Chapter 3

The next two and a half weeks went by quickly and I found myself getting off a plane in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan to attend the Canadian Junior under twenty development camp. It was Tuesday evening of the first week of August and the camp ran from Wednesday to Sunday. I was one of forty-six guys invited, though only one of two guys not from a Canadian junior league team or on loan from the NHL.

I grabbed my suitcase, my hockey bag and bundle of sticks from the luggage carousal and found a taxi outside. A few minutes later I was hauling my stuff into the hotel lobby and checked in. I was paired with TJ Brodie, a defenceman from Chatham, Ontario who played for Saginaw in the OHL and was drafted by Calgary in the fourth round this year. TJ wasn't due until tomorrow morning so I had the room to myself for the night. We were both going to be on the red team for the week.

I called the head coach, Willie Desjardins, and let him know I was in town and what room I was in. He let me know our first practice was tomorrow evening at six forty-five pm. Earlier in the day we would have a full team meeting at three and then supper at four-thirty.

It was pretty late so I hit the bed early after making sure the hotel exercise room was adequate for tomorrow morning. Before I fell asleep I thought about what I could expect tomorrow from the players and the coaches. I would know Calvin from the Islanders and a couple guys from the combine in Toronto, but that was it. I didn't have a clue how the junior teams practiced so I probably would be at a disadvantage for the first practice or so. Luckily we didn't play a scrimmage until Saturday. Coach Benson and I had gone over some of the game tapes of last year's championship and I thought I could keep up with the pace and the amount of physical play. It took me an hour to fall asleep as I worried about things until I was exhausted.

Wednesday morning I was up early and worked out in the hotel's exercise room. There were a couple other men in the room and one of them came over while I was doing some bench presses.

"Hi, you're Mike Stewart, right?" he asked.

"Yes I am," I replied.

"Hi, I'm Brad Pascall, the Senior Director for the under twenty junior team for Hockey Canada," he said.

"It's nice to meet you, Mr. Pascall," I said, standing up to shake his hand.

"You're much bigger in person than I thought you'd be," he admitted, looking up at me. "Al Murray, the Head Scout for Hockey Canada, and I didn't have you on our radar until Steve Yzerman put you on the Olympic list but now I can see why he did that. That's a lot of weight you're pushing there. Aren't you afraid of bulking up too much and losing speed?"

"I've been working on both at the same time," I explained. "I figure I need a few pounds to deal with the bigger guys at the Olympic camp at the end of August but I still need to keep my speed up. So far I think I have a good balance but time will tell."

"I have to be honest, you're a bit of a long shot to make this team as you're an unknown quantity up here," he stated. "You're going to have to really impress both the management and the coaches this week. The NCAA reputation isn't the greatest, especially in terms of toughness. The other guys are going to try and intimidate you."

"I think you'll find that I don't intimidate easily, Mr. Pascal," I replied with a chuckle. "Toughness is the least of my worries this week. I'm more concerned with learning how you do things in terms of drills and set plays. Besides, doesn't fighting get you thrown out of the game in international play?"

"Yes, but we won't be enforcing that until the final scrimmage," he admitted. "I hope we're wrong and you do impress us. We'll see you at the arena at three."

I nodded and went back to working out while he rode a bike for a while longer. After he left, I rode the bike hard before having a shower and grabbing some breakfast in the hotel's restaurant. After I was done, I went back upstairs and worked on some assignments that were all due next Tuesday, the professors granting me a few days grace after providing me the next four assignments early. TJ came in about ten thirty and was a slim guy about six foot one and about one seventy five or so in weight.

"Hey, Mike Stewart right?" he said, offering his hand.

"Yep, you must be TJ," I replied as we shook hands. "It's nice to meet you."

"Same here," he replied. "Been here long?"

"I came in last night," I told him.

"Homework in the summer?" he asked, looking at the textbooks and computer on my bed.

"I'm taking some courses to try and finish my degree earlier," I explained.

"I'm glad I'm not planning on going to college," he said. "It's hard enough with all the practicing and off season regiments they put us through."

He unpacked and then went out to find some friends in the other rooms. I continued to work on my homework until it was time to eat lunch.

After lunch, again in the hotel restaurant, I worked on my game design course's second project, which was now to design the graphical portion of my game as well the meat and potatoes of the structures.

At two thirty, TJ came back in and we gathered up our hockey equipment before taking the team bus to the Credit Union Centre. We followed other players carrying their equipment into the building and checked in at the locker rooms. After hanging up our equipment, we joined the rest of the team in a conference room down the hall. I nodded to Calvin from the Islanders and Jared Cowen who was in my group at the combine, while TJ went around and chatted with guys he knew. A few of the guys were fooling around but settled down as the management and the coaches came in.

