The NHL lockout is about to pay off.
While I don’t see myself at Rexall Place to watch the Oilers anytime soon, I know I will be parked in front of my television at the end of the month to watch one of my absolute favorite annual sporting events, the World Junior Ice Hockey Championships. Better yet, with no NHL game scheduled, the list of talent that will be on display at the event has skyrocketed.
The lockout will allow for a large crop of on-ice talent that would normally be obligated to stay with their NHL clubs to take part in the international tournament. For Oiler fans this year, it is especially exciting, as the team’s most recent pair of first overall draft picks, Ryan Nugent-Hopkins and Nail Yakupov, will likely face off in the storied Canada-Russia rivalry.
The World Junior Championships, which open on Boxing Day in Ufa, Russia, always rival my anticipation for Christmas. What Christmas is to my family and myself, the World Junior Championships is to my friends and me.
Since I won’t be traveling back to Ontario for Christmas, this year will certainly be different, but it is safe to say that this is a year where my anticipation for the World Junior Championships trumps my excitement for Christmas.
The World Juniors have always been special for me, and lately it has held a higher sentimental value, as my first publication as a journalist came out of last year’s tournament when I wrote a story about Mark Scheifele, a native of Kitchener, Ont. (where I was working at the time). Scheifele will likely be returning to the roster as Canada’s number two centre, behind Nugent-Hopkins, if not alongside him as a winger on the top line.
The tournament also holds a great deal of sentimentality for me as a devout Canadian hockey fan, and someone who had to part ways with great friends to pursue my career. Topping the list of momentous World Junior memories would have to be the infamous Jordan Eberle goal. If you’re a hockey fan, you already know what I’m talking about.
I vividly remember being with a handful of my closest friends at one of their houses to watch Eberle’s historic goal to force overtime against the Russians with 5.4 seconds remaining in the 2009 semifinals. More importantly, I remember exactly how I felt jumping and down screaming like a five-year-old. Thinking about it still gives me goose bumps almost four years later.
Even with the Russians chuckling about defeating the great Canadians after icing the puck with only seconds remaining, the television stayed on in spite of the disappointment that was slowly creeping into our minds. The Russians won the ensuing draw, but Ryan Ellis made a fantastic play at the blue line to keep the puck in, and we all slid up onto the edge of our seats as we watched the puck drift to Eberle’s stick, holding our collective breaths as he deposited the puck into the back of the net. I remember a quick moment of silent disbelief in the room before all of us leapt into the air, screaming and hugging each other, somehow knowing we had just won the game, even though the goal only forced overtime.
Eberle went on to score the game-winning shootout goal. He even scored one of the most amazing first career NHL goals ever, but he will always be remembered first for the mark he made on Canadian hockey by tying that game, before even stepping foot onto NHL ice.
Hockey provides us with unforgettable moments, and the World Junior Championship allows us to share those moments not just with our friends and family, but with our whole country. Having moved over 3,000 kilometres across the nation, I still can’t find a hockey fan that I can’t have a lengthy discussion with regarding that goal.
It’s a season that brings great excitement into the hearts of all hockey fans, young and old, as we get to watch some of the most talented players in the world put their blood, sweat and tears into performing for their nation instead of paychecks. What a notion. I, for one, can’t wait.
