Portland Winterhawks captain Cody Glass, the sixth overall selection in the 2017 NHL draft, is on the Island today. But thankfully, at least for the Victoria Royals, not at Save-on-Foods Memorial Centre. The Las Vegas Golden Knights prospect will be across town at The Q Centre with the Canadian junior team selection camp hopefuls for the 2019 IIHF world junior championship.
“We don’t change our approach [because of opposing personnel],” said Victoria head coach Dan Price, of the Western Hockey League set between the Royals and Winterhawks tonight and Wednesday on Blanshard.
“Portland is a deep enough group that they can make up for that absence.”
At 18-10-2, and on a four-game winning streak, the Winterhawks certainly can. Case-in-point is San Jose Sharks prospect Joachim Blichfeld, who represented Denmark at the world juniors last year in Buffalo, and has 26 goals and 56 points for the Winterhawks. The 20-year-old has aged out of world-junior eligibility, which is U-20.
Not that Denmark won’t have representatives tonight, both on the ice and bench, for the 2019 world juniors which begin Boxing Day at the Memorial Centre in Victoria and Rogers Arena in Vancouver.
Royals forward Phillip Schultz will return to play for Denmark in the world juniors while Victoria assistant coach J.F. Best will be Danish team assistant coach for video and performance analysis for the fourth consecutive tournament. Both are available to the Royals (13-12-1) throughout this week and Schultz says he has no problem compartmentalizing when it comes to club and country.
“The biggest honour for me is to play in my national-team colours,” said Schultz, who hails from the city of Rodovre, and has five goals and eight points for the Royals
“It’s exciting. [But] my focus is not on the world junior tournament right now, but on finishing strong here in Victoria.”
Yet, it’s hard not to think ahead, especially with Schultz knowing that the talented Canadian group gathered beginning today at The Q Centre is the one he and his Danish teammates will be facing in the opening Pool A game on Boxing Day at Rogers Arena.
“That’s the biggest game you can play in your junior hockey career, especially with Rogers Arena expected to be sold out,” said Schultz.
Another highlight will come if the Danes manage to take fourth place in Pool A, which would bring them to the Memorial Centre for a quarter-final playoff game against the Victoria-based Pool B first-place finisher.
“Playing a quarter-final in Victoria would mean a lot to me and I will let the guys [Danish teammates] know so they will fight even harder to get me here,” said Schultz.
The world juniors, however, will be bittersweet for Victoria blue-liner Scott Walford. Nothing against club play or the Royals, but his goal was to be at The Q Centre this week and not the Memorial Centre. Walford was named to Team WHL during the vetting process but did not receive an invite to the Canadian selection camp beginning today in Colwood.
“It was hard and I’m not hiding that playing for Canada in the world juniors has been a dream of mine since I began watching the tournament on TV as a kid in Coquitlam,” said Walford.
But the Canadian junior talent pool is so deep, that even its second- and third-tier teams could challenge for the gold medal if they were allowed to enter.
“There are a lot of great Canadian players who didn’t get the call. I wish all the best of luck to the Canadian team,” said Walford.
The third-round Montreal Canadiens draft pick will use the rejection to push himself.
“I knew it was going to be motivating for me, either way,” said Walford.
Missing for Victoria this week is import forward Igor Martynov, who represented Belarus in the world juniors last year in Buffalo, and is doing the same this month at the B-level world junior tournament in Fussen, Germany.
ICE CHIPS: It will be a homecoming this week for two Winterhawks blue-liners. Carolina Hurricanes draft pick Brendan De Jong hails from Victoria, while Jared Freadrich played for the Royals last season.
