EVERETT — It was a good news-bad news situation when Hockey Canada announced its roster for the World Junior Hockey Championships selection camp on Wednesday, at least as far as the Everett Silvertips are concerned.
The bad news was that Everett winger Kyle Beach did not make the cut, taking away his chance to wear the Maple Leaf and represent his country.
The good news is that this means the Tips will not be losing their most-talented player for a month.
But what’s good for the Tips was agonizing for Beach.
“It obviously sucks,” Beach said via cell phone while the team was in transit to Prince George on Wednesday. “It was something I was hoping for and wanted. But it’s something to work toward next year. I’ll have another chance to prove people wrong and prove to myself that I should be there.”
Beach had high hopes that he would be among those selected to attend Canada’s selection camp for World Juniors, the premier under-20 international hockey tournament. But the Kelowna, B.C., native’s name was not among the 38 chosen to attend the camp, which will be held Dec. 11-15 in Ottawa.
A total of 18 players from the WHL were among the 38 picked to attend the selection camp. Nine of those 18 were forwards. Six of the nine are 19-year-olds, one year older than Beach. One is the same age as the 18-year-old Beach, while two are a year younger at 17.
“It doesn’t surprise me as he’s never been a favorite of the Hockey Canada people,” Everett coach John Becanic said. “His offensive numbers aren’t staggering, so it’s not like last year when he was close to leading the league in scoring at this point, and you have to consider that. So, it doesn’t shock me.”
Beach, who has a unique blend of size, skill and abrasiveness and was the 11th-overall pick in this year’s NHL draft, has been out of the Canadian national team picture since the summer of 2007, when he clashed with the coaching staff of Canada’s U-18 team. He was hoping a solid first half (22 points in 20 games), combined with a good showing at the Canada-Russia Challenge, would be enough to get him back in contention.
However, it proved not enough to sway the selection committee, which is looking to assemble a team capable of winning Canada’s fifth straight gold medal at the event.
“I do (feel wrongly snubbed) in a way,” Beach said. “There were 18 guys from the WHL selected and I’m not one of them, which is tough because I felt I was one of the better players at the Canada-Russia Challenge. But they had their opinions that they made their decisions on.
“I definitely think it had to be the past or something,” Beach added. “I know there’s a couple people who don’t think that highly of me. I guess they got their way.”
With Beach not missing any time, it means Everett will lose just one player during the holiday season to international commitments. Goaltender Kent Simpson was picked to play for Team Pacific at the U-17 World Hockey Challenge and will be gone from Dec. 29-Jan. 4.
Otherwise, Everett will remain at full strength through the end of the first half of the season and the beginning of the second half. That will give the Silvertips a roster advantage on most of its opponents during a stretch of about 10 games.
“It certainly helps us in trying to do what we’re doing,” Becanic said. “It will be nice to have our full complement coming back from the Christmas holiday because it will be easier to stay on the same page with the whole team here. Having a two-week break, and then if we had guys leaving, it would have distracted us from doing something special as a team.”
Nick Patterson’s Silvertips blog: http://www.heraldnet.com/silvertipsblog
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