Five things to watch as Team Canada skates into the 2016 WJC

Like every World Junior Championship, Team Canada is a favourite to win the gold medal in 2016.

But, are they the favourite?

The following are five areas that, if overcome, mastered or addressed, will greatly improve Canada’s chances of leaving Helsinki in January with a second gold medal in as many years.

Goaltending

Canada is in a no-win situation when it comes to its goaltending. Mackenzie Blackwood’s CHL numbers far surpassed those of Mason McDonald through the first half of the season, giving him the inside track to be the starter – but then Blackwood got suspended while playing for the OHL’s Barrie Colts. That ban forces him to miss the first two games of the tournament, allowing McDonald the first crack at the No. 1 job. The Canadians’ first game isn’t against some also-ran. It’s against another favourite, the United States. That’s a problem. The first scenario is McDonald plays well and leads the team to victory. If that’s the case, does he deserve to cede his position upon Blackwood’s return? The second scenario is he plays poorly and the Canadians lose. Well, that definitely opens the door for Blackwood, but it comes with a cost. Canada would immediately be facing an uphill battle in pool play with a date against the Swedes on New Year’s Eve looming. Perhaps the best-case scenario for Team Canada is McDonald’s performance is merely average and they eke out a win.

Reliance on 18-year-old forwards

Canada is loaded with youthful skill on its first two – even three – lines. Dylan Strome and Mitch Marner were the top two scorers in the OHL last season and were the third and fourth selections in the 2015 NHL draft. Lawson Crouse played on the team last year. Crouse, Anthony Beauvillier, Travis Konecny and Mathew Barzal – who will have to work his way back up the lineup – were also first-rounders in 2015. Julien Gauthier has 29 goals in 30 QMJHL games and is bound to be a top-10 pick in June. That’s a lot of players eligible for the 2017 world juniors tasked with filling prominent roles right now. We’ll see if it’s too tall an order for them, as it generally was for the lineup stacked with 18-year-olds in Malmo, Sweden, two years ago when Canada finished fourth. As 19-year-old veterans, Jake Virtanen and Brayden Point will have to make an impact up front.

Shut-down defenceman

There are no true defensive stalwarts here that would resemble Darnell Nurse, Dillon Heatherington or Samuel Morin from last year. No Griffin Reinhart or Aaron Ekblad from 2014. No Scott Harrington or Erik Gudbranson from tourneys past. No Colten Teubert or Travis Hamonic either. Instead, this group consists of players like Joe Hicketts, Haydn Fleury and Travis Sanheim – those who move the puck and move it well. Sometimes a good defence is a good offence. Sometimes there’s a different way to defend. Is it the right way? Canada’s blue liners are offensively sound. Containing the likes of Auston Matthews and William Nylander might have to be a collective effort.

Point’s health

Let’s be perfectly clear: Team Canada needs Brayden Point. The returnee projects to be their second-line centre and can fill that spot seamlessly, as 43 points in 19 WHL games should attest. He can line up in several spots on the power play, can check and can kill penalties. If healthy, he should lead all forwards on the team in ice time. If healthy. Point entered selection camp having not played since Nov. 17 when he sustained a shoulder injury. He was kept out of exhibition games against the Canadian university all-stars. In his first game back – a tune-up affair against Belarus – he didn’t last two periods. Hockey Canada said his departure was for precautionary reasons. That had better be all it is or Canada has an enormous hole in its lineup.

Size – or lack thereof

How much does size matter in hockey – especially international hockey – these days? Well, we’re about to find out when watching these Canadian juniors. Half of their forwards are six feet tall or shorter and weigh no more than 190 pounds. On defence, only returnee Joe Hicketts can be considered vertically challenged by hockey standards (he’s 5-foot-8), but only Haydn Fleury passes the 200-pound mark on the scales. So it’s a smaller team. But it is a fast one. And the bigger, hybrid-sized Finnish ice could be the perfect surface for them.

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