EDMONTON | Center Ridly Greig, injured Wednesday night against Switzerland, was off the ice Thursday during Team Canada’s junior practice session on the eve of their semi-final game against the Czechs. If the ECJ was unable to provide an update on his health, one thing was clear: his absence would cause a complete upheaval in the team’s roster.
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Greig injured his left arm in the first quarter of the quarterfinal match when he was hit by Vincent Despont of Switzerland. In the end, Greig’s condition will be the domino knocking down everyone else en route to Friday’s game.
As of Thursday, forecasts did not support the presence of the No. 17 in Canada’s squad for Friday afternoon’s 4pm game against the Czechs.
That’s why only the second row of the team with Kent Johnson, Tyson Foerster and Logan Stankoven remained intact in Thursday’s practice session. Mason McTavish was flanked by Joshua Roy and William Dufour while Connor Bedard played in the third row with Nathan Gaucher in the middle and Will Cuylle on the left.
Brennan Othmann, Elliot Desnoyers and Zack Ostapchuk completed the fourth row while Canadian Riley Kidney served as the 13th striker.
“Ridly has probably been our most consistent player since the start of the tournament. He plays in all situations,” admitted head coach Dave Cameron on Thursday.
Archive photo, Martin Chevalier
Ridly Greig in the Belleville Senators uniform, February 2021.
MORE OPPORTUNITY
Greig’s absence would certainly give Roy and Dufour another golden opportunity to play a prominent role in the team’s success as they would be paired with Mason McTavish, arguably the tournament’s best player.
“Dave met with us before practice to tell us our role would still be to face the best lines on the other side,” Roy said. With McTavish we should also be able to produce a lot of attack. »
Certainly, by being placed with the captain, the two Québecs will be encouraged to create things in attack. For assistant coach Louis Robitaille, it won’t be far from the role they had with Greig as center man.
“A lot of people say it’s a line of defense. At the same time, the defense in possession of the puck begins. If you have the puck and you’re going 200 feet, make a good precheck, they’re going to be tough to play against. They do and are aware of their defenses when they are on the ice. The fact that they are accountable on the boards and in their decisions makes it easy to set them against the broader lines. On the other hand, we would be wrong if we said that it is only a defensive trio. Her line was producing a lot with Ridly at five against five, so we expect the same with Mason tomorrow. »
FOCUS ON THE CZECH REPUBLIC
With or without Ridly Greig, Junior Team Canada will hit the ice at 4:00 p.m. ET on Friday to try and secure their place in the finals by taking on the surprise Czechs, who were in the Quarterfinals lost to the Americans.
When the two teams met for the first time in the preliminary round, the Canadians made short work of the Czechs 5-1 and also won 57-23 on penalties.
“I think we’re going to face the same kind of team, a team that works hard. If we play like we played against them in the first game, it will be good. […] We didn’t play our best game against Switzerland. It’s like our mulligan, if we can put it that way, and we’ll be ready,” said William Dufour.