After the NHL pulled out of Beijing, Hockey Canada was forced to quickly go to its backup plan to prepare for February's Olympic tournament. The team feels it's ready for the challenge ahead.
No matter what tournament it is, Team Canada is always expected to win gold.
The U-18 World Championship. The World Junior Championship. The men's and women's World Championship. And, most importantly, to many, the Olympics.
But neither Canadian team was able to do that in 2018, with the men's group taking bronze and the women's team losing to the United States in the shootout. This time around, Canada enters as a double-champion of both World Championship events, and there's hope of double gold in Beijing, too.
For the men's team, though, it's going to be a bit more challenging. Just like in 2018, Canada will be without its top players with the NHL electing to stay home, this time due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Canada prepared for it by sending a team to the most recent leg of the Euro Hockey Tour, the Channel One Cup, as a way of determining targets for the final roster.
Canada struggled in the three-game exhibition series, going 1-2 with its only win against Sweden. It was a mix-and-match team that was used to evaluate the crew, with the Spengler Cup used to evaluate more talent the following week. But that was cancelled due to COVID-19 concerns, taking away the last real showcase event before hitting the big time.
Canada had to revamp its management team due to the NHL revoking its players and management from participating. Hockey Canada confirmed that Claude Julien would coach the club and Shane Doan would serve as GM, retaining similar roles from the Channel One Cup.
Canada's roster is expected to be announced by Jan. 24, giving the team just over a week to finalize its 25-man group. Canada will begin camp in Davos, Switzerland on Jan. 16 before finishing with a camp game against Switzerland on Feb. 1.
And while there won't be any NHLers like in 2018, 2022 is a much different scenario. As far as anyone was concerned, the NHL was still going without concern as late as mid-December. But with everything happening so quickly, everyone had to change to their backup plans in short order as opposed to everyone involved knowing a year in advance leading into 2018.
Doan, an Olympian himself with Canada back in 2006, said he picked the brains of the 2018 management team to learn a bit about how to prepare for the unique challenge. For Hockey Canada CEO Tom Renney, he said the team was well-prepared to move to Plan B, which he now simply refers to as "Plan A".
"We had the experience of 2017 and PyeongChang, and we're kind of running parallel paths there with preparing ourselves whether with an NHL team or not. "This year was similar right from the get-go and we had to be ready."
Team Canada doesn't have a lack of a player base to choose from. Players are expected to be made of NCAA players, top European-league names and even some AHLers along the way. But making everything work is harder than it seems – just ask the 2018 team that lost to Germany in the semifinal. But Canada has learned from that experience, and the management seems confident in the tools at their disposal this time around.
"There are more stats than we could possibly imagine on everything now," Doan said. "We're going through that and making sure we take a look at every situation.
Renney said the experience of building the team in 2018 allowed them to get a better knowledge of the players playing abroad, saying there is "a level of comfort in being ready pretty much from the get-go with this group."
Doan's experience with Canada on and off the ice is something he sees as an advantage when building the team, saying "It does give you an understanding of what the tournament is like and what goes into it." Many teams will be leaning on former players to lead teams, including Russian GM Ilya Kovalchuk, who won gold and the tournament MVP four years ago.
Building a roster for any major international tournament is a challenge. But having to build a competitive one during a pandemic where scouting is tougher than usual and not everyone might be available is even more of a challenge. And that's not an issue tied to Canada – 11 of the 12 teams had to make changes in some way based on the NHL's announcement last month. Canada views itself in a good spot heading into Beijing, but it's going to take a lot of hard work in such a small period of time.
"I think the relationship side is probably one of the most important parts of bringing a team together really quickly," Doan said. "I think that that's a big part of any type of success, you have to have people that are willing to work together, work out of their normal comfort zones."
Expectations are high for Canada, who, based on roster rumblings, has emerged as one of the favorites to win gold. Russia, like always, will be a challenge, but Hockey Canada seems confident in the group they've put together. They're holding that group tight to their chests right now, but it's hard to expect anything else but a competitive team when Canada plays internationally.
But will it be enough to take the top prize? That's the question on the minds of many right now.