Team Canada head coach Lowry preaching pace, aggression

TORONTO – Team Canada is bereft of returning players from last year’s gold medal-winning team as just three players are currently back.

But while the names on the back of the sweaters will be mostly differently, the style of play promises to be largely the same.

That’s because there is a returnee behind the bench. Head coach Dave Lowry was an assistant on Benoit Groulx’s staff 12 months ago.

“We have a lot of the same principles,” Lowry said. “We like to play fast, we like to play aggressive and we like to play a skilled game.”

Lowry preached a quick pace at the team’s first practice at MasterCard Centre on Thursday. He was pleased with the efforts of his troops.

Only Jayce Hawryluk sat out so “he could be ready to compete for a spot,” according to Lowry. The Brandon Wheat Kings winger has missed the last three games with an upper-body injury.

Moose Jaw Warriors captain Brayden Point, one of the three returnees, wore a non-contact yellow jersey. He hasn’t played since Nov. 17 because of a shoulder injury, but Lowry insisted “if we had to play today, he could play today.”

Point took drills as a defenceman. With Point slated to play up front, there are 17 forwards and 11 blue-liners for Lowry and his staff to choose from when it comes to naming the final roster.

“I like the competition,” said Lowry, also the coach of the WHL’s Victoria Royals. “There are a lot of guys that are close. We’ve got a lot of guys that are similar. There are a lot of guys that are fighting for open spots.”

And that means Lowry and the rest of the coaching staff – which includes Brandon’s Kelly McCrimmon, Halifax’s Dominique Ducharme and Windsor assistant Trevor Letowski – have some moulding to do.

Returning defenceman Joe Hicketts also plays under Lowry in Victoria, serving as the Royals’ captain.

He didn’t notice much of a difference in the way Lowry operated practice in Toronto, but he expects some changes along the way.

“He’s a tough coach,” Hicketts said. “It’s going to be something where in Victoria he might be yelling at guys in practice. He might not here. It’s going to be more of a teaching moment to get our systems in place.”

For his part, Lowry wasn’t buying Hicketts’s assessment.

“I’m not going to change,” said the 50-year-old, who played 1,084 NHL games as a winger. “You coach a certain way. That’s Joe being Joe.”

And if he’s not going to change the way he coaches, Lowry will be guiding Team Canada in a similar manner as he helped Groulx do last year.

“We want to get the puck out of our own zone and play in the offensive zone as much as we can,” Hicketts said of Lowry’s message. “That’s where our success is built. I think that’s the way we played last year at the world juniors. It’s something we need to continue to do going forward.”

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