Canada Begins Pre-Tournament Tonight

With the World Junior Hockey Championships set to begin in one week, Team Canada begins their pre-tournament schedule this evening in Calgary against Finland.

Tonight’s match beings at 10pm AST and can be seen live on TSN2 and TSN Mobile TV.

Saint John Sea Dogs defenseman Nathan Beaulieu is expected to be in the lineup for Team Canada. Forward Jonathan Huberdeau continues to practice with the team but is not quite ready to go yet. He has not played in a competitive game in over a month due to a broken foot.

TSN’s Bob McKenzie tweeted today that “Quinton Howden (head) to take pre-game skate for CAN but will not play. Jonathan Huberdeau (foot) will not play but practising with team now.”

“Expectation is Huberdeau and Howden will play pre-tourney game either Thursday or Friday,” added McKenzie. “Final roster not submitted until Dec. 25.”

Canada plays Switzerland on Thursday in Red Deer and Sweden on Friday in Edmonton.

Here are the lines (we’re assuming practice lines since Huberdeau is listed) that TSN has posted on their website.

Forward Lines
Pearson - Scheifele - Smith
Jenner - Strome - Connolly
Schwartz - Hamilton - Stone
Huberdeau - Bournival - Gallagher 

Defence Pairings
Beaulieu - Harrington
Murray - Pysyk
Gormley - Hamilton
Howden - Oleksiak 

Goaltenders
Visentin
Wedgewood

Mark Visentin, who was in net for Canada’s epic collapse in the gold medal game last year, gets the start in goal.

Lastly, here’s the first of many Steve Dangle/Nike videos from this year’s tournament.

Tomorrow in pre-tournament action, Charlie Coyle and Team USA faceoff against Russia in Red Deer.