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SPORTSCENTRE Reporter

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Consider this the latest chapter in the Nico Daws fairytale season. 

After leaving practice on Saturday with an undisclosed issue, the Guelph Storm goalie received the all-clear from the medical staff returning to the ice on Sunday. 

"Just a little bit of uncomfortableness," Daws explained, "and didn’t want to push anything too hard so decided to rest it and feel great today."

At the end of a lengthy, 90-minute practice, the goalies chatted with their positional coach Jason LaBarbera while the rest of the players gathered on the other side of the ice. Then the goalies were called over and everyone started singing the birthday song to Daws, who turned 19 on Sunday. 

"I wasn't expecting that at all," the Burlington, Ont. native said with a laugh. "I thought they'd be chirping the goalies about ripping us apart in the shootouts, but they started singing and that was a nice surprise."

The whole season has been a nice surprise for Daws, who went from underwhelming back-up to Team Canada's roster at the World Juniors in just a few months. His .939 save percentage leads the OHL. 

"I definitely wasn't expecting to be here for my birthday," Daws admits, "but I'll take it. No place I’d rather be."

Daws cut down on the snacks and dropped 25 pounds in the summer as part of his dramatic turnaround. 

"I'll get into a little dessert, but not too much," Daws said of his birthday dinner plans. "We got a game tomorrow."

While Team Canada hasn't officially announced, which goalies will play in Monday's pre-tournament finale against the Finns, Daws is expecting to suit up. 

"I played pretty well last game, saw the puck pretty well in the half I played so want to carry it over to tomorrow," he said. "I can't wait to get back in there. Fired up."

Daws split Thursday's shutout with Portland's Joel Hofer, who has a .937 save percentage in the WHL this season. 

"It's definitely nerve-wracking," Hofer said of the goalie competition. "All three of us want to be the starter. If I do get the call I'll be ready for it."

The only hiccup for either goalie on Thursday came in the shootout (the teams agreed to hold a shootout regardless of the result in regulation) as Daws allowed three goals. He has worked with LaBarbera over the last few days to improve. 

"Just make myself more comfortable in the net," Daws said, "and kind of know where I am. It's worked out well all week until today, the shooters decided to do a lot of video before they came out so, kind of cheating but, no, it’s been a lot better this week."

Team Canada has worked on shootouts at every practice, but on Sunday, for the first time, the players headed off to do a video session beforehand while the ice was resurfaced. 

"Timing and depth," LaBarbera said of the focus for Daws, "just being a little more patient with coming out of our net, and then being more patient with guys that get wide and then come back to the middle of the ice so just holding your edges, little tweaks like that."

Moncton's Olivier Rodrigue is the third goalie in camp. He didn't dress on Thursday and wasn't involved in the shootout drills on Sunday. 

Daws had never played for Canada before this camp, but seems unfazed by the pressure thus far. 

"He's been comfortable and confident right from the get-go," LaBarbera said. "There's a lot of stuff that comes at you when you come to these tournaments and he’s handled it with flying colours. I've been super impressed with him."

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Daws has been working in a new pair of red pads during the last few practices. 

"I love the dark base," he said with a big smile. "I don't get to do that in Guelph. I try to keep it white, because white makes you look bigger in the net, but a short tournament like this I kind of went a little crazy, had some fun with it. I love it, though. I love it."

"I love it," agreed LaBarbera. "Actually reminds me of the gear I had in Phoenix, the all red. Usually, now, guys wear a lot of white to make their pads look bigger. I kind of dig the red. You don't see that too much anymore."

After playing well in a Canada-Russia series game in November, Daws got to work on a design "just in case" he made Team Canada. Daws estimates he spent around five hours on the labour of love. 

"It's so much fun," he said. "I'm such a goalie nerd and I love playing around with pads and pad colours. I design pads all the time even when I don't need pads."

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Team Canada's all-WHL defensive pair of Lethbridge's Calen Addison and Vancouver's Bowen Byram is building chemistry on and off the ice. 

