Canadian team starts prep for men's world juniors tournament

Canada's team began preparations Tuesday for the 2.0 edition of the 2022 world junior men's hockey championship in Edmonton.

The 10-country tournament will be minus Russia barred from participating by the International Ice Hockey Federation because of that country's invasion of Ukraine.

The initial 2022 championship in Edmonton and Red Deer, Alta., was called off Dec. 29 after just four days because of rising COVID-19 cases among players and officials, which forced game forfeitures.

Hockey Canada hosts this world juniors under the shadow of federal government scrutiny and a wave of public criticism for its handling of alleged sexual assaults by members of previous junior men's teams in 2018 and 2003.

Enhanced character screening for all high-performance players was among a slate of remedies Hockey Canada announced in an action plan last month.

"We have a big weight on our shoulders for sure," said forward Mason McTavish, who was named Canada's captain Tuesday when camp opened in Calgary.

"We have the opportunity to, not obviously clear the name, but maybe help improve and bring back... it's Canada and the world juniors is such an awesome event for Canadians especially. We have a great opportunity to... help improve and take another step toward getting back to where we were."

Captains for <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/WorldJuniors?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#WorldJuniors</a>...