Toronto Maple Leafs first-round pick Morgan Rielly (Getty Images)When Morgan Rielly was in atom, his father sat him down to convince him to move to defence.

"He told me that if I played D, I'd have a whole lot more ice time."

What ended up happening was that a whole bunch of fathers had the same chats with their children. At the height of the dead puck era, when 1994-born hockey players were being influenced by the realities of the National Hockey League, Canadian hockey players started playing defence. As players battle for spots on Team Canada's World Junior roster, the most important position battle is going to take place on defence, where there will be far more guys in the mix.

"It's a cycle. Some years you get a lot of centres, some years a lot of forwards, and at this particular age group, it was the D," said Don Nachbaur, the Spokane Chiefs coach who coached the Western Hockey League all-stars in Games Five and Six of the Subway Super Series. The tournament is the last chance players have to showcase themselves on the national stage prior to the final camp in December.

Eight of the top 10 selections from the 2012 NHL entry draft were defencemen, five of whom suited up over the course of the WHL's two-game set against the Russian selects. Ryan Murray shut down Nail Yakupov effectively in the first game, but for the second contest, with Murray headed back to Everett, the more offensive-leaning rearguards had tougher times. The skills of Mathew Dumba, Morgan Rielly, Derrick Pouliot and Griffin Reinhart were more apparent at the north end of the ice rather than the south end.

Russia's Andrei Sigarev (The Canadian Press)No. 1 Star - Andrei Sigarev, Team Russia

An unheralded player on that top Russian line with Boston prospect Alexander Khokhlachev and Edmonton prospect Nail Yakupov is Sigarev, an undrafted 19-year-old from SKA St. Petersburg. While the small contingent of loud Russian fans were indubitably in attendance to witness Yakupov, it was Sigarev who got off the mark, first drawing a penalty after an unimpeded chance in front, and scoring Russia's second goal of the game, taking advantage of some open space in the slot and firing it high on Laurent Brossoit.

His highlight was an assist in the second period, however, on an offensive zone shift that never ended. Sigarev stole the puck after his own giveaway, and on a 2-on-1, outweighted WHL defenceman Mathew Dumba and slid a perfect pass over to Khokhlachev for the finish. That put Russia up 4-1 late in the period, and for all intents and purposes, was the dagger. Russia would wind up winning the game 5-2 on an empty net goal, and take the series winning three of the six games, but by virtue of one of the CHL's wins being a shootout victory.

No. 2 Star - Mikhail Naumenkov, Team Russia

It was a good night for the undrafted Russian 93 born players. Sigarev got our first star selection, and it was Mikhail Naumenkov, one of Russia's big minute defencemen, who got our second star. After a scoreless first game between the WHL and the Russians, Naumenkov got things going in the first period, albeit on a bit of a flukey bounce on a shot from the point that somehow eluded Laurent Brossoit.

Laurent Brossoit stares down Nail Yakupov in a shootout (Derek Leung:Getty)

Laurent Brossoit had a busy summer after an enigmatic spring, backstopping the Edmonton Oil Kings to a WHL Championship before struggling on the national stage. He put up an .871 save percentage at the Memorial Cup in Shawinigan, faltering along with an Oil Kings team on short rest, before allowing six goals in his only appearance for Team Canada against Russia in this summer's Canada-Russia challenge.

At one point, Brossoit was considered a cinch to be one of Canada's two goaltenders at the upcoming World Junior championships in Ufa, Russia. But after a few shaky performances in prominent games on Canadian national television, other candidates began to emerge, and the quality of Brossoit's goaltending and overall body of work was ignored. He redeemed himself Wednesday night stopping 30 of 30 shots—plus 3 shootout attempts—and looking spectacular in Team WHL's Game Five 1-0 shootout win over Team Russia.

Not only did he do it on national TV, but he did it at the Pacific Coliseum, the Vancouver arena close to his home town of Surrey.

"There was another Sportsnet game against Calgary this season that I didn't show my best," Brossoit said about his showcase games. Junior hockey players don't get an awful lot of airtime, particularly out West, and players who are looking to endear themselves to a nation don't always have the luxury of many chances to show what they can do. "Everything's an experience. I definitely went through emotions and feelings that I'd never gone through before in a game."

Calgary Flames draft pick Laurent Brossoit (The Canadian Press)No. 1 Star - Laurent Brossoit, Team WHL (Edmonton Oil Kings)

This was a really important game for Laurent Brossoit, not in the sense that the Canada-Russia Super Series was tied 2-2 coming in, but in the sense that, since the WHL Championship game, "LB" had yet to recover his form after a dominant Western League playoff performance last season. Brossoit got into the game early with a couple of good low pad saves, moving well, and looking calmer than his opposite at the other end even in a 0-0 game, which the WHL won 1-0 after a five-man shootout.

Playing in his hometown, the Calgary Flames prospect got some legitimate action in the second period, stopping a clear breakaway from Evgeni Mozer, and responding a few minutes later with another low pad save on a point-blank slapshot by Andrei Sigarev, whose line with Alexander Khokhlachev and Nail Yakupov were oddly quiet.