"He’s one of my best buddies," said Addison, "and we just have that connection with our skill and offensive mindedness. The way we can make plays and get the puck moving north is pretty special."

Byram, the fourth overall pick by Colorado in June's draft, led the WHL playoffs in scoring last season with 26 points in 22 games. Addison, a second round pick by the Penguins in 2018, is tied for third among defencemen in WHL scoring this season with 29 points in 31 games. 

"He's really fun to play with," said Byram, who scored Canada's third goal against the Swiss. "I started playing with him at one of the WHL Russia series games and we kind of clicked and we've been together ever since. I just seem to know where he’s going to move the puck and same for him and it's been really fun." 

Addison and Byram only met last year, but have been spending more and more time together as they go through this World Junior process. 

"We're hanging out every day," Addison said, "and it kind of seems like we're best friends so I think we have that connection off the ice and it leads to our similar play on the ice."

Their style of play seems to fit well with the push-the-pace system Dale Hunter has implemented. 

"I kind of fit hand-in-hand with that style of game," Byram observed. "I try to move the puck quick and use my legs to get up in the play."

The key for the Addison-Byram pairing will be balancing their offensive tendencies, which have allowed them to post crooked numbers in the WHL, with the need to avoid breakdowns in a faster, more structured setting. 

"It's just about being more aware out there and closing on guys quicker defensively," Addison said. "My offensive abilities speak for themselves out there and I have confidence in that, but the biggest thing for me is defending hard and jumping on guys. The wider ice makes it harder to defend, you have to be careful stepping outside the dots so just being tighter all over the ice."

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Canada went 0/4 on the power play against Switzerland, but generated good pressure. 

"There were no results there for us, but I really liked our puck movement," said assistant coach Mitch Love. "We had lots of shots, there were some looks, (Barrett) Hayton hit the pipe in the second period so that was nice to see. We're starting to build a little bit of chemistry."

Sunday's practice featured plenty of special teams work. The top power play unit, quarterbacked by Addison, would go through a rep and then gather around a laptop at the bench area to review the video with Love. 

Addison is being urged to shoot more, which can be tough when you're surrounded by elite scorers like Hayton and Alexis Lafreniere on the flanks, Joe Veleno in the middle/bumper spot and Dylan Cozens down low.

"Those two guys on the halfway are pretty insane," Addison noted. "You're always thinking to maybe pass first just because they are so skilled, so elite, but I have to focus on shooting more to open up the half walls and other options."

Cozens and Quinton Byfield play the net-front role on the two units. Neither guy plays that spot with their CHL club so there's an adjustment period.

"It was bit of a learning curve at the beginning," Byfield said. "But still get a lot of puck touches down low and I’m used to it at the Hlinka."

Byfield did fill the net-front role at August's Hlinka Gretzky Cup when Cole Perfetti and Hendrix Lapierre were on the flanks.

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Sunday's practice also featured some face-off work with the forward lines taking turns going up against each other. The final showdown was between the white line – Byfield-Hayton-Cozens – and the red line – Lafreniere-Veleno-Nolan Foote. It was Hayton's group getting the win leading to big celebration. 

"He has quick hands," Byfield, who plays for Sudbury in the OHL, noted of Hayton. "You really see that on the ice. He’s super strong ... really strong down low and he gets low on draws and reads the other guys so well."

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Lines at Sunday's practice: 

Lafrenière-Veleno-Foote

Byfield-Hayton-Cozens 

Foudy-Dellandrea-Dudas

McMichael-Thomas-Lavoie/Merc​er

 

McIssac-Smith

Bahl-Bernard-Docker

Byram-Addison

Drysdale

 

Daws

Hofer 

Rodrigue

 

Power play units at Sunday's practice: 

Addison

Lafrenière - Veleno - Hayton

Cozens 

 

Smith 

Byram - Lavoie - Foote

Byfield