The Canadian junior team will try to win a third consecutive gold medal at the World Junior Championships, which begin Tuesday in Gothenburg, Sweden, and despite once again high expectations, the players are ready for the challenge that lies ahead.
The Canadian team's management has also reminded its skaters of this, as explained defenseman Maveric Lamoureux, who was drafted 29th overall by the Arizona Coyotes in the 2022 draft.
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“Management has spoken to us about it,” said the Quebecer, whose comments were relayed by website NHL.com. The expectations are really high. The main goal is to get gold and nothing less, and they have spoken to us about this many times. So I feel like the expectations are really high and the goal is to win and that's it. »
However, Canada head coach Alan Letang wanted to remind people that we need to take it one day at a time to achieve this goal.
“We've talked about staying in the present moment, and so we don't want to get too far ahead of ourselves,” he said. But, you know what? I think you know we've put together a good group. We wanted this camp to be very competitive to push the guys because we know what we're going to run into. We know the teams we will play against in Europe.
A useful experience for Beck
Montreal Canadiens prospect Owen Beck is the only player from the current edition of Canada to win gold in Halifax last year. He therefore hopes that this experience will help him show his teammates the right path during the tournament.
Beck was also appointed as captain Fraser Minten's assistant for the competition.
“My first year I was a little nervous, I was definitely walking on eggshells,” he said. This year it's definitely a little easier and more convenient to know what's going on and where to be. If I can help the boys, I want to do that.”
Canada will begin hostilities against Finland on Tuesday. Letang's men then face Latvia on Wednesday and Sweden on Friday. They finish the group phase on December 31st against Germany.