Team Canada head coach Dale Hunter confirmed that forward Michael Misa is good to go for tonight and will be the top-line centre in tonight\u2019s opening game against Czechia. <\/p>\n
Watch Canada take on Czechia in World Juniors action LIVE at 8:30 p.m. ET\/5:30 p.m. PT across the TSN Network and streaming on TSN.ca and the TSN App. <\/p>\n
He also said that forward Carter Bear and defenceman Keaton Verhoeff are tonight\u2019s healthy scratches. <\/p>\n
Per TSN\u2019s Mark Masters, Hunter declined to name tonight\u2019s starter but Carter George was the first player off the ice at the morning skate. <\/p>\n
Misa did not play in the third period of Canada\u2019s final pre-tournament game against Denmark on Tuesday night as he exited with an injury. <\/p>\n
He had two assists in the game before leaving the game. <\/p>\n
Misa, the 2025 second-overall pick who is playing with the San Jose Sharks this season, missed a month earlier this season due to an ankle injury. He returned to play on Dec. 5 as he played two games with the AHL\u2019s San Jose Barracuda before leaving for the Canadian World Junior camp. <\/p>\n
The 18-year-old has one goal and two assists in seven games with the Sharks this season. <\/p>\n
Bear, 19, has 13 goals and 27 points in 23 games with the WHL\u2019s Everett Silvertips this season. He was drafted 13th overall by the Detroit Red Wings in June\u2019s draft.<\/p>\n
Verhoeff, 17, is a top prospect for the 2026 NHL Draft. The Fort Saskatchewan, Alta., native has four goals and 11 points in 16 games with the University of North Dakota this season. <\/p>\n
Team Canada has finished fifth two years in a row at the World Juniors. After tonight\u2019s game against Czechia, Canada will face Latvia on Saturday and Denmark on Monday before wrapping up round-robin play on Dec. 31 against Finland. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Team Canada head coach Dale Hunter confirmed that forward Michael Misa is good to go for tonight and…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":370854,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[712,49,48,132644,82,146516],"class_list":["post-370853","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-apple-news","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-hockey-canada-sports-hockey-hockey-canada","tag-sports","tag-world-juniors-sports-hockey-world-juniors"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/370853","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=370853"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/370853\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/370854"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=370853"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=370853"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=370853"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}