CHL stars selected to help Canada at the World Juniors
Pat Quinn can’t wait to get started.
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The former National Hockey League coach and general manager is the head coach for Canada’s National Junior Team and is anxious to get his players together for the first time next week.
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Quinn was in Ottawa on Wednesday to help Hockey Canada and the Canadian Hockey League announce the 38 players that will participate in the final selection camp for Canada’s entry at the 2009 World Junior Championships. The camp opens December 11 at ScotiaBank Place.
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“I think we have a real solid and deep skill level so that we can play a skating game and a puck moving game,” Quinn said. “Hopefully we can be a position-style team and on the smaller ice play with an edge and let people know we’re out there.”
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34 players from the CHL were selected, including four returning players from last year’s gold medal squad – defencemen Thomas Hickey from the Seattle Thunderbirds and P.K. Subban from the Belleville Bulls and forwards Zach Boychuk from the Lethbridge Hurricanes and John Tavares from the Oshawa Generals.
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The selection camp includes 18 players that are 18-years-old or younger but Quinn said that the final roster will be picked based on the players that do the best job of coming together as a team.
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“We won’t select just on age or just on skill,” Quinn said. “A lot of it will be maturity and the intangible skills that become important in team building. The skill level of these boys shows that we have good depth here. It will be about maturity. Some 18 years old are more mature than some at 19 or 25.”
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Quinn guided Canada’s Under-18 squad to a gold medal at the World Cup last April in Russia. 11 of the players that suited up for that team were invited to the final evaluation camp and Quinn said that he isn’t concerned about bringing a younger team to the World Juniors.
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“If we’re young, that’s what we are,” Quinn said. “We still set out with the same goals. At the end of the day when we pick on Dec 15 we are picking 22 young men that will come together as a team.”
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The final selection camp roster was selected by Hockey Canada’s Head Scout Al Murray, along with the coaching staff of Quinn and assistants Dave Cameron of the Mississauga St. Michael’s Majors, Guy Boucher of the Drummondville Voltigeurs and Willie Desjardins of the Medicine Hat Tigers.
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Four goaltenders were selected along with 14 defencemen and 20 forwards. The Hockey Canada brass will use the five day camp to determine the roster of 22 players that will represent Canada at this year’s event in the nation’s capital.
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Quinn said that this group of players brings a lot of skill to the table and he is looking forward to seeing how the come together as a team leading up to Christmas.
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“We’ll be looking at the intangible skills as well,” Quinn said. “It’s not always the best individuals; it’s the group that comes together that wins. I’ve had experience with that. We’ll be looking for players that are willing to make that commitment to team play. Three days may not be a lot of time to choose that but that’s what we’re looking at.”
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Murray and Quinn trekked across the country during the past two weeks following the ADT Canada-Russia Challenge and with input from the assistant coaches, who coached the regional games in the series, selected 29 of those players to participate in the final camp.
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“As we went through the ADT series and chatted with the assistant coaches that coached those teams it became pretty clear that there were a lot of players that the coaches liked,” Murray said. “The coaches felt the strength of talent was there so we added an extra forward and extra d to each team.”
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Canada is looking for its fifth straight gold medal at the World Juniors and opens this year’s tournament on Boxing Day against the Czech Republic. Canada has won a medal in 10 straight events.
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<i>Photo: Robert Lefebvre</i>