Mark McNeill (in red) is a Blackhawks prospect (The Canadian Press)Mark Charles Hudon down as the third Canadian lost to injury for the upcoming IIHF U20 world championship, joining Ryan Murray and Colton Sissons, although he is the only one who had actually made the team.

Le Championnat mondial junior de Charles Hudon est terminé. Blessure au dos.

— Mikaël Lalancette (@MLalancette) December 21, 2012

As per the tweet above and an official Hockey Canada announcement, Hudon is out with a back injury, despite having played yesterday against Finland in pre-tournament competition. He will be replaced by Mark McNeill of the Prince Albert Raiders, who was a surprising cut prior to the tournament in my mind. McNeill is listed at 6-foot-2 and 210 pounds, and was the first-round selection of the Chicago Blackhawks in last season's draft. This year, he's been a force at both ends of the ice as captain of the Prince Albert Raiders, scoring 13 goals in 35 games, getting big minutes on a team that's leading the WHL's East Division.

It is upsetting for Hudon, for sure, the diminutive yet offensively gifted prospect taken in the fifth round by the Montreal Canadiens. His 5-11, 171-pound frame does not suit him to being as physical as McNeill, but his puck possession and playmaking games are just as valuable. The preference to take Hudon over McNeill may have been a stylistic one, or the Team Canada brass could have thought that it was wiser to bring the more skilled guy to Russia in the depth role.

noesen

As speculated on Friday, the International Ice Hockey Federation has indeed upheld the final seven games of Stefan Noesen's Ontario Hockey League suspension, and the Plymouth Whaler will not be allowed to play for Team USA during the upcoming IIHF world U20 championship.

Goodluck to the fellas as they travel to Finland tomorrow. Early flight back home this morning #bitterdisappointment #USAWJC

— Stefan Noesen (@ScubaShteve93) December 17, 2012

Noesen was ejected from the Whalers game versus the Oshawa Generals on Dec. 8 after he jumped into a high hit on Generals defenceman Tyler Hore, who has not played since the game against Plymouth. Noesen was suspended for 10 games and would be eligible to return Jan. 11 against Brampton. As it happens, the world junior championship runs from Dec. 26 to Jan. 5, with every game of the suspension covered for the time. Last season, the IIHF upheld a 20-game suspension to German forward Tom Kühnhackl after his vicious hit that held Ryan Murphy out of the tournament for Team Canada.

What may cook the noodle of several observers is that the IIHF and Hockey Canada appear to be letting Jonathan Huberdeau, who is currently sitting out suspension of the QMJHL after tackling a linesman last week, play in pre-tournament and tournament games. Huberdeau only received a four-game suspension, which is set to expire Thursday, a few hours after Canada plays its first pre-tournament game versus Finland.

Ryan Nugent-Hopkins was a late Team Canada cut two seasons ago (Jeff McIntosh, The Canadian Press)

Here's why various sports media outlets have been hyping Team Canada for the upcoming IIHF World U20 Championship as benefitting from the influx of National Hockey League players to the junior ranks: Simply speaking, Canada has lost out on so many good players to the NHL over the last few years.

We're not talking slouches, either. In 2009, for instance, Team Canada sent a defensive group that featured future NHL stars such as P.K. Subban, Alex Pietrangelo and Tyler Myers. Absent from that group was Drew Doughty, who played 81 games for the Los Angeles Kings and just under 24 minutes a contest.

That year, Canada had several other junior-eligible players who spent the year with their respective national league clubs, not in junior helping Canada to their fifth consecutive gold. 1989 born players who played the majority of the NHL season included Josh Bailey, Kyle Turris, Sam Gagner and Luke Schenn. The rest of the world? Czech Jakub Voracek and the Danish-born Mikkel Boedkker.

Scott HarringtonThe London Knights last lost on November 1st to the Windsor Spitfires. Since then, they've won 17 consecutive games and have out-scored their opposition 68-31.

For comparison's sake, on Saturday afternoon, the second longest win streak in the Ontario Hockey League belongs to, well, Windsor, who have won three straight dating back to Dec. 1. They have out-scored their opponents 8-5.

London have a chance to match a franchise-best 18-game winning streak Sunday at home to Mississauga. You may recall the last time the Knights and Steelheads met, the teams went to an unprecedented 19-round shootout, with Seth Griffith scoring twice, the only time that's happened in OHL history.

Other than that wrinkle, London have had to play through a pair of overtimes during the streak (they didn't allow a shot in either one) and have just two one-goal regulation games. Team captain Scott Harrington, the odds-on favourite to be named captain of the Canadian World Junior squad later this month, isn't quitting to go to Calgary early. His number one priority is to keep the streak alive.

Conor Garland (bostonjuniorbruins.com)While rumours circulate about a Western Hockey League team landing an NCAA player, the QMJHL's Moncton Wildcats plucked a Penn State recruit Wednesday afternoon, signing 1996-born Conor Garland off of the USHL's Muskegon Lumberjacks. He'll become the second Penn State-commit to join the Canadian Hockey League in less than a week.

