WINDSOR \u2013 It may be a mid-summer exhibition event, but Team Canada is determined to rack up wins at the World Junior Summer Showcase. <\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s our main focus,\u201d said University of North Dakota centre Cole Reschny, who is a Calgary Flames prospect. \u201cObviously we weren\u2019t happy with last year\u2019s summer camp and then last year\u2019s result at the World Juniors so it\u2019s a whole different mindset here this year. We\u2019re here to win.\u201d<\/p>\n
Canada will play Sweden on Wednesday night at the WFCU Centre, which is home to the Windsor Spitfires, before facing Finland and the United States on Thursday and Saturday. <\/p>\n
Canada suffered lopsided losses to Finland and Sweden last summer before ending the annual four-nation affair with a win against the United States. <\/p>\n
At the 2026 World Juniors, Canada lost to Czechia in the semifinals before beating Finland to claim the bronze medal. <\/p>\n
\u201cThis isn\u2019t just a summer camp where we\u2019re getting to know guys,\u201d said Reschny, who is one of eight returning Canadian players in Windsor. \u201cWe\u2019re coming in and we\u2019re getting to know each other but, at the same time, we\u2019re competing and we\u2019re battling.\u201d<\/p>\n
Canada lost in the quarter-finals at the 2024 and 2025 World Juniors, which means it\u2019s been three years since the country last competed in the gold-medal game. It\u2019s only the second time Canada has experienced a drought this long since the Program of Excellence was established by Hockey Canada in 1982. The country also went three years without a championship game appearance from 2012 to 2014.<\/p>\n
For Canadian players and executives, enough is enough. Things have to change and it starts now. <\/p>\n
\u201cLast year we weren\u2019t real thrilled with the way everything played out [at the summer camp],\u201d said general manager Alan Millar. \u201cPart of that was not really on anybody, but I think we had eight or nine players not available because of injury.\u201d<\/p>\n
Eight players who were invited to the summer camp were unable to attend last year, including six players who eventually made the team in December. <\/p>\n
Last year\u2019s summer roster featured 42 players and the camp started with an intra-squad game. The returning players, including 2025 first-overall pick Matthew Schaefer, were sent home before the final two games so management could focus on the players they did not know as well. <\/p>\n
\u201cIt just didn\u2019t feel like a competitive camp,\u201d Millar recalled. \u201cIt didn\u2019t feel that it was taken as seriously as it needed to be and I think a lot of that was because a lot of our top players weren\u2019t there.\u201d<\/p>\n
There is no intra-squad game this year in Windsor and every returnee is staying for every game. <\/p>\n
There were only 32 players invited to the summer camp this year and the total actually fell to 31 after defenceman Xavier Villeneuve (hip) was a late scratch. <\/p>\n
\u201cWithin our programs we\u2019re trying to focus on more preparation over more player evaluations and more selection,\u201d Millar said. \u201cWe feel we spend a lot of time trying to figure out who the seventh, eight defenceman is and the 13th, 14th forward when we should be spending time on special teams and our team game and the players who are going to help us win a tournament. So, that was part of the changes and we\u2019ve had a few changes since the past year because we need to be better.\u201d<\/p>\n
Canada is looking to set the tone immediately against Sweden, the defending champions, on Wednesday night. <\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re going to go back to the old Canadian style where we\u2019re mean to play against,\u201d said Kitchener Rangers defenceman Cameron Reid, who is among the three Canadian returnees on defence. \u201cWe want to be a team that other teams are afraid to play against or don\u2019t want to play against.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWe just got to get back [to] Canadian hockey and the Canadian way,\u201d said defenceman Carson Carels, who went sixth overall to the Flames in June and is heading to North Dakota this fall. \u201cI think just that hard-hitting and run-the-other-team-out-of-the-building [approach] … We gotta bring that and that\u2019s the culture the coaches want.\u201d<\/p>\n
Carels, who played for the Prince George Cougars last season, likes to throw his weight around and felt a surge of excitement when head coach Misha Donskov unveiled plans for the team\u2019s identity early in camp. <\/p>\n
\u201cIn the meeting my legs couldn\u2019t stop shaking just hearing that,\u201d he said. \u201cI was just really ready to get out there. Obviously we got a few days here to prep, but just hearing that in the meeting you want to go and play those games and kind of strike that fear already in summer and send a message now and [not] wait till Boxing Day.\u201d<\/p>\n
The returning players, who suffered a heartbreaking loss to Czechia in the semifinals, are eager to unleash some aggression on the road to redemption. <\/p>\n
\u201cYou\u2019re not really over it until you get another opportunity,\u201d said Reschny.<\/p>\n
\u201cDefinitely very frustrating losing in the semifinals,\u201d said Soo Greyhounds forward Brady Martin, who produced eight points in six games in Minnesota. \u201cBut it\u2019s a good lesson for me and a couple of the guys here. It\u2019s time to turn it around and go win a gold medal.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"WINDSOR \u2013 It may be a mid-summer exhibition event, but Team Canada is determined to rack up wins…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":832835,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[712,49,48,132644,44,146516],"class_list":["post-832834","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-canada","tag-apple-news","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-hockey-canada-sports-hockey-hockey-canada","tag-news","tag-world-juniors-sports-hockey-world-juniors"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/832834","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=832834"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/832834\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/832835"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=832834"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=832834"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=832834"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}