There was the normal welcoming speech where they told us newcomers of their great record of gold for the past five years and they wanted to make sure that we kept it up for this year. After that, they explained some of the differences between normal North American hockey and the international rules and then told us what they had planned for this week. There were curfews in place to be in bed by eleven and no guests were allowed in the rooms after that. No alcohol or drugs obviously, even if someone was nineteen and therefore legal to drink in Saskatchewan.

We split up into three groups; forwards, defencemen and goalies and Dave Cameron, one of the associate coaches, talked to the defencemen about what he expected from us at this camp. He handed out some jerseys, both for practice and for the scrimmages and then paired us up for the duration of the camp. As suspected, TJ and I were paired together as one of the four pairs of defenceman for the red side, at least to start.

They fed us and showed us the semi-final match from last year against Russia and the game was evaluated by the coaching staff for any mistakes. The Canadian team won it in a shootout after Jordan Eberle, who was here again this year, tied it up just before the end of regulation. Finally, it was time for the red team to practice while the white team got to watch from the stands. We got dressed and TJ and I both wore our black practice shirts as we headed onto the ice. We had a quick warm-up skate and stretched before peppering the two goalies with shots.

The coaches had us do some skating and passing drills which luckily I had done before. Then there were three on two drills where the forward line came in on a defence pair and the goalie. On my first try I rubbed out the left winger along the boards when he tried to go wide on me. The next time, TJ deflected a pass and the puck was easily cleared with a simple tap of the stick.

We then worked on breakouts from our zone. When it was our turn, TJ passed it to me from behind our net to where I was on the half boards. I passed it to a fast skating forward across the ice before a forechecker took a run at me, trying to paste me through the boards. I leaned into his check and he bounced off me and fell down while I skated forward to finish off the play.

The next time we were up, I was behind the net and they sent in three forecheckers; two to cover both half boards and one to shadow me. With no passing options, I faked one way and went out the other with the speedster on me right away. I took off, carrying the puck with one hand on my stick while using my other arm to shield the forechecker away from it. At the top of our faceoff circle, the second forechecker on that side moved to double team me, so I passed it to the man he was covering and shot by his defender. My teammate passed it back to me on a give and go and I exited the zone on the fly, the speedy forward unable to keep up to me.

For the final twenty minutes, we had a small scrimmage with ten on each side making up two forward lines and two pairs of defence. The pace was quick and it was also physical as everyone was trying to prove that they deserved to be on the team. The first shift I was on the ice we got the other team pinned in their zone and I was set up with a nice cross-ice pass from TJ that I one-timed on the ice low enough to be tipped. One of the forwards got his stick on the puck and deflected it past the surprised goalie for a goal.

The second shift we were up against three speedsters and were backpedalling out of their zone as they collected the puck. Three passes later, they were entering the zone and I had to help TJ as one of them beat him to the outside and was bearing down on our goalie. He tried to cut sharply into the centre to allow me to skate by him, but I got enough of him with my body to send him flying and allowing TJ to pick up the loose puck and sent our forwards back up the ice.

On our fourth shift, we were hemmed in our zone and I was along the back boards trying to move the puck up the side boards. I had two forwards trying to dig the puck from my feet while pushing me against the boards with crosschecks to the back. After about fifteen seconds of it, I got angry and shouldered one out of the way and pushed the puck up the boards.

The guy I shouldered took offence, even though it was a clean hit to his shoulder as he was nearly as tall as I was. He was one of the bigger forwards, probably close to two hundred and fifteen pounds and about six foot four so he came back at me and tried to push me to the boards again as I was following the puck up the boards. I caught him a bit off guard with my speed and he missed me and crashed into the boards behind me with a big bang.

On our final shift, I got to carry the puck up through the neutral zone after a nice pass from a forward on the half boards. I picked up speed and deked a forward out of his jockstrap and passed it to my waiting right winger at their blue line. He saw how fast I was going and bounced a pass off the boards, past their defenceman and right back into my path as I raced in. The other defenceman came over to try and cut me off but he was coming back from the blueline and could only try and lean on me as I went in on the goalie. I held him off with my arm with my shoulder down low and faked a shot to the near post before dragging the puck to my backhand across the crease and roofing it up into the mesh at the top of the goal over the sprawling goalie.

