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Masters: Andre Tourigny wants Team Canada to respond to adversity with urgency – TSN

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3 years ago

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Team Canada’s staff has been preparing its players for moments like this since the summer camp.

“If you expect to go to the World Juniors and not have adversity, you’re in the wrong tournament,” said head coach Andre Tourigny. “Tampa Bay just won the Stanley Cup without their captain [Steven Stamkos] so it happens. If you want to win you have to go through adversity.

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Tourigny has served as an assistant coach at the World Juniors on four occasions, including last year in Ostrava, Czech Republic.

“If you look at last year, we had a suspension, we had injuries, we had sickness, we had controversy and that’s the World Juniors,” Tourigny said. “Since June we talked to our players about adversity and that adversity will happen and we have to be ready.”

Adversity hit Team Canada in a big way this week as captain Kirby Dach, who spent last season with the Chicago Blackhawks, sustained a wrist fracture and will be unable to play in the tournament.

“He’s a guy who brought that pro presence,” said alternate captain Dylan Cozens. “We’ll miss him on the ice. He was the best player in the tournament so it’s a huge hit for us.”

In their first on-ice session since Dach left, Tourigny stopped the proceedings twice early on to demand more focus and urgency.

“Figure it out,” he barked at the assembled players. “We need to be better than that. It’s unacceptable.”

With the lack of games heading into the event, these practice sessions have taken on even greater importance.

“He really just wanted us to go into practice like how we play a game,” said centre Quinton Byfield, “and it doesn’t matter if you’re going against your teammates in a battle you have to compete as hard as the other team and opponents will in the upcoming games. He really got his message across and we picked up our pace.”

—

The coaching staff debated what to do with the forward lines in the wake of the injury to Dach. They really liked the line of Connor McMichael between Cole Perfetti and Peyton Krebs, so that trio will remain in tact, but the other units will all have a different look on Boxing Day.

Cozens, who lined up between Jack Quinn and Dach on Wednesday, is shifting to right wing on a line with Dylan Holloway and Alex Newhook.

“Cozens played at the World Juniors for us last year on right wing and was really, really good,” Tourigny explained. “Newhook, throughout his career, has been really good as a centre and he’s way more comfy as a centre than a winger so we wanted to keep that.”

Cozens produced nine points in seven games at the World Juniors last year while playing right wing.

“Both those guys are strong and fast,” noted Cozens of Holloway and Newhook, “their speed will work real well with mine. I played wing before too so it’s nothing I’m worried about.”

—

Byfield moved into a top-nine role at practice after starting the pre-tournament game on what projected to be Canada’s fourth line.

“He’s so big and strong and he’s such a presence on the ice,” observed Cozens. “He gets the puck behind them and uses his speed and hunts the puck down. I mean, I wouldn’t want to be a defender looking at him coming at me. He’s such a big body, so strong. He’s a great player. I think with Kirby gone he’s going to step up for us.”

Tourigny is hoping Byfield will build some momentum after a strong effort against Russia. He skated alongside Jakob Pelletier and Dawson Mercer at practice.

“Q brought a lot of physicality and managed the puck really well,” Tourigny said, “and Pelletier was one of our best players so that will spread out the offence and spread out our lineup. We believe we have a good balance offensively and defensively on every line.”

Byfield seemed to enjoy some instant chemistry with Pelletier.

“Just when he calls my name in the French accent,” he said with a smile when asked what stood out about the Calgary Flames’ first rounder. “He’s a smart player and he does everything well. We can use our speed together. He was sniping quite a bit in practice as well so going to try and get him the puck and get a couple apples off that.”

So, Pelletier was feeling it on Friday?

“Oh for sure,” Byfield said. “I think he’s always feeling it in practice. He just brings so much energy to the team.”

Byfield started slow at Canada’s selection camp and admitted it’s taken a while to adjust to the 10 pounds of muscle he added in the off-season. The 6-foot-4, 221 pounder is now getting more comfortable throwing his weight around.

