It wouldn’t be summer without an international hockey tournament... is not something people usually say, but here we are!

The men’s World Junior Championship begins on Tuesday, which means you can spend the next two weeks watching hockey all afternoon and evening. It’s like December, only it’s 30 degrees outside.

The full tournament schedule is linked here, but in general the first game of the day will start at about 2:00 p.m. ET, while the last game will start at 10:00. Team Canada’s first game is on Wednesday against Latvia, a team you will recall has given Canada a scare or two in the recent past. Latvia was certainly on the way up in the hockey world pre-COVID. We’ll see if they have kept that momentum on Wednesday.

If you want a warmup game to watch, the under-18 Hlinka Gretzky Cup tournament final game is this evening and Team Canada will be playing.

I have it on good word from our own Brigstew that the Canadian team is “ridiculous”. You will no doubt see many in this game who will be picked in the first round of the next NHL Draft.

Other News

Tavares fully healthy, believes Maple Leafs core can end playoff woes - NHL.com
“I actually didn’t feel too bad last summer but it’s nice to know that, as great as that summer was, [rehab] isn’t part of this one.”

[PODCAST] Retrospective on Draft Years 2015-2022 – Centre Of Leafs Nation
In this week's episode we look back at the last seven years of drafts for the Maple Leafs. We look at who is to blame for the misses, which prospects fans should look out for and settle the debate once and for all who drafted better Mark Hunter or current GM Kyle Dubas!

Jonathan Huberdeau: Flames ‘made me think that they really care about me’ - TSN
The most important off-season dinner in Calgary Flames history took place in a private room at a discrete hotel bar a stone’s throw from the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts. “Obviously that dinner went really well,” Huberdeau said.

The restaurant where Huberdeau and the Flames worked out the broad strokes of his new 8-year $10.4M AAV contract is reported to be Bar George, which is in Le Mount Stephen hotel. Their menu is compact, with a focus on cocktails (makes sense for a hotel) and quite the variety of meat entrees all posted in the $60 range, which is a bit high I think, though hotel restaurants usually are on the pricey side.

The restaurant describes itself on the menu as follows:

Paying tribute to Sir George Stephen’s British and Canadian ties, Chefs Anthony Walsh and Kevin Ramasawmy playfully and thoughtfully smack together classic U.K. cooking, current Québécois flavour and quality, homegrown ingredients.

Well the Flames certainly are smacking some homegrown Québécois flavour on to their team. I’m not sure they had an option to do it thoughtfully, however, more like out of necessity. I hope they at least enjoyed the steak at that dinner, and I don’t mean the cauliflower steak (please, enough with cauliflower as the vegetarian option,) because that contract will probably give the Flames some indigestion in the latter years as it runs until he’s 37 years old.

From The Branches