The World Junior Championships are upon us, and it looks like Montreal Canadiens prospect Michael Hage may play the tournament alongside Gavin McKenna.
As the World Junior Championships draw near, national teams are ramping up their preparations, and we’re seeing more complete lineups in exhibition games. Last week, the San Jose Sharks announced that they were loaning Michael Misa to Team Canada for the tournament, and as a result, Montreal Canadiens’ prospect Michal Hage lost Gavin McKenna as a linemate.
When Hage was skating alongside McKenna and Brady Martin on December 17, Canada won its exhibition game against Sweden 2-1, with the line producing both goals and the Habs prospect netting an assist.
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Then, on December 20, with Misa lining up with McKenna, Sweden beat Canada 4-2, and neither got on the scoresheet. Meanwhile, Hage got another assist this time on a Tij Iginla goal.
On Monday morning at practice, the lines had changed again: while Misa was still on the top line with Iginla and Porter Martone, McKenna was on the second line with Hage and Martin. The coaching staff seems to have decided to go back to the line that brought them success in the first game against Sweden.
Canada will have one last exhibition game on Tuesday, when they take on Denmark at 7:00 PM CST. Chances are, the lines we saw at Monday’s practice will be deployed, and if everything goes according to plan, they could be the lines used when the tournament kicks off on the 26th. Cole Reschny, Cole Beaudoin and Jett Luchanko form the third line, while Liam Greetree, Braeden Coots and Sam O’Reilly patrol on the fourth line with Carter Bear being the 13th forward.
On the backend, Cameron Reid and Zayne Parekh form the first pairing, Kashawn Aitcheson and Harrison Brunicke the second pairing, Ethan MacKenzie and Benjamin Danford the third pairing and Carson Carels and Keaton Verhoeff the fourth pairing.
Canada will kick off its tournament on Thursday at 7:30 PM CST against Czechia, then they’ll face Latvia on Friday at 3:30 PM CST and Denmark on Monday, December 29th at 7:30 PM CST. They’ll wrap up the preliminary round with a game against Finland on New Year's Eve at 7:30 PM CST.
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