“I feel faster and heavier in the corners and I have to keep playing my game like that,” he said. “I used my size and body and really tried to play the structure of the game the way he [Tourigny] wants us to play and perform. I really took that into account over the last couple weeks and just going over the systems as much as I can.” 

In the past, Byfield has lamented the fact he skates with a “hunchback” and the Newmarket, Ont. native has worked hard to refine his stride.

“It’s improved a bit, but I think I’m always going to have that hunchback just being a tall guy and looking down at the puck,” he said, “but I improved quite a bit during the pandemic with my stride and the power and muscle through the stride.”

Another area where Byfield — the second overall pick in October’s draft — is looking to get better is on face-offs.

“That’s still a work in progress, but just getting a bit lower on the draws will help me out quite a bit,” he said. “Going to L.A., I think Jarrett Stoll [who’s part of the player development staff] can probably teach me about that. I watch a lot of film and watch the usual guys who are good on draws like [Ryan] O’Reilly, [Patrice] Bergeron, [Jonathan] Toews and seeing what they do off draws and the counter moves they do.”

—

Devon Levi is a revelation to his new teammates.

“To be completely honest, I didn’t really know who he was,” Cozens said. “But he came here and stood out right away.”

“I never really heard of him,” said Byfield, “but he gets a shutout in his first game and will be a key piece of our team.”

Levi had not met any of Team Canada’s players before arriving at the selection camp in mid-November.

“None of them,” he said with a smile. “I didn’t know anyone coming in. I mean, I knew of everyone, for sure, but I had never met any of the guys and didn’t know anyone personally.”

The more Team Canada’s players are getting to know Levi, the more they are liking him.

“He’s so hard to score on in practice,” Cozens gushed. “He’s got great positioning. We definitely trust him as our starter. A lot of trust in him.”

Levi posted a 36-save shutout in the final intra-squad scrimmage at camp and followed that up with a 23-save clean sheet against the Russians.

Levi’s rise is remarkable on a number of levels. He had to wait around seven hours on the second day of October’s National Hockey League draft before the Florida Panthers made him the 212th pick, which he described as “a huge relief.”

A couple months earlier, Levi didn’t receive an invite to Hockey Canada’s virtual camp for World Junior hopefuls.

“When we did the first wave of scouting for the camp we talked about Devon, but the fact he did not play college or major junior was a factor and we thought we would have time to follow the start of his season and we would see from there if we wanted to invite him to the [main] camp,” Tourigny explained.

The pandemic delayed the start of the college season and Levi, a freshman at Northeastern University, hasn’t played yet for the Huskies. But the lack of games over the last nine months also allowed Canada’s staff to do more video work.

“We started to dig in a little bit more in depth and talk to a lot of people, do more video and his performance in the Junior A Challenge last year was really the kicker and from there we decided we wanted to give him a shot,” Tourigny said. “As soon as he arrived at the camp, [goalie coach Jason LaBarbera] really loved him and his competitiveness and his quickness and his legs were really fast so that is what made the difference.”

Levi was the MVP at the World Junior A Challenge last year in Dawson Creek, B.C. where he backstopped underdog Canada East to a silver medal. He doesn’t have any international experience beyond that. His experience is so limited, in fact, that he’s not even familiar with playing games with commercial breaks.

“I’ve never had a commercial break before so just trying to build a new routine,” he said with a grin.

Levi skated to the slot between face-off circles during the commercials on Wednesday night.

“I felt comfortable where I was so I feel like I’ll stay there,” he said. “Just clearing my mind. Just stretching. Just taking it easy. Just focusing.”

So much of this is new for Levi, but his old teammates aren’t surprised. Jon Goyens, who coached Levi when he was with the AAA midget Lac St-Louis Lions, put together a video featuring former teammates sending well wishes to their former goalie.

“That was unbelievable,” said Levi, who watched the video after Wednesday’s win. “It means a lot to know they’re behind me.”