The defender pushed me as I passed the goal but I saved myself from crashing into the boards by quickly turning sharply back to centre ice, in the process making myself look more agile than I was. I nodded to the guys as we got off the ice and the practice was over before we could get on again. The white team was waiting in the tunnel when we got off and there was some good natured ribbing from guys who knew each other. I quickly got out of my equipment and had a shower before dressing and going out to watch the white team practice.

It looked to me like the white team was stacked with some very good players with six returning players from the gold medal team from last year, to two on the red team. Several of their forwards were first round draft pics of the NHL from last year's or this year's draft. Hall, Eberle, Duchene, Hodgson, Kane and Schenn were all well known players and they showed off their speed and ability all practice. The tallest man at camp was Tyler Myers, a six foot seven and a half inch tall defenceman that was drafted by Buffalo last year. He probably wouldn't play in the tournament as he was expected to make Buffalo's roster this year.

TJ joined me and we studied the white team's play until they left the ice at nine thirty. We hopped on a shuttle back to the hotel and TJ went to spend some time with friends while I called my ladies and told them how my first day went.

Elizabeth hadn't seen her parents since the fight with her dad and was spending her spare time with Willow and Asuka. We had helped her move into her apartment near the MSU campus last weekend but she spent weekends with us and some evenings if she didn't have too much homework.

Willow's recording was almost complete from their perspective and the mixing of the songs was going on almost simultaneously so it could be released in early September just before their concert tour started in Canada. Once the CD took off, they would continue the tour in the States.

Asuka stayed in my condo about half of the week's nights now that things were safe for Mitsy and the family. Willow and Elizabeth would join us about the same number of nights. I was getting used to having them around and they were always finding ways to make things exciting for us. I talked to each of them for a couple minutes and told them about the first day of practice.

I worked on assignments after we hung up until it was close to eleven. I was reading when TJ and one of the minders came in to check on us. We turned out the lights and I was asleep quickly.

I slipped out of the room early Thursday morning and worked out again. Several of the more dedicated guys were also there but no one was in any mood to talk. After a quick shower, I went to get dressed and woke TJ so he wouldn't be late for the team breakfast. We were bussed over to the arena after breakfast and the red squad had the ice first at nine thirty.

This morning's practice was split evenly between team offence versus neutral zone traps and working on special teams. I got a few chances to shoot some bombs from the point and once, when the forward covering the point overextended himself, I was able to fake a shot and move around him to shoot from the top of the circle. It nicked the bottom of the cross bar and went in as the goalie ducked and the players in front of him got out of the way. Another of my shots went slightly high and cracked the glass behind the net causing a short delay while they changed out the panel.

We also worked on the penalty kill and I was assigned to clear out the front of the net as legally as I could. They planted some big guys in front with me and I had to fight for space and tie up their sticks when they couldn't be moved.

After our practice we watched the white team go through the same things and then we all had lunch together. After lunch, we had a team meeting where the doping policy and testing was explained in detail and then a lecture on how to act as representatives of your country during the tournament. We were given a couple hours off and then the red had a four thirty practice and then had supper, while the white team ate and then practiced at six fifteen.

I had another good practice, defending well and moving the puck up the ice without turning it over. I made sure TJ got his fair share of shots on net and his turn to carry up the puck as well. Neither of us was selfish or arrogant so we worked well as a team, backing each other up if the other took a risk.

Friday was day off and a bunch of guys went golfing. I didn't golf so I worked out and arranged for an hour of ice time at another rink to practice my skating and shooting. The rest of the day I worked on my project. Other than TJ, I hadn't made many friends yet, partly because I was busy with homework and partly because there was still a stigma for playing in the U.S. college ranks rather than the Canadian juniors. I wasn't concerned for myself but the management and coaches wanted to build team chemistry so it could turn out to be an issue down the road.

Saturday, each team had a practice in the morning, with the white team going first. Team defence was the order of the day as the coaches were more hands-on with how they wanted us positioned in different situations. We also had a mini-scrimmage in our individual practices where things got chippy as guys who hadn't had a good camp so far tried to impress with physical play. A couple of fights broke out in each practice and I was involved in one near the end of our practice.

The big forward named Josh took a run at me and slammed me into the boards when my back was turned. I took exception to that and pushed him hard into the boards, making him stagger and fall to one knee.

He grinned as he got up and said, "Let's go, pretty boy."

He shook off his gloves so I did as well. We both took off our helmets as we closed into punching range. He threw a punch with his right hand while trying to grab my right sleeve to stop me from punching him with that hand, wrongfully assuming I was right handed as well. I moved my head to avoid the punch and counter punched with a hard left that he wasn't expecting. I heard his nose crunch and blood started running down his mouth and chin. I ripped my right arm away from his grasp and socked him on the jaw and had to grab him before he cracked his head on the ice as he collapsed, already unconscious on the way down.

