Clague a ’confident question mark’ for Friday

Mark Masters

SPORTSCENTRE Reporter

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Team Canada practised at New Era Field in Orchard Park, N.Y., on Thursday. 

Kale Clague returned to the ice at Thursday’s practice, but the Team Canada defenceman was not made available to the media afterwards. Is he a question mark for Friday’s showdown with the Americans? 

“A confident question mark,” said Dominique Ducharme with a smile. 

Team Canada’s head coach did note that Clague, who missed Wednesday’s 6-0 win over Slovakia after blocking a shot off his right foot in Canada’s opener against Finland, was “feeling pretty good” during the 25-minute workout. The Los Angeles Kings prospect was paired with Jake Bean, who had his own injury scare in the first period against Slovakia, getting knocked over by Marian Studenic and crashing heavily into the boards. Bean was forced to leave the game, but returned in the second period. 

Bean: It looked worse than it was; Fabbro also fine

“I think it looked a little bit worse than what it was,” the Carolina Hurricanes prospect said. “I got winded there, but once that wore off I felt back to normal. I felt good when I got back in the game last night and feeling good out there today.”

The good injury news didn’t stop there as Dante Fabbro, who didn’t play at all in the third period on Wednesday, declared himself fit after the workout. The Boston University defenceman played more than 18 minutes in Tuesday’s 4-2 win over the Finns in his return from a lower-body injury, so the coaching staff decided to limit his minutes once Canada got in control of the game against Slovakia. 

“I feel great,” Fabbro insisted. “Everything’s doing well.”

Returning players seek revenge against Team USA

Clague, Bean and Fabbro are all returning players with a score to settle with the Americans, who broke their hearts in the championship game a year ago. 

“I don’t know if anyone’s over it yet,” Bean said. “It’s kind of something that’s just in the back of your minds and a lot of guys are excited to get back out there against them.”

Fabbro has experience playing on a big outdoor stage before as he suited up at Fenway Park in an NCAA game. 

“It was cold,” Fabbro recalled with a smile. “I actually remember I had my first shift and I got back to the bench and I tried to take a sip of water and the nozzles were all frozen. It’s cold outside and there’s going to be big chunks of ice coming out, so the simpler the better is definitely the way to go in these games.”

The temperature dropped to -13 Celsius during Canada’s practice, but it should be a bit warmer for puck drop on Friday afternoon, with the forecast calling for -8 C.

“I got two layers of socks on,” goalie Carter Hart said. “I did try wearing little gloves under my hockey gloves, but it was just kind of too much and it wasn’t too bad out there. The coldest thing was my feet, so thank God I didn’t get any shots there or my toes would’ve probably broken off.”​

Assistant coaches Tim Hunter and Trevor Letowski examined the surface before practice, laying down some orange cones over trouble spots. 

Dealing with the cold, Canada plans to keep it simple 

“The ice was actually pretty good for the circumstances,” said Hart. “It’s pretty cold out. The ice behind the net was a little bit choppy. I mean, there’s areas that will be choppy, but that’s what you have to expect in an outdoor game.”

“They still have some work to do,” Ducharme noted. “It was getting chippy a bit, but it’s colder today than it’s supposed to be tomorrow (Friday) and they still have 24 hours to work on it. It should be good.”

Ducharme pointed out that his team wouldn’t have practised on Thursday if the game coming up wasn’t outdoors. Beyond getting a sense for the elements, the coaching staff wanted players to focus on quick, smart plays. 

“Today we were working on simple plays, chips,” said captain Dillon Dube. “It will be a meat and potatoes game. That will be the fun part about it, it will be old time hockey.”​

Fun, but hardly ideal. 

“It’s not going to be a normal style hockey game where you find out which team’s better,” Dube admitted. “That’s the tough part about it. Whichever team can stick to its game plan the best and continually play that simple game will win.”

Some argue that in a tournament format one game shouldn't be played in different conditions, but the players are fully embracing this opportunity. 

“Right now, I’m just shaking thinking about the game tomorrow. It’s incredible,” Dube said. “Walking out there when we first got to the rink today I got shivers. I’ve never really had that feeling before and I just got excitement and I didn’t really know what to do with myself. It’s something I’ll remember forever.”

A crowd of more than 40,000 is expected for the game, with capacity for the hockey setup at New Era Field being just over 47,000. 

The Canadian players ended practice by getting their phones out and taking some pictures. Dube actually put on a pair of sunglasses, something he recalls Tyler Toffoli doing when the Kings practised outdoors at Central Park in New York recently. 

“I saw my parents up on the fourth deck,” Dube said. “I could barely see them. I didn’t even know it was them. So, just playing in an atmosphere like this is incredible. There’s no words to describe it.”

Lines at Thursday’s practice

Forwards
Dube-Steel-Kyrou
Katchouk-Thomas-Raddysh
Gadjovich-McLeod-Batherson/Steenbergen
Comtois-Howden-Formenton 

Defencemen
Clague-Bean
Mete-Timmins
Fabbro-Makar 
Foote 

Goaltenders
Hart
Point