—

The referees at the World Juniors have been asked to turn their microphones on for puck drop each game, which has led the group to brainstorm fun things to say.

Olivier Gouin told the players, “Alright, let’s see if I can still do this boys,” before dropping the puck at the pre-tournament game between Canada and Russia.

So, can he still do it?

“I’m pretty happy with my period,” he said. “It’s never going to be perfect. It’s too fast and the players are too big, but overall I thought we were all solid. It’s good for confidence.”

With only four pre-tournament games, the officials had to rotate out between periods so everyone could get some reps. There are 14 referees and 12 linesmen in the bubble, which is up from the 12 and 10 usually invited.

And just like the players, many of them arrived feeling a bit rusty.

“I was lucky, because I had the chance to go in the QMJHL bubble,” Gouin said. “Some of the OHL and WHL guys haven’t worked at all except for here.”

Gouin pointed out that the officials are only guaranteed to work one tournament game and everything else will be judged on merit.

The officials have held on-ice workouts since getting out of their initial quarantine. It’s mostly skating work, but they do play some shinny. Gouin says former Belleville Bulls winger Carter Sandlak is among the stand outs.

“It was exciting to be back on the ice, finally,” said Gouin, who earned the USA-Russia assignment on Christmas Day. “Most of us haven’t skated [regularly] since March. It’s a big tournament to get going.”

Gouin started officiating at age 15 when he was looking for a part-time job. Since then he has risen up the ranks of Hockey Canada’s officiating program. His highlights include a Memorial Cup final in 2016 and a senior men’s IIHF World Championship final in 2018.
 
Now, he’s getting a shot at the World Juniors.

“It means a lot,” the Laval, Que. native said. “I’ve never worked it. It’s the first time. It’s probably the tournament Canadians watch the most. It’s a special tournament for the players and the referees also.”

All the officials are Canadian this year, which means Gouin may be overseeing more games featuring his country.

“It doesn’t change anything,” he said. “Yes, I’m Canadian, but my job and integrity come first. It’s a big tournament for us too, for our careers.”

The referees held a group dinner on Thursday night and shared ideas about witty one liners they could use before puck drop. The consensus was something holiday-related would be appropriate.

“A great day for hockey,” Gouin told Marat Khusnutdinov and Alex Turcotte at the opening face-off on Friday night. “Merry Christmas, boys. Have a good one.”

—

Lines at Canada’s practice on Friday:

Perfetti – McMichael – Krebs
Holloway – Newhook – Cozens
Pelletier – Byfield – Mercer
Zary – Suzuki – Tomasino
Quinn

Byram – Drysdale
Harley – Schneider
Guhle – Barron
Korczak (R) – Spence

Levi
Garand
Gauthier

Power play units at Canada’s practice on Friday:

Byram
Perfetti – Krebs – McMichael
Cozens

Harley
Tomasino / Newhook – Quinn – Suzuki
Byfield

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NHL teams, take note: Alexandar Georgiev is proof that anything can happen in the playoffs

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10 hours ago

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April 24, 2024

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It’s hard to say when, exactly, Alexandar Georgiev truly began to win some hearts and change some minds on Tuesday night.

Maybe it was in the back half of the second period; that was when the Colorado Avalanche, for the first time in their first-round Stanley Cup playoff series against the Winnipeg Jets, actually managed to hold a lead for more than, oh, two minutes or thereabouts. Maybe it was when the Avs walked into the locker room up 4-2 with 20 minutes to play.

Maybe it was midway through the third, when a series of saves by the Avalanche’s beleaguered starting goaltender helped preserve their two-goal buffer. Maybe it was when the buzzer sounded after their 5-2 win. Maybe it didn’t happen until the Avs made it into their locker room at Canada Life Centre, tied 1-1 with the Jets and headed for Denver.

At some point, though, it should’ve happened. If you were watching, you should’ve realized that Colorado — after a 7-6 Game 1 loss that had us all talking not just about all those goals, but at least one of the guys who’d allowed them — had squared things up, thanks in part to … well, that same guy.

