Hockey Canada taps Brent Sutter again to fix national junior team

When it comes to hockey, Brent Sutter has been there, done that. And if there’s one thing the 51-year-old Sutter knows, it’s how a Canadian hockey team should be put together. Sutter himself pulled on the red and white sweater for four different Canadian clubs, playing in the 1986 World Championships and the 1984, 1987 and 1991 Canada Cups. He also coached the national junior team to gold medals in 2005 and 2006 and was behind the bench for Canada’s team at least year’s IIHF World Championship.

So, with the nation’s junior hockey program under fire, it’s not much of a surprise that Sutter was announced as the team’s head coach Wednesday in Toronto. Sutter, who is the owner, GM and coach of the Red Deer Rebels in the Western Hockey League will have his assistant coaches Benoit Groulx and Ryan Gill with him behind the bench when Canada travels to Malmo, Sweden for the 2014 world junior championship.

There is already a great deal of pressure surrounding the team for this tournament after the 2013 group finished a disappointing fourth in Ufa, Russia under coach Steve Spott. Finishing without a gold medal is one thing for Team Canada, but it’s something all together different when the team doesn’t even come home with a medal at all. Team Canada has been held off the podium just three times in the last 24 years.

It’s hard not to like this move. If nothing else, Sutter is a no-nonsense coach who knows the International game well. He also knows how to prepare young kids for big-pressure tournaments. That’s probably something the national junior team has lacked in the last few years. Sure, Canada’s competition has caught up over the last decade, but there’s no reason why the team shouldn’t be out of the medals. There is too much young talent and Sutter will be a good coach to analyze that talent to put his players in a position to succeed.

The team will begin its first training camp in Brossard, Quebec on Aug. 4 and get in a number of practices before playing Finland, Sweden and the US in exhibition games.

Meanwhile, Hockey Canada made another major announcement Wednesday by naming Dale Hunter as the coach of the Under-18 hockey team. He will have Dominique Ducharme and D.J. Smith as his assistants when the team plays its annual tournament in Europe in early August. Canada has won the tournament 15 of the last 17 years.