Team Canada defender and Dallas Stars prospect Thomas Harley at a post-practice media call.
In the midst of a pandemic that has ravaged national teams and played hell with international travel, it’s a kind of a miracle that the 2021 World Junior Championships will happen at all.
Pulling together the world’s most prestigious junior tournament is a big challenge even in a good year. In late 2020, with COVID-19 raging largely uncontrolled in several of its constituent nations, the hurdles are even higher.
It helps, no doubt, that Edmonton is this year’s co-host, along with Red Deer. The province of Alberta provided the Western Conference bubble that gave the NHL an improbably successful Stanley Cup Playoffs stage earlier this year. And it’s heartening to note that since they’ve entered the Western Canada bubble, there are no new cases of COVID among players on any of the 10 participating teams.