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Canada confident in their World Cup injury replacements

PITTSBURGH, PA - JUNE 09: Logan Couture #39 of the San Jose Sharks celebrates after scoring a goal against Matt Murray #30 of the Pittsburgh Penguins during the first period in Game Five of the 2016 NHL Stanley Cup Final at Consol Energy Center on June 9, 2016 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. (Photo by Justin K. Aller/Getty Images)
(Photo by Justin K. Aller/Getty Images)

Team Canada’s World Cup of Hockey brain trust is hopeful the team won’t be further altered due to player injury heading into the September tournament.

On Tuesday, San Jose Sharks forward Logan Couture replaced Dallas Stars captain Jamie Benn (abdominal surgery) at forward and then on Wednesday, Chicago Blackhawks defenseman Duncan Keith (knee) was replaced by St. Louis Blues defenseman Jay Bouwmeester.

General manager Doug Armstrong said the team had been in contact with both players during the offseason and was not caught off guard by their decisions to not participate.

“What Jamie and Dunc were dealing with, we were on top of right from the get-go and we were trying to give those guys as much time as possible,” Armstrong said as part of a teleconference announcing Sidney Crosby as Team Canada’s captain with Jonathan Toews and Shea Weber being named alternates. “The other player that was dealing with some postseason surgery was (Claude) Giroux and we’ve stayed in touch with him and I’ve talked to the Flyers and he’s on board and ready to get going. We think this will be the group and we’re comfortable this will be the group that we’ll take into Ottawa a week (from) Sunday.”

Added Armstrong, “… there’s a great luxury in Canada for a wealth of talented players.”

The decision to add Bouwmeester had a lot to do with the fact that he’s a left-handed shot and was replacing Keith – another lefty. Team Canada assistant general manager Rob Blake told the team’s management and coaches that it was hard for a right-handed blueliner to jump into an international tournament and quickly play his off side. Two elite Canadian defensemen – P.K. Subban and Kris Letang – both shoot from the right side.

Also, Bouwmeester had played in two Olympics – helping Canada win gold in 2014 – and took part in the 2004 World Cup, which Canada won.

“We have four right-handed (defensemen) and we really felt like having three lefties was important. Having someone like Rob Blake that’s played internationally a number of times, we asked the hard questions: ‘How easy is it to transfer from one side to the other?’ He said it’s not as easy as you think, it takes a little bit of time,” Armstrong said. “And in a tournament like this you don’t have time to adjust to something new. So we felt it was important to add a left-shot defenseman. And when we went over the list of players we talked about the pros and cons of all these players, and they’re all elite athletes, and we just came back with Bouwmeester’s resume internationally, what he did with our group in Sochi.”

Said Team Canada coach Mike Babcock, “When we looked at that, like Army said, we had the opportunity because of all guys who played D on our staff, we have five head coaches and five managers and all the experience and we felt this was best to help our group at this time. I really thought, just like Army said. We talked to Blakey, who was a right-hand D, we said, ‘Blakey, coming over and playing that side, how easy would it be for you?’ I thought that kind of was another one of those things that we already thought so what we’re trying to do is give ourselves the best opportunity to represent Canada in the best way possible and have success.

Babcock said he hadn’t figured out if he would pair Bouwmeester with Alex Pietrangelo – who are teammates with the Blues – and would wait until the team meets in early September to start to figure out combinations.

“What I’m going to do is we’re going to continue to work the works getting ready here,” Babcock said. “Our coaches will all be in Ottawa on the third and all the final details of our lineup, even though we have lots of different lineups, we’ll work it all out as exhibition goes on.”

Most players involved in the tournament have known about their participation for several months and players have ramped up their training earlier to accommodate for the event. Armstrong didn’t see a problem with Bouwmeester and Couture jumping into the event with less time to prepare.

“I don’t think fatigue is going to be an issue in September, whether it becomes an issue later in the season, I guess time will tell like sort of coming out of the Olympics in Sochi. Some teams, and I speak for St. Louis, we went over there. We had 11 players and we saw certain fatigue when we got back from that,” Armstrong said. “I think this is obviously different because all the players have had ample rest time, some more than others but I’m sure if you talk to anyone from San Jose or Pittsburgh (who played in the Stanley Cup Final) they wouldn’t want to have it any other way. Everyone wants to play as deep as they can and win the Stanley Cup. That’s our ultimate goal.”

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Josh Cooper is an editor for Puck Daddy on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at puckdaddyblog@yahoo.com or follow him on Twitter!