A Canadian team lacking game legs opens defense of its world junior men’s hockey title Saturday in Edmonton.
The host team kicks off its preliminary round versus Germany at Rogers Place.
Canada has played one game against an opponent — Wednesday’s 1-0 pre-tournament triumph over Russia — since selection camp started Nov. 16.
Canadian captain Kirby Dach injured his right wrist in the third period of that game and won’t be able to play in the tournament.
Germany will be minus nine players Saturday. Those players are in quarantine because of positive COVID-19 tests on the team. Three Germans can return to the tournament Sunday and another five Tuesday barring more positive tests.
The 46 players invited to Canada’s selection camp went into quarantine mid-camp after two players tested positive for the virus, so four exhibition matches against university teams were cancelled.
An extended quarantine for Sweden upon arrival in Canada wiped out a pre-tournament game between the two countries.
20 of 25 Canadians haven’t played a game in months
Of the 25 players on Canada’s roster, 20 haven’t played any games in months because the pandemic postponed the start of their leagues this season.
“It’s definitely challenging and something we’ve talked about, not being able to play that many games aside from the (Quebec Major Junior Hockey League) guys,” said forward Alex Newhook of St. John’s N.L., who hasn’t seen game action with Boston College this season.
“In saying that, we’ve really built up our intensity and pace of play in practice. Regardless of how many games we’ve played, I think our practices will set us up well for the highest level of competition we’ve played in a long time.”
“Resilience” has been a word frequently uttered by head coach Andre Tourigny and his coaching staff in a challenging lead-up to the tournament.
“In team-building exercises, the players had to talk about that value of resilience,” Tourigny said.
“That’s one of the reasons our country is so special in hockey. We’re resilient. We never quit. We stay with it. We never stop. You need that to perform in a championship.”
The Canadians won’t have a sellout crowd at Rogers Place providing adrenalin. All matches are without fans to avoid the spread of the virus.
“It’s definitely unfortunate (to) not have fans and having that home crowd,” Newhook said.
“Everyone wants to have that energy. The world juniors are such a large stage and we know the country’s behind us, regardless of having fans or not.
“I think we’re going to have to supply our own energy and we have a lot of guys in that room that can do that really well.”
Canada is arguably in the easier pool alongside Finland, Switzerland, Slovakia and Germany. Russia, the United States, Sweden, the Czech Republic and Austria comprise Pool B.
The Canadians start with back-to-back games Saturday and Sunday versus the Germans and Slovakia, respectively.
Canada versus Switzerland on Tuesday and a New Year’s Eve matchup with the Finns complete the preliminary round for the host country.