I waved for the trainers after I lowered him to the ice and then wiped the blood off my hands onto my shirt to make sure my knuckles weren't cut. I skated over to grab my helmet, stick and gloves and then leaned on my stick while watching the trainers use smelling salts to wake him up. They helped him to his feet and slowly walked him over to the bench and then back to the training room.

"Damn Mike, you just took down one of the best fighters in the OHL with two punches," TJ said with a grin.

"I got lucky," I replied with a shrug as we skated away.

"Didn't look like luck had much to do with it," he replied.

They ended practice soon after the fight and fed us lunch before telling us to be back at five thirty for the seven o'clock red-white game.

I went back and worked on my project for a couple of hours and then took a walk around Saskatoon. I found a store that I was looking for and went inside and purchased a few items. After a quick bite to eat, I took a taxi back to the hotel and changed. They wanted us to be in suits as there would be cameras and fans there before and after the game.

TJ and I walked down together and got on the bus and it took off a few minutes later after they did a headcount. There was a small crowd at the side entrance and we signed some autographs before heading inside. The red team got a quick warm-up before the white team got their chance.

At ten to seven we both took to the ice and there was a crowd of about twenty five hundred on hand to watch. After a quick skate, the starting five lined up at each blueline and stood while they played the national anthem. The game got underway with the usual amount of referees and linesmen. It was going to be a full length game with three periods.

TJ and I were assigned as the fourth pair of defencemen on the red team which meant we didn't get on the ice until about five minutes into the game. Our team got a goal in the first minute of play when Patrice deflected a point shot from Calvin past the goalie. TJ and I had an uneventful first couple of shifts and the third one I finally got a chance to actually shoot on net. Their goalie made a great save through traffic to snare the shot labelled for the far corner.

Right after we got off the ice, the white team scored by banging a rebound past our goalie. They made the score two to one a couple minutes later on a slap shot from the middle of the slot. TJ and I got sent onto the ice afterwards and had our hands full as the white team smelled blood and was coming in for the kill. I had two men trying to dig the puck from my feet in the corner for about twenty seconds when I had enough and just used my size to start pushing the puck up the boards. I shrugged one guy out of the way and flicked the puck up to a forward who got it out to centre ice. I followed the play out of the zone but had to backpedal when the white team gained possession and counter attacked.

I took a chance and moved toward their forward on my side just as their defenceman started his pass. I was able to intercept the pass and kept skating through the neutral zone, catching the white team going the wrong way. One deke and I was past their centre at the blue line and in on their defenceman. I raised my stick to shoot and he went down to block the shot. I faked the shot and went around him and passed the puck over to our left winger when the other defenceman came over to check me. The winger one timed it but the goalie flashed out his glove and robbed him of what I thought was a sure goal. The period ended in the two to one score for white and we rested while the coaches went over some of the mistakes we had made and pointed out the few good plays.

The second period wasn't any better for us. TJ and I started the period and we carried the puck up the ice and gave the forwards a good scoring chance before we had to defend against their rush. We got on a few times during the period but nothing special happened for us. The white team made the score three to one with a close in backhand shot about three quarters through the period and that was how the period ended.

The third period went back and forth for a few minutes but the white team made it four to one with a tic-tac-toe passing play that had the defence pair on looking like they were standing still; luckily it wasn't us.

TJ made it four to two with about five minutes left in the game. I set him up for a one timer after attracting two forwards over to me as I wound up for a shot. His shot made it through a crowd up front and the screened goalie never saw it as it flew by his head and into the net.

We took a time out shortly before the end of the game and then pulled our goalie, but the white team scored an empty net goal and the game ended with the score five to two. We showered quickly and had to endure the jeers of the white team on the bus ride back to the hotel. We hit the hay early as we had the first practice in the morning.

Sunday morning I worked out and a couple of the coaches were surprised to see me working out before practice. I assured them it was my normal routine. They were impressed with the weight I was pushing as most juniors weren't developed enough to really push the heavy weights yet. After breakfast TJ and I and the rest of the red team went to the arena and the coaches went over defence with the whole squad and then taught us a couple of plays they wanted us to use in their zone for the final game that evening. A few of us stuck around to watch the white squad practice and then joined the whole team for lunch.

The final game started at six pm so I worked on my project for a few hours and then joined the team for an early supper. We were at the arena at five and each team had a short warm-up before the game started.

TJ and I remained partners and had moved up to second pair. We had a couple chances to shoot the puck in the first period but nothing came of it. The white team scored on the power play off a goal mouth scramble with twenty seconds left in the period and took a one to nothing lead into the locker room.

