Canada Fails to Repeat in Davos

Canada's strong third periond in the 2008 Spengler Cup was not enough for the win against the Moscow Dynamo. After beating the Dynamo one day earlier, the Canadian squad was outplayed in the first two periods of the final giving the Russian team a 3-0 lead to work with. Canada ended the second with two goals and some momentum heading to the intermission. That momentum was quickly shattered in the third as Peter Cajanek scored the last of his three goals just 23 seconds into the last period. Maxim Pestushko put the game away with Dynamo's fifth goal shortly after Randy Robitaille brought the Canadians to within one goal.

Last year Canada defeated another Russian team, Salavat Yulaev Ufa, 2-1 to win their eleventh Spengler Cup.

Battalion Are Represented Well

Although these games are meaningless in the bigger picture, the two boys from the Brampton Battalion are lighting up the world. Cody Hodgson has opened many eyes in the pre-competition games leading up to the World Junior tournament by scoring three points in both pre-comp games thus far. In Canada’s first practice game Friday night at the Air Canada Centre, Hodgson was everywhere the puck was. Skating hard and hitting even harder, Hodgson had numerous chances to inflate his stats but settled for a dominating three point night, finishing with one goal and two assists. Cody’s performance overshadowed all other offensive displays including a solid game by John Tavares.

In game two, last night at the Hershey Centre in Mississauga, Cody was back to work having another three point night on one goal and two assists. I cannot comment further on this game though since I was busy watching Cody’s teammate from the Battalion, Evgeny Grachev, lead the Russians to a 4-1 win over Kazakhstan at the General Motors Centre in Oshawa. Grachev earned the player of the game for Russia for his effort. I missed a couple goals as I was tending to my son so I cannot give point totals for this game but I do know that he had at least one goal and one assist in his impressive showing. One can only imagine how much Brampton wants these two players back in their line up but they will have to go without for another couple weeks.

Canada has one final pre-competition game on Tuesday night in Hamilton against Slovakia. The tournament is set to kick off boxing day as always with Latvia taking on Russia at 2:30 at the Ottawa Civic Centre and Germany facing off against the Americans at 3:30 at Scotia Bank Place. Canada takes to the SBP ice at 7:30 against the Czech Republic while Finland takes on Sweden at 6:30 at the Civic Centre.

A Fire Has Been Lit

On the night of the first day of the World Junior camp, the 2007 OHL Goalie of the Year suited up to play, for his club team that is and not in Ottawa trying to earn a spot on this year’s team Canada. Mike Murphy joined his Belleville Bulls as they helped the Windsor Spitfires open up their new arena, the Windsor Family Credit Union Centre (WFCU). With the little extra fire from his missing invite, Murphy went into the barn of the second ranked team in the entire Canadian Hockey League, tops in the OHL, and stopped thirty-four shots on way to his third shut out of the season.

Just like Murphy another couple notables that are missing from the World Junior camp, Michael Del Zotto and Logan Couture, have stepped up their game since being overlooked. With some of these players not at the camp, one would have to like Canada’s chances at earning their fifth straight World Junior title. But as the team prepares for the tournament, Mike Murphy will continue to play with the little extra fire in net for Belleville and look to repeat as Goalie of the Year. Some work will be needed for that to happen but Murphy has the skill and perhaps he now has the extra desire to do it.

The Quest for 5 Starts Tomorrow

Tomorrow marks the beginning of the road for the players looking to win Canada’s fifth consecutive gold medal at the World Junior Championship as the 38 hopefuls from the CHL and US colleges report to camp. This year’s camp has only four players from last year’s team so most positions are up for grabs (the organizers would like everyone to believe all spots are open but it is a safe bet that the four returnees already have spots). Without getting into too many stats, the WHL has the most representatives trying out with 18 followed by the OHL with 11, the QMJHL with 5 and the NCAA rounds it out with 4.

Pat Quinn and his boys have the fun task of picking the best out of those 38 players, all of whom would do well, to represent our country and win the gold at home. Games start on Boxing Day as usual but there will be pre-competition games scattered throughout Ontario and even parts of Quebec for a couple weeks leading up to the tournament so get out and see the best under-20 players the World has to offer. Check Hockey Canada's website for full details.