No NBers on Team Canada junior squad again

By James Foster
Times & Transcript Staff

The only player with so much as a tenuous connection to New Brunswick on Team Canada in this year's world junior hockey championships is actually a Prince Edward Islander.

It's somewhat telling for hockey fans in this province that Brandon Gormley, standout defenceman with the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League's Moncton Wildcats and a native Islander, is just about the closest thing to a New Brunswicker to be found in the tournament.

So what's wrong with hockey in New Brunswick? Nothing, say some of those who are consumed by the game; plenty, say others.

"It starts from the ground up," says Mario LeBlanc, a hockey dad from Dieppe.

"We have had NHLers and similar stars in the past from New Brunswick, but maybe not so much any more," LeBlanc says.

"Backyard rinks are a thing of the past. So are community rinks. There used to be rinks in every neighbourhood, in most playgrounds where kids could just (fool) around to their heart's delight, but now it's all organized hockey and all serious all the time. Kids need time to be kids. It does make them better hockey players when they get the chance to just fool around, try out different stuff and see what works best for them."

LeBlanc makes it clear he's not discounting the value of organized hockey or of kids spending ice time under the watchful eyes of good tutors. His point is that children who have an opportunity for both organized sport as well as unstructured play, in his opinion, will be more inventive and better hockey players.

Hockey fan David Perry couldn't disagree more. He's strident in his belief that more elite programs will allow more players in this province to hone their skills to the superior level needed to compete on the world stage.

"You only get better when you play with and against better players, when you have the top coaches," Perry says.

"It only makes sense, when you think about it."

Perry contends that New Brunswickers who have played hockey at the highest of levels in recent decades would not have made it without great peers to learn from and superior coaching to guide them.

"I'm not saying that their whole lives have to be nothing but a military-hockey camp like the Russians used to do in the old days of international hockey," Perry says. "I'm saying that if you spend your hockey time, or much of it, playing against inferior players with coaches that are still pretty much finding their own way in the game, then you are going to go down to their level, not up to the level of top-notch players."

Avid world junior fan Earl Dupuis has a different take on the discussion however. He contends the lack of NBers at the tourney is simply a matter of numbers.

"We are a small province and we don't have the number of junior-aged players that most of the other provinces have," Dupuis argues.

"It's nothing more than that. If you look at the roster, there's no one from Newfoundland, no one from Nova Scotia either. The only Islander is Gormley and that's it for (Atlantic) Canada, so we're no different than the other (Atlantic) provinces."

Adopted Maritimers who made the roster include defenceman Nathan Beaulieu and left winger Jonathan Huberdeau, of Strathroy On., and St-Jerome, Que., respectively, both standouts with the Saint John Sea Dogs of the QMJHL.

And Fredericton's Andrew Brewer is serving the team as video coach.

Dupuis takes pains to point out that many New Brunswickers have left their marks on the tournament in years past, including most recently Sean Couturier, who hails from Bathurst, just last year.

Other past players to make the dream team include goalie Jake Allen, of Fredericton, in 2010 and hard-rock Cap-Pel? forward Patrice Cormier in both 2010 and 2009.

Vancouver Canucks defenceman and one-time Wildcats standout the late Luc Bourdon, of Shippagan, played a starring role in both 2007 and 2006.

Source: http://timestranscript.canadaeast.com/rss/article/1468211

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