As I struggle to drive through the snow covered streets with falling white powder yielding my view to about 50 meters in front of me a few weeks before Christmas Day, I’m already hearing Christmas music dominate the local radio channels. My brakes battle the conditions to halt the car while Andy Williams’ voice controls the majority of sound entering my ear with his 1963 Christmas hit “It’s the Most Wonderful Time of the Year”.
For a Christmas song, it has a nice tune to it, so I don’t mind leaving it on that radio station. Next, Mariah Carey’s over-played “All I Want For Christmas Is You” comes on for about the twentieth time all day and my metaphorically bleeding ears force the dial to turn to the local sports channel- TSN 690.
WJHC: The Most Wonderful Time of the Year in Canada
The crew is talking about a topic all Montrealers can unanimously agree on; the 2015 World Junior Championship played right here in Montreal and in our friendly-rivals’ town of Toronto.
Whoever was at the mic during the radio show was talking about Connor McDavid’s hand injury and his potential impact on the Canadian squad whether it heels in time- it ultimately did. Then he goes on to talk about the passion that will ring inside the Bell Center when Canada plays four round-robin plus one pre-competition game there. When the regular tenants are playing top-level hockey at the downtown arena, it can reportedly reach 135 decibels, which is just five decibels short of the maximum human capacity before harm.
With Williams still in my ears as I listen to the talk radio, I realize it really is the most wonderful time of the year. Not because of the “kids jingle-belling”, “holiday greetings and gay happy meetings” or when “friends come to call” as Williams would say, but because of the annual Word Junior Championship. When these 18 and 19 year-olds are intruding into the living rooms of millions of Canadians and make them sit on the edge of their seats watching these kids play their hearts out on the ice, it truly is the “hap-happiest time of the year”.
Montreal and Toronto will co-jointly host the 2015 and 2017 World Juniors. Montreal will be home to Canada’s round-robin games in 2015 while the medal-round matches will be in Toronto. In 2017, the Air Canada Center will see Canada’s first four games while the Bell Center; the elimination games.
Luckily for the two cities and for the country in its entirety, some of best tournaments have been played out during the odd-numbered years. That means the 2015 and 2017 versions are lined up to host extremely exciting tournaments, for team Canada at least.
The trend started in 1993 when Manny Legace delivered most likely the best goaltending performance in tournament history, allowing only 10 goals in 6 games. He led his team to a gold medal with the Swedes right behind them in the standings that featured Hall of Famer Peter Forsberg who put up 31 points in 12 games and Markus Naslund.
Fast forward 12 years to 2005 in Grand Forks, North Dakota. The Canadian team aided by an NHL lockout was undoubtedly the best ever. Players like Sidney Crosby, Dion Phaneuf, Patrice Bergeron, Jeff Carter, Shea Weber, Brent Seabrook, Mike Richards, Corey Perry and Ryan Getzlaf– just to name a few- dominated the opposing teams and dismantled the Russian team in the final by effectively shutting down Evgeni Malkin and Alex Ovechkin.
Fans who thought there would be no contender for the best tournament were wronged two years later when Jonathan Toews scored 3 shootout goals against the Americans and Carey Price shut down Erik Johnson at the key moment, en route to their third straight title.
Then, there was 2009. Gord Miller said in pre-tournament action that “2009 was probably the most exciting tournament (he’s) ever been apart off”. It’s probably because John Tavares, Steven Stamkos, PK Subban and of course Jordan Eberle donned the Maple Leaf in Ottawa.
In the New Year’s classic against the USA, the Canadians were slow out of the gates, allowing the first three goals before tying it up and having to play catch up not long after the 3-3 equality. Tavares’ hat-trick lifted them to a 7-4 victory.
Three days later, Canada and Russian were in a shoot-out of a game going back in forth until Russia had the win almost guaranteed. But Eberle refused to go down. Off a Russian mistake, Eberle capitalized with 5.4 seconds left in the third, then winning the game in shootouts. Not many people will forget Miller’s “CAN YOU BELIEVE IT” call when Subban leaped onto Eberle in celebration. They won their fifth straight gold but haven’t won a title since, even failing to make the final for three straight years.
It’s time for Canada to start winning gold medals again and this year could be the best opportunity. With Curtis Lazar and Anthony Duclair being loaned out from Ottawa and New York, a healthy Connor McDavid and solid goaltending in Zach Fucale and Eric Comrie, the players will need to draw energy out of the largest crowd in tournament history in order to win the big round-robin games.
A McDavid vs Jack Eichel match-up will headline the New Year’s Eve Classic between Canada and USA and expect the Bell Center to be LOUD.
It’s the most wonderful time of the year for Andy Williams, but will it also be for Canadian hockey fans?
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