Rangers Top Line Could Be On Display At World Junior Tournament
TORONTO — The Kitchener Rangers top line could be on display at this month’s World Junior Hockey Championships in Halifax, NS.
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Derek Roy and Gregory Campbell were among the 34 teenagers named to Canada’s training-camp roster today, that will compete for the final 22 spots starting December 11.
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If they make the cut they could join Rangers’ linemate Petr Kanko, who has been invited to try out for the Czech Republic squad.
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“Derek didn’t know until last night,” said Campbell, who got the heads up on his teammate when he was informed of his selection last Friday. “I thought he knew, but they told me not to say anything yet, because the list hadn’t come out yet. I just thought he was in the same situation, but he wasn’t saying anything. When I told him we had to come to this today he didn’t know what I was talking about.”
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Roy, Campbell and Kanko have combined for 41 of the Rangers’ 107 goals this season – the fourth highest total in the Ontario Hockey League. They have also combined for 100 points in 70 games.
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“I love playing with Derek and it’s pretty special to be going with another teammate to a tryout like this,” said Campbell, who was traded to Kitchener from Plymouth this summer and met Roy for the first time at the national junior summer camp in August. “I was playing with Derek ever since he got back from Buffalo’s training camp and I think we were put with Petr maybe a month into the season. We made the all-star team as a line and now Derek and I are going to this camp.”
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Canadian Hockey Association head scout Blair Mackasey, who made the announcement at the Hockey Hall of Fame, said he expects Roy to step up to fill the leadership void created by the departures of Jason Spezza, Jarett Stoll and Stephen Weiss. Spezza, who has played in the tournament the last three years, could still be included by the December 10th deadline.
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“He’s (Roy) really developed into a complete player,” said Mackasey, who was an assistant coach on the 1996 squad that won gold in the U.S. “The players we have here are certainly capable of stepping up and filling whatever role that those players could give us.”
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For Roy, the OHL’s sixth leading scorer with 44 points in 22 games, making his first national team would be the pinnacle to a standout four-year junior hockey career.
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“Just getting invited is an honour, but I’m sure Gregory and I aren’t satisfied with that,” said Roy, who has attended the last two junior summer camps. “It will be nerve-wracking. Getting invited is the first step and then the second step is making the team.”
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Roy and Campbell will be joined by nine other OHLers, along with 14 players from the Western Hockey League and seven from the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League. Eighteen-year-old Pierre-Marc Bouchard is the lone NHLer on the training-camp roster, after he was given permission by the Minnesota Wild. If no other junior-aged NHLers are released by their teams, Canada will rely heavily on the experience of defencemen Carlo Colaiacovo and Nathan Paetsch and forwards Scottie Upshall and Jay McClement – the only returning players from last year’s silver-medal squad.
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Canada opens the 10-day tournament against Sweden on Boxing Day. The gold-medal game will be held on January 5.
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This will be the sixth time Canada has hosted the tournament and the first time it has been held in The Maritimes. Canada was the runner up in Winnipeg in 1999, the last time the WJHC was held here.
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