Per the Wildcats:

The Moncton Wildcats have received a commitment from 1996 born and Wildcats 6^th round draft pick in 2012 Conor Garland. He is anticipated to suit up for his first QMJHL game on Friday versus Victoriaville. Garland has been playing with the Muskegon Lumberjack in the USHL as a 16 year old where he had 3 points in 6 games.

"Conor is an offensively gifted young player. I had the opportunity to coach him in a tournament in Moncton this summer. He has great hockey sense and a nose for the net." described Head Coach and Director of Hockey Operations Danny Flynn. "Keep in mind that he is just 16 years old but he has the potential to develop into a very good offensive player for the Wildcats down the road."

Conor previously played with the Boston Jr. Bruins in the EmJHL where he had 94 points in 40 games. In the 2010-2011 Season he played with Shattuck St. Mary's and scored 116 points in 52 games.

Garland is from Scituate, MA, (evidently pronounced "Sit-choo-it", and my new favourite town name in the Northeastern United States) and was a pretty good scorer in his midget years. There's no good basis for comparison against other high quality players—he led his Shattuck St. Mary's "A" Bantam team in scoring with 65 goals—but for some reason, finding scoring totals of 16-year old hockey players is difficult to come across, even with Google.

Of course, the timing couldn't be worse for the Penn State program. They had already lost defenceman Thomas Welsh to the Mississauga Steelheads, who joined the OHL last week. Garland was supposedly on the path to join the college program in the fall of 2015.

Connor McDavid (CP)It's time to get excited about Connor McDavid and his accomplishments in the first half of the season.

The Erie Otters have been fortunate enough that the production of McDavid has more-or-less matched the hype that comes naturally attached to the annual exceptional 15-year old allowed to be picked in the priority selection.

And, depressing as it may be that jersey numbers representing birth years have crawled into the high nineties, it's stunning that McDavid has been able to live up to the hype. Sure, his Erie Otters aren't quite in playoff contention just yet, but they've won three more games through 29 games than they did last season.

Somehow, that hasn't led to an increase in fans at the gate. The Otters, despite McDavid's success, have an average home attendance of just 2,631, down from 2,849 this time last season. On the road, however, 4,861 fans are coming to see Erie play versus 4,623 last season. The legend grows!

While success at the gate hasn't come for the Otters, the Toronto-born star has already been dubbed the "consensus No. 1 overall pick for the 2015 NHL Entry Draft" by the team more than three years in advance. A game-worn Connor McDavid jersey the team was auctioning off fetched a bid higher than $1,000 on Tuesday morning:

The game worn Connor McDavid Erie Otters jersey has met its reserve and bids have topped $1,000 less than 24 hours after being put up for auction on eBay.

The jersey was worn by McDavid in the game against the Plymouth Whalers on November 28, in which he tallied a goal and an assist. The jersey is also autographed by McDavid on the back.

The auction will end on December 13, and the current bid stands at $1,075 US.

To other trivial matters, and more about the play of McDavid, I dug around and found a few interesting statistics. The lone other recent 15-year old forward in the OHL, John Tavares, had 17 goals and 31 points in his first 29 games in the league. McDavid is up to 17 goals and 36 points, slightly eclipsing the eventual New York Islanders star.

Kitchener's Matt Puempel hasn't played since November 27 (Getty)After two weeks of intense speculation, Team Canada released its 37-man selection camp roster Monday afternoon. On a conference call, Steve Spott repeatedly called the team "the most difficult to make" particularly in a National Hockey League lockout season. A number of players who probably would have got the call any other year were left off the invite roster, and a couple of them will probably make it next season.

[Earlier: Hockey Canada names selection camp roster for world junior championship]

Two notable omissions were in goal. Zachary Fucale and Eric Comrie both played well in their Subway Series half games and there was a theory that Team Canada may have brought either underage, draft-eligible goaltender over to Russia as a reserve to gain valuable experience for next year, but Canada instead opted for three OHL goaltenders (Jordan Binnington, Jake Paterson, and projected starter Malcolm Subban) along with the Edmonton Oil Kings' Laurent Brossoit.

Spott suggested that bringing an underage goalie to the tournament was "something we talked about early" but in the end age didn't factor into any of the decisions. He did suggest that Fucale's "opportunity will come next year" and that the four goaltenders they're bringing "are at the top of their game."

(CP Images)A pair of separate studies seem to point out that the effects of checking and collisions in various levels of hockey lead to, surprise surprise, more injuries than previously thought.

The first study, which I think is a little more complete, was a joint study between researchers at the University of Laval and the University of Calgary (due to recent football results, I'll refer to this as the 'Laval' study). They followed 150 minor hockey teams featuring peewee players ages 11 and 12 and compared the health effects on players in Alberta, where checking is allowed at that level, versus Québec, where it is not.

The players from Quebec walked away with one-third the number of injuries as the players in Alberta, and they also sustained fewer concussions: 73 Albertans over the period of a year, to just 20 Québecois kids. Going further, 14 concussions were listed as "severe" in Alberta to just four in Québec.

"We know that the long-term effects on concussions were underestimated in the past.