Brossoit faced fewer shots than his Russian counterpart, but looked the part and not battling the puck like he has since the start of this season and stopped all 30 attempts he faced in regulation, and all three he faced in the shootout, including a pretty glove save on Vladimir Tkachev.

No. 2 Star - Andrey Makarov, Team Russia (Saskatoon Blades)

Another WHL goaltender who has had a less than stellar start with the Saskatoon Blades, Makarov responded in kind to Brossoit's performance, although it wasn't pretty. The WHL's book on him, keep shots low and to his left pad, evidently, resulted in shots being fired wide as Makarov challenged foes with a particularly aggressive style. He also earned the regulation shutout, stopping 35-of-35.

Calgary's Saddledome, home of the HitmenCanadian Hockey League teams that operate out of National Hockey League cities are seeing a boost in attendance—but not by much—after the first quarter of the season. The effect that the lockout had on CHL attendance in 2005 is not being duplicated, as increases in fan interest haven't happened in every market.

First, the good: The Vancouver Giants and Edmonton Oil Kings, who averaged 5,753 and 4,990 fans respectively in their first 11 home games last season, saw their numbers increase to 6,238 and 6,013. The Giants struggled out of the gate, but not for generating interest in a hockey-mad Vancouver, while the Oil Kings benefit from a WHL championship and MasterCard Memorial Cup appearance last season that spurred societal and media interest in junior hockey last season.

However, the Calgary Hitmen and the Ottawa 67's, attendance powerhouses in their leagues, have seen a slight decline in overall attendance to start the season. The 67's can probably pin that on their home games being moved out of Ottawa and over to Scotiabank Place.  I cannot find a logical explanation for why the Hitmen haven't increased attendance (averaging 7,752 over 11 games last season to 7,653 this season) even when splitting up weekend games from weekday games.

(CP)Just when you thought it was safe to go back into the water, the CHLPA resurfaced.

Last Friday, Georges Laraque resigned from fronting the major junior hockey player association after some bizarre identity allegations came to light surrounding one of the CHLPA's bosses, Derek Clarke.

But despite losing momentum, the CHLPA continues to fight, now arguing that if the National Hockey League doesn't get their season together, that Canadian Hockey League teams could compete for the Stanley Cup.

CHLPA has officially submitted application to the Stanley Cup Trustees to allow CHL to compete for the Stanley Cup if NHL lockout continues

— CHLPA (@theCHLPA) November 13, 2012

Wait… what?

Russia's Andrei Vasilevski (Getty Images)No. 1 Star - Andrei Vasilevski, Team Russia

Vasilevski is, unfortunately for Team Canada fans, no stranger to audiences this side of the pond. We got re-acquainted with "Vasya", now a Tampa Bay Lightning prospect, right at the end of the first period when Jean-Sebastien Dea was robbed by the left pad of Vasilevski, sliding across and taking away a clear open net. That held Russia's 2-0 first period lead, and they would go on to win 6-2 for a Game One victory in the Subway Super Series. Later in the third right after Russia had made it 5-1, Nathan MacKinnon set up Anthony Mantha on a quick break but Vasilevski stopped him with the glove making it look effortless.

The QMJHL team only had a couple of lines rolling. There was Jonathan Huberdeau and Nathan MacKinnon's, who saw time with both Dea and Mantha, and the second unit composed of Phillip Danault, Charles Hudon and Francis Beauviller. Hudon had a couple of good chances in the second, but they failed to get the puck high on Vasilevski, who worked the bottom of the net all game, displaying excellent lateral movement and challenging the Canadian shooters to pick spots on him. He stopped 28 of 30.

No. 2 Star - Nail Yakupov, Team Russia

Sure, the play in his own end was suspect, and sure, he was trying a little too hard to force the fancy play in the offensive zone, but this whole tournament may be Yakupov's show, and he looked excellent breaking through the neutral zone and set up a number of clear-cut opportunities thanks to his speed and quickness. He set up the game's first scoring chance with a feather soft saucer pass to Alexander Khokhlachev splitting the "D" for a breakaway for the former Windsor Spitfire, and Yakupov, the No. 1 overall selection to Edmonton, scored the 2-0 goal midway through the first period on a slap shot from the top of the circle.

Oscar Dansk (via ottershockey.com)The Erie Otters don't have the worst defence in the Ontario Hockey League, by a certain measure, but they're pretty close. Much of this is in an attempt to determine why Oscar Dansk, the highly-touted Columbus Blue Jacket-select who was drafted 3rd overall in the CHL Import Draft, has had such a rough start to his OHL career.

Officially, Dansk is listed as having a 4-9-0-2 record with a 4.04 goals against average, though a more puzzling .894 save percentage, which would put him last in the OHL among starting goaltenders.

Unfortunately, though National Hockey League blogs have have fans dutifully count the number of scoring chances going for and against each team, the amount of quality shots recorded for and against each net is not a luxury many of us statistically-inclined junior hockey writers are not privy to.  All we have to work with are the shots for and against each team, and while the number of shots on goal usually gives us some indication of the amount of quality shots a team gives up, at the NHL volume its shown to be more of an indicator of overall volume and not by rate.