Canada struggles to stay healthy for World Cup

TORONTO – Team Canada coach Mike Babcock doesn’t care about his players that pulled out of the World Cup of Hockey because of injury.

As the list continued to grow before the exhibition slate, and got longer with Tyler Seguin’s lower body injury after Canada’s two games against the United States, Babcock’s mind started to work on how his remaining players would plug those holes. There was no bemoaning the players who weren’t there.

“What are we going to do about it? We got a good team here. The guys are here are guys we’re focusing on, not the guys who aren’t here,” Babcock said. “I don’t know why any of them were injured. I haven’t really thought about that or got into that. Just the group here is the group we’re going with.”

Coming into the World Cup, it has seemed like Team Canada has needed to deal with more high-profile health problems than other teams.

Before exhibition play they lost defenseman Duncan Keith who decided to continue to rehab on a knee injury suffered last year. Forward Jamie Benn suffered a core muscle issue during the summer. Forward Jeff Carter suffered a lower body injury while training shortly before the World Cup. All these players are expected to be ready for the start of their NHL seasons.

Anaheim Ducks forward Ryan Getzlaf offered a theory on why Canada has struggled with keeping their marquee players healthy enough for the World Cup.

“It’s a different tournament because it’s at the start of the season so I think a lot of thought goes into what you can and can’t play through – a lot more team involvement where you owe a lot to your team that’s paying you a lot of money to play for their team and I think part of that goes into the decisions that are made,” said Getzlaf, who is entering the fourth season of an eight-year, $66 million contract.

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Canada also has far more depth than most nations. Even late arrivals to the group like Ryan O’Reilly and Jay Bouwmeester have supplanted players who were selected months earlier like Claude Giroux and Jake Muzzin for the first game of the tournament. Babcock announced Giroux and Muzzin would be his team’s two healthy scratches for Saturday’s tournament opener against the Czech Republic.

Because of this there may be less pressure to return from injury quicker for this tournament since the replacement will likely be an All-Star.

“We have so many good players from Canada that we could make two teams and probably be successful,” defenseman Drew Doughty said. “No matter who’s on the team, whether or not they’re on the initial roster, they’re great players and they’re stars in the league and they can do the same job the guy before them could do. No matter who’s in there doesn’t make a difference to us.”

Tampa Bay Lightning forward Steven Stamkos famously tried to come back for the 2014 Olympic Games with Canada far ahead of schedule after suffering a broken tibia.

But the Olympics are a different animal than the World Cup and they have greater international and national prestige. This tournament is sanctioned by the NHL and NHLPA and while players want to win, there’s not the same sense of importance for some.

“You owe a lot to your home team. You can’t really afford to go back to your home club injured for the first two months of the season when they’re the ones that are paying you and taking care of you and those kind of things,” Getzlaf said. “Guys have injuries and that’s the way it works and we’re lucky enough and blessed enough to have the replacement players to be here.”

Not all players see the tournament this way. Stamkos, for example, has expressed how his experience missing the Olympics has fueled his desire for a strong showing in the World Cup. There are others who share his passion.

“For me, this is a team I had my eye on for two years before it was named, so the second it got brought up it became a goal of mine to make this team,” forward Matt Duchene said. “I’m not alone in saying that. It means a lot to be here. For me I up the intensity even more than I usually do in terms of the summer, in terms of my skating and working out. I made sure I was really dialed in. I always do but even a little bit more this summer. You crank it up to another gear you haven’t been to before.”

Team Canada has also played two rough n’ tumble style games with Team USA in the exhibition slate, which banged and bruised the team early on and enhanced some of these struggles.

“The guys who have left had injuries last year and then you jump right into a playoff game, and that first pre-tournament game against the States and it was similar to a second-round or a conference final in intensity and speed, so guys aggravated injuries and that’s the way hockey works,” said forward Logan Couture, who was the replacement for Benn. “Guys get hurt. Thankfully for us in this country we have a lot of very good players who are able to replace them.”

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Josh Cooper is an editor for Puck Daddy on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at puckdaddyblog@yahoo.com or follow him on Twitter! Follow @joshuacooper

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