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Georgiev, indeed, was the story of Game 2, stopping 28 of 30 shots, improving as the game progressed and providing a lesson on how quickly things can change in the playoffs — series to series, game to game, period to period, moment to moment. The narrative doesn’t always hold. Facts don’t always cooperate. Alexandar Georgiev, for one night and counting, was not a problem for the Colorado Avalanche. He was, in direct opposition to the way he played in Game 1, a solution. How could we view him as anything else?

He had a few big-moment saves, and most of them came midway through the third period with his team up 4-2. There he was with 12:44 remaining, stopping a puck that had awkwardly rolled off Nino Niederreiter’s stick; two missed posts by the Avs at the other end had helped spring Niederreiter for a breakaway. Game 1 Georgiev doesn’t make that save.

There he was, stopping Nikolaj Ehlers from the circle a few minutes later. There wasn’t an Avs defender within five feet, and there was nothing awkward about the puck Ehlers fired at his shoulder. Game 1 Georgiev gets scored on twice.

(That one might’ve been poetic justice. It was Ehlers who’d put the first puck of the night on Georgiev — a chip from center ice that he stopped, and that the crowd in Winnipeg greeted with the ol’ mock cheer. Whoops.)

By the end of it all, Georgiev had stared down Connor Hellebuyck and won, saving nearly 0.5 goals more than expected according to Natural Stat Trick, giving the Avalanche precisely what they needed and looking almost nothing like the guy we’d seen a couple days before. Conventional wisdom coming into this series was twofold: That the Avs have firepower, high-end talent and an overall edge — slight as it may be — on Winnipeg, and that Georgiev is shaky enough to nuke the whole thing.

That wasn’t without merit, either. Georgiev’s .897 save percentage in the regular season was six percentage points below the league average, and he hadn’t broken even in expected goals allowed (minus-0.21). He’d been even worse down the stretch, putting up an .856 save percentage in his final eight appearances, and worse still in Game 1, allowing seven goals on 23 shots and more than five goals more than expected. That’s not bad; that’s an oil spill. Writing him off would’ve been understandable. Writing off Jared Bednar for rolling him out there in Game 2 would’ve been understandable. Writing the Avs off — for all of Nathan MacKinnon and Cale Makar’s greatness — would’ve been understandable.

It just wouldn’t have been correct.

The fact that this all went down now, four days into a two-month ordeal, is a gift — because the postseason thus far has been short on surprises, almost as a rule. The Rangers and Oilers are overwhelming the Capitals and Kings. The Hurricanes are halfway done with the Islanders. The Canucks are struggling with the Predators. Panthers–Lightning is tight, but one team is clearly better than the other. Bruins–Maple Leafs is a close matchup featuring psychic baggage that we don’t have time to unpack. In Golden Knights–Stars, Mark Stone came back and scored a huge goal.

None of that should shock you. None of that should make you blink.

Georgiev being good enough for Colorado, though? After what we saw in Game 1? Strange, surprising and completely true. For now.

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"Laugh it off": Evander Kane says Oilers won’t take the bait against Kings | Offside

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21 hours ago

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April 23, 2024

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The LA Kings tried every trick in the book to get the Edmonton Oilers off their game last night.

Hacks after the whistle, punches to the face, and interference with line changes were just some of the things that the Oilers had to endure, and throughout it all, there was not an ounce of retaliation.

All that badgering by the Kings resulted in at least two penalties against them and fuelled a red-hot Oilers power play that made them pay with three goals on four chances. That was by design for Edmonton, who knew that LA was going to try to pester them as much as they could.

That may have worked on past Oilers teams, but not this one.

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“We’ve been in a series now for the third year in a row with these guys,” Kane said after practice this morning. “We know them, they know us… it’s one of those things where maybe it makes it a little easier to kind of laugh it off, walk away, or take a shot.

“That type of stuff isn’t gonna affect us.”