We were read the riot act by the coaches in the locker room for our play and we came out with a purpose at the start of the second period. It didn't do us any good as they scored about three minutes in. We finally got on the board with a tip in of a slap shot but they scored again to take a three to one lead. At the half way point of the second period, the second pair of goalies took over and things changed for us. Two minutes later Cody scored from close in to make it three to two. The teams traded chances for the next couple of minutes and then TJ and I jumped on the ice and followed the forwards up the ice.

The white team had taken the opportunity to change as well so they were all chasing the forwards around in their zone. When our forwards became outnumbered, the puck was passed back to me as I was sneaking in from the point. I wound up and put everything I had into it and blasted it by the goalie on his stick side to even the score.

After a quick congratulation, we lined up at centre ice and we won the draw. TJ got the puck and passed it up the boards and we followed the forwards into the zone. It went deep again and then was wrapped back up the boards to TJ. His shooting lane to the goal was blocked so he faked a shot and passed it over to me. I one timed it and the hard shot bounced off their defenceman's leg and past the goalie for another goal. The guys congratulated me and then we went off for the change.

We took the four to three lead into the dressing room at the end of the second period and finally had something to be happy about. The coaches urged us to bear down and make sure we came out with a win. The white team pressed hard for the tying goal from the start of the third period. The play got physical and then chippy as tempers flared. Two of the forwards got into a shoving match but only got roughing penalties.

On the ensuing four on four, TJ and I went on the ice and, with the extra room we were able to pass it back and forth as we moved up the ice. We hemmed the white team in their zone, getting shots from the point and also feeding the two forwards down low. When they finally got possession of the puck, I was able to lay out the forward carrying the puck when he tried to deke around me. I didn't go for the head fake or the fancy stick work but kept my eyes on his chest and when he got too close, I moved hard into him and send him flying backwards. I corralled the puck and passed it to TJ before their big defenceman, Tyler Myers, came at me to defend his forward.

He had over an inch on me in height but I outweighed him by twenty pounds as he tried to use his momentum to shove me into the boards. I was able to step to the side enough to get a glancing blow to my shoulder and we both slammed into the boards and glass just a few feet from their bench. He staggered for a couple steps as he wasn't expecting not to hit me while I rejoined the team on the attack for a quick four on two. Their goalie ended up making a very good save to keep the game close. Myers tried to get at me again but the linesmen got between us.

"Grow up, it was clean hit and you know it," I told him before skating away.

"Just try that again with someone your own size next time," he shouted.

"You better make sure you keep your head up then," I responded before skating to the bench.

"Nice hit," TJ said. "I'm surprised you and Myers didn't go after the hit he tried on you."

"If I fought every time someone hit me, there wouldn't be much of a team left," I said.

"Myers is a pretty good fighter and he's got a long reach," TJ reminded me.

"Wouldn't matter, and then the coaches would be mad at me for hurting him too," I told him.

The assistant coach heard what I said and spoke up.

"You make a good point, Stewart," Coach Cameron said. "Fighting doesn't impress us here as much as it does in Junior. It was a clean hit so Myers was being stupid and could have cost his team a penalty when it was four on four. There is a time and place for that kind of retaliation and that wasn't it."

"See," I said to TJ with a grin. "I was doing the right thing for the team."

"We'll see when he carries the puck up next when we're on the ice," TJ chuckled.

I looked back at the coach and he said, "Keep it clean and if he wants to go, then I'll make sure the medical staff is ready to help him off the ice. We don't need idiots on this team either. I'm sure he saw or heard about your previous fights so you're not an unknown to anyone here now."

I shrugged and went back to watching the game. TJ and I got back on the ice with a few minutes left in the game and the white team got Myers and his defensive partner on the ice soon after. The forwards made sure he was the one to bring the puck up the ice and into our zone. I let him try and go wide on me before closing quickly and hitting him into the boards, even though he was expecting it and tried to lean into me. The puck shot to the corner and one of our forwards wrapped it around the back of the net and it was tipped out into the neutral zone. I didn't really care at that moment as Myers threw down his stick and gloves and ripped off his helmet. I did the same and we circled each other for a few seconds before he moved closer and wanted to box, his hands held in the classic boxer's pose. That was fine with me as I could use my training without having to resort to hiding it fully when brawling.

He tried a couple of left hand jabs that I easily blocked or avoided and on the second one, I countered with a left hook that split his cheek open and staggered him. I didn't take advantage of his state but let him shake his head and get his hands back up.