Photos: Reinhart (Andy Devlin), Fucale (Vincent Ethier/LHJMQ), Nurse (Aaron Bell/OHL Images)

Sunday November 16, 2014

By Josh Sweetland/CHL

With the 2014 SUBWAY Super Series in full swing, Hockey Canada brass are keeping a keen eye on how the action unfolds across the country. Without a medal in the last two years and the last gold coming back in 2009 with the likes of current NHL superstars John Tavares, P.K. Subban, Jordan Eberle, and Jamie Benn on the team, it’s no secret that Canadians are hungry for gold in 2015.

Through three games against Team Russia in the six game SUBWAY Super Series, CHL representatives have outshot the Russians 107-59 but the ability to execute offensively has been absent resulting in three very physical affairs yielding nothing in the win column.

For Hockey Canada’s Director of Player Development Ryan Jankowski, the result on the scoreboard is important, but the opportunity to see prospective National Junior Team players in a competitive international environment is paramount. “We ultimately want to see which players are elevating their game against the Russians. It’s not often we get to see these players perform in an environment that challenges their comfort zone,” he said.

While Russia has been getting the victories, Jankowski says the talented opposition will prepare Canadian players for what they’ll be up against come December. “The World Juniors are a difficult competition. We want our guys to realize what a challenge this really is and Russia has proven to be every bit as strong as we thought they’d be. This is an opportunity for us to try and build some chemistry and get players familiarized with new teammates.”

For the man behind the bench, the 2015 IIHF World Junior Championship presents a second chance. Gatineau Olympiques Head Coach Benoit Groulx was slated to coach the 2009 gold medal winning Canadian juniors before accepting a job with the American Hockey League’s Rochester Americans, giving way to Pat Quinn behind the Canadian bench. Groulx, who is a three-time QMJHL Champion as the coach of the Olympiques franchise in 2003, 2004 and 2008, came within one win of MasterCard Memorial Cup glory on two occasions.

Back in the QMJHL after a two year AHL stint from 2008-2010, Groulx is excited for his opportunity to lead Canada into the World Junior Championship. He is looking forward to seeing more of the talent he observed at Canada’s National Junior Team Summer Development Camp in Calgary this past August where Canada went 3-1 in games against Russia and the Czech Republic. “The guys who attended summer camp were a committed group, they want to do well and have the work ethic and understanding to know what we want from them,” Groulx told Terry Koshan in Hockey Prospect Magazine. “We left them with the message that it was only the first step of making this team.”

Groulx, who was a big point producer with the QMJHL’s Granby Bisons from 1986-1989, used Canada’s gold medal victory at the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi as a motivational tool during camp. “When you look at that team, at Crosby, Toews, Perry, Getzlaf, all of them, they took the best players and they were world class, but they adapted their game to what was needed to win,” he said. “They had a lot of talent, but they were a team. This is what we want to do. We want to turn the best Canadian junior players into a team. We need individuals to buy into a team concept.”

The 2014 SUBWAY Super Series, though limited in its success on the Canadian front to this point, has seen both the WHL and the OHL carry a bulk of the play through the first three games. The next step is translating that possession time and frequent activity on the shot clock into goals, a task Team OHL has in front of them headed into Monday night’s Game 4 at the K-Rock Centre in Kingston.

Though the CHL currently trails 8 points to 1 in the series, an OHL win on Monday would keep the series alive for Team QMJHL who will host games 5 and 6 of the series on Tuesday and Thursday.

Catch all of Monday’s action live across the country on Sportsnet Ontario, East, West and Pacific at 7:00pm ET. The game can also be viewed on TVA Sports and followed along online on Sportsnet 590 The FAN.

For more information including how to purchase tickets please visit www.subwaysuperseries.ca.