Once upon a time, this type of play would get under the Oilers’ skin and result in retaliatory penalties. Yet, with a few hard-knock lessons handed down to them in the past few seasons, it seems like the team is as determined as ever to cut the extracurriculars and focus on getting revenge on the scoreboard.

Ryan Nugent-Hopkins, the longest-tenured player on this Oilers team, had to keep his emotions in check with Kings defender Vladislav Gavrikov, who punched him in the face early in the game. The easy reaction would be to punch back, but the veteran Nugen-Hopkins took his licks and wound up scoring later in the game.

“It’s going to be physical, the emotions are high, and there’s probably going to be some stuff after the whistle,” Nugent-Hopkins told reporters this morning. “I think it’s important to stay poised out there and not retaliate and just play through the whistles and let the other stuff just kind of happen.”

Oilers head coach Kris Knoblauch also noticed his team’s discipline. Playoff hockey is full of emotion, and keeping those in check to focus on the larger goal is difficult. He was happy with how his team set the tone.

“It’s not necessarily easy to do,” Knoblauch said. “You get punched in the face and sometimes the referees feel it’s enough to call a penalty, sometimes it’s not… You just have to take them, and sometimes, you get rewarded with the power play.

“I liked our guy’s response and we want to be sticking up for each other, we want to have that pack mentality, but it’s really important that we’re not the ones taking that extra penalty.”

There is no doubt that the Kings will continue to poke and prod at the Oilers as the series continues. Keeping those retaliations in check will only get more difficult, but if the team can continue to succeed on the scoreboard, it could get easier.

 

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Thatcher Demko injured, out for Game 2 between Canucks and Predators

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22 hours ago

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April 23, 2024

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Thatcher Demko returned from injury just in time for the start of the Stanley Cup Playoffs but now is injured again.

After the Vancouver Canucks’ victory in Game 1, Demko was not made available to the media as he was “receiving treatment.” This is not unusual, so was not heavily reported at the time. Monday’s practice was turned into an optional skate — just nine players participated — so Demko’s absence did not seem particularly significant.

But when Demko was also missing from Tuesday’s gameday skate, alarm bells started going off.

According to multiple reports — and now the Canucks’ head coach, Rick Tocchet —Demko will not play in Game 2 and is in fact questionable for the rest of their series against the Nashville Predators.

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Demko made 22 saves on 24 shots, none bigger — and potentially injury-inducing — than his first-period save on Anthony Beauvillier where he went into the full splits.

While this is not necessarily where Demko got injured, it would be understandable if it was. Demko still stayed in the game and didn’t seem to be experiencing any difficulties at the time.

Demko is a major difference-maker for the Canucks and his injury casts a pall over the team’s emotional Game 1 victory.

Tocchet confirmed that Demko will not start in Game 2 but said Demko did skate on Monday on his own. He also said that Demko’s injury is unrelated to the knee injury he suffered during the season that caused him to miss five weeks. Instead, Tocchet suggested Demko was day-to-day, leaving open the possibility for his return in the first round.

TSN’s Farhan Lalji, however, has reported that Demko’s injury could indeed be to the same knee, even if it is not the same exact injury.

If Demko does indeed miss the rest of the series, the pressure will be on Casey DeSmith, who had a strong season when called upon intermittently as the team’s backup but struggled when thrust into the number-one role when Demko was injured. Behind DeSmith is rookie Arturs Silovs, who has come through with heroic performances in international competition for Latvia but hasn’t been able to repeat those performances at the NHL level.

DeSmith played one game against the Predators this season, making 26 saves on 28 shots in a 5-2 victory in December.

While DeSmith has limited experience in the Stanley Cup Playoffs, his one appearance was spectacular.

On May 3, 2022, DeSmith had to step in for the injured Tristan Jarry for the Pittsburgh Penguins, starting their first postseason game against the New York Rangers. DeSmith made 48 saves on 51 shots before leaving the game in the second overtime with an injury of his own, with Louis Domingue stepping in to make 17 more saves for the win.

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