It has been a long time since Lethbridge Hurricanes fans had
a vested interest in the World Junior Hockey Championships. When I say “long
time”, I mean “nearly a decade.”
The Hurricanes were last represented in the annual
tournament by Luca Sbisa in 2010. This year, they will have three players
representing them, as Dylan Cozens and Calen Addison will suit up for Canada
while Oliver Okuliar will play for Slovakia.
A total of eleven Lethbridge players previously played in
the tournament and in this blog, we will take a look back at their
performances.
It all started with Wes Walz in 1990. The Czechs were the
scoring machines that year, including Robert Reichel, Jaromir Jagr and Bobby
Holik, but it was Canada that took home gold with Walz notching five points in
seven games.
Five years later, Lee Sorochan brought home gold with
Canada. The defenseman picked up an assist in seven games on a blueline
anchored by Bryan McCabe, Jamie Rivers and Wade Redden.
The first non-Canadian player representing the Lethbridge
Hurricanes was Tomas Kopecky, who actually did it three times between 2000 and
2002. In 21 games for Slovakia over those three years, Kopecky picked up five
goals and nine assists. The future Detroit Red Wings forward and his teammates
couldn’t muster anything better than an 8th place finish.
Fan favourite Brent Seabrook went to the World Juniors
twice. In 2004, he had a goal and two helpers in six games as Canada won
silver. The next year, he came back as part of that all-star team that won
gold. The future Chicago Blackhawks mainstay won gold with three assists in
five games for a Canadian team that featured Sidney Crosby, Patrice Bergeron,
Ryan Getzlaf, Jeff Carter and Dion Phaneuf. And of course, we know it wouldn't be the last time Seabrook would represent Canada on the international stage.
That same year, the Hurricanes had some international
representation as well in the form of Michael Gulasi. The Czech Republic
defenseman picked up two helpers in a bronze medal-winning performance.
Speaking of the Czechs, they had the next two ‘Canes. Tomas
Kudelka scored once in six games during the 2006 tourney. He was joined by
Lucas Vantuch in 2007, with Kudelka picking up three points while Vantuch went
pointless in four games.
Zach Boychuk has a couple of gold medals to his name. The
Airdrie native was held off the scoresheet in the 2008 tournament but came back
in 2009 to wear an ‘A’ and had seven points in six games in the tournament
everyone will remember for Jordan Eberle’s last-second goal against the Russians.
2009 also saw the first Hurricanes goaltender taking part in
the WJHC. Juha Metsola was spectacular in the net for Finland, posting a 1.47
GAA and .939 save percentage in four games.
And the aforementioned Sbisa suited up for Switzerland for
three-straight years. As a 17-year-old, he was held pointless in 2008. The same
thing happened in 2009 as the Swiss were in the relegation bracket and again in
2010, although he was donning the captain’s ‘C’ in that final year, which saw
him traveling all over the world.
How will Cozens, Addison and Okuliar measure up to their
predecessors? We will find out starting on Boxing Day.
No comments:
Post a Comment