching care about the NHL, but at that moment, does Canada? Do the players?</p><p>&ldquo;There are probably some kids that play the best hockey of their lives there and can never reach that level again,&rdquo; says Craig Hartsburg, coach of the Sault Ste. Marie Greyhounds and an assistant with this year&rsquo;s world junior team.</p><p>Those kids we love best.<span class="end-marker"> &#9632;</span></p>

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