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SPORTSCENTRE Reporter

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TSN Toronto reporter Mark Masters checks in daily with news and notes from Team Canada’s selection camp in St. Catharine’s, Ont., Dec. 12-15. Team Canada's scratches skated Friday morning while the game players had a meeting at the team hotel. Canada wraps up the Selection Camp with a game against Denmark. 

“The Big Dog” will be playing a big role for Team Canada this year. That would be Erie Otters forward Taylor Raddysh, who has inspired a rather unique goal call in Erie where play-by-play voice Aaron Cooney will often bellow, “Let the Big Dog eat!”

“It's something I like,” Raddysh said with a laugh. “It's fun to hear. They were supposed to make a T-shirt out of it this year, but they didn't get it passed through yet.”

 It's a nickname his OHL rivals say fits the 6-foot-2, 209-pound Raddysh like a glove. 

“For sure,” said London forward Robert Thomas. “You can't push him around out there. He's a big boy and he can definitely make plays. He uses his size to make space for himself and then he's really skilled and can make those plays. He's got a really good shot – buries everything. He's just a guy you can't give any space to or he'll punish you.”


”I don't know who gave it to him, but it definitely sounds good to me,” said Sault Ste. Marie defenceman Conor Timmins. “He's just a really smart forward. He always finds ways to score, gets in the right position and he makes good plays with the puck.”

Cooney is a bit of a cinefile and the goal call is actually a line from the 1993 movie Rookie of the Year. And it's fitting in the sense that Raddysh was likely Canada's rookie of the year at last year's World Juniors, where he tied for the team lead with five goals. 

“Last year was probably one of the best times of my life and to be able to come back here and have another chance at a gold medal is a cool feeling,” the Tampa Bay Lightning prospect said. 

And while so many of the memories were positive, the disappointment associated with the loss to the Americans in the gold-medal game still lingers among the returning players.

“We talked about it and now that it's here there's a little bit of a revenge feel,” said Raddysh, who has 15 goals and 29 assists in 30 OHL games this season. “We know how close we were and we want to have a better tournament this time.”

Raddysh believes he's a more well-rounded player this time around. Yes, the Big Dog has learned some new tricks.

“My offensive game, I got to bring that again,” he said. “Last year it was one of my roles. But this year, with the team we have in Erie we lost a lot of guys, so I feel like I built a defensive role as well so I feel like that can help my two-way game.”

His skating ability was a red flag for some scouts in the past, but Raddysh has made big strides in that department. 

“It's always something I'm going to have to improve on,” he said. “In the past, it's been my struggle, but I feel like I've worked on it the last couple summers. It's starting to come along. I'm a bigger guy and a stockier guy so it's something I always have to progress with and I think I've done a pretty good job of that.”

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Canada's breakthrough rookie at this year's World Juniors may be Thomas, who arrived at the selection camp having scored in five straight OHL games. Overall, he has 20 goals in 27 games with the Knights. Thomas had 16 goals in 66 games last season.

“I think my offensive game has changed a lot,” the Aurora, Ont. native noted. “I've been playing a lot better offensively. I'd say my shot has come a long way. I've been really hot lately, scoring a lot of goals in London so my shooting's come a long way.”

How'd he make the improvement? 

“A lot of it has to do with strength and also working on my release,” he said. “I'm more of a visual learner so I was watching a lot of releases. I was able to do that over the summer and made my shot quicker and more powerful.”

Thomas has trained with Gary Roberts over the last two summers. 

“I had guys like [Mark] Scheifele, [Phil] Kessel, all those guys there. I also really like Auston Matthews' release. It's pretty cool. He really releases it off his off foot and he pulls it in nicely. Obviously, he's doing really well with it.”

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The transition from junior hockey to the pros is tough, but the transition back can also be tricky as Victor Mete found out on Thursday. The Montreal Canadiens loaned the defenceman to the national junior team earlier in the week. 

"Pretty difficult," said Mete after his first game of the camp. "I had a lot more time than I thought. I was expecting more pressure. I was making rush plays, but once the game went on I said, 'Okay, actually I have a lot more time,' and I made better plays and better decisions. I'll grow from it in the upcoming games."

Canada dressed eight defencemen against the USports all-stars on Thursday, which also prevented Mete from getting into a rhythm quicker. 

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The focus right now for the coaching staff is determining who will get the final roster spots. The last cuts are expected after Friday's game against Denmark. The battle on the blueline seems to be down to three guys. 

Returning players Jake Bean, Kale Clague and Dante Fabbro are considered safe bets as is Mete. Cale Makar and Timmins, who will be a scratch on Friday, appear to be frontrunners for jobs. 

So, that leaves Cal Foote, Josh Mahura and Mario Ferraro competing for one last spot. All three will play on Friday meaning they've suited up in every game at the camp.

“It's a battle,” said Ferraro. “It's a fight for your spot, but that's what makes it so fun out here. It's an honour to be out here with all these great players. It is a challenge, but a challenge I'm willing to accept.”

Ferraro partners with Makar at UMass (Amherst) and would like to bring that NCAA chemistry to the World Juniors. 

“We both have very high work ethics,” said Makar. “We're both guys who like to push the pace on the ice whether it's through the neutral zone or rushing the puck so I think we complement each other in that way.”

Were Makar and Ferraro talking a lot about this opportunity in the days leading into the camp? 

“We tried to push it out,” Makar said. “We were trying to focus on our stuff at UMass. We had a game the day before we came to the camp so we tried to focus on the short term, but it was hard to overlook the opportunity we could have together.”

Fabbro, who has been nursing a minor lower-body injury, will play in his first game of the camp on Friday.

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Team Canada lines for today's game:

Forwards
Steenbergen-Steel-Kyrou 
Katchouk-Thomas-Raddysh  
Comtois-Kaspick-McLeod 
Formenton-Howden-Batherson 
Suzuki 

Defencemen
Mete-Fabbro
Mahura-Bean
Ferraro-Foote
Makar

Goaltenders
Point 
DiPietro 

Scratches: 
Forwards: Gadjovich, Dube
Defencemen: Timmins, Clague
Goaltender: Hart