Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays to all my usual perusers of the Silvertips blog. I joined the WHL in taking last week off so it’s been a while since I posted. The one thing we had last week was my Silvertips report card than ran Christmas Eve in case you missed that.
But Tuesday means Boxing Day in Canada, and Boxing Day means the start of the World Junior Championship that this winter is being held in Buffalo, N.Y. The tournament brings the 10 best U-20 teams in the world together each year.
Everett Silvertips goaltender Carter Hart was named the starter for Team Canada, as the Sherwood Park, Alberta, native makes his second appearance in the event. Last year he was joined by Tips captain and defenseman Noah Juulsen as Team Canada lost the gold-medal game to the United States in a shootout and finished as silver medalists in Montreal.
Playing goaltender for the Canadian team brings unparalleled pressure for junior hockey players. Hart has often displayed what I describe as a “preternatural calmness” that belies the intensity of the position.
Oh, and Hart still doesn’t want to hear about his stats:
The first rule of interviewing Carter Hart: You do not talk about statistics.
The second rule of interviewing Carter Hart: You DO NOT TALK ABOUT STATISTICS. Read on: https://t.co/ZkpXhA5tuX pic.twitter.com/owcmNBEfAv— Jesse Geleynse (@JesseGeleynse) December 25, 2017
Kelowna’s Dillon Dube was named Canada’s team captain. Here’s one final look at Team Canada’s roster leading with Ron Hextall’s challenge to Hart to be the best player in junior hockey this season.
Team Canada opens play against Finland (including former Silvertip Eetu Tuulola) at 1 p.m. PDT on Tuesday. The Americans being their title defense at 5 p.m. PDT against Denmark. The NHL Network will carry the games.
For the latest Silvertips news follow Jesse Geleynse on Twitter.
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