Eyes on the prize

The plan was carved out in Saskatoon hotel rooms and hockey rinks early last summer.

As Canada’s National Sledge Team came together at the annual Hockey Canada Foundation gala and was honoured for its gold medal at the 2017 IPC World Para Hockey Championship, the braintrust was hard at work.

The trip wasn’t only about celebrating. Head coach Ken Babey and his staff laid the groundwork for the season ahead, with the goal of getting Team Canada back on top at the Paralympic Winter Games.

“We put our guys through fitness testing during that weekend where we celebrated our world championship win,” says Babey. “We started early in terms of the physical preparation and getting our guys into our fitness program and plan, with the hope that we do peak in March 2018.

“I met with all of the resources provided to us through Hockey Canada and Canadian Sport Institute. We used all of the resources we can to build a plan that we think focuses on peaking at certain times. One of those is the World Sledge Hockey Challenge. The big one, of course, is the Paralympics.”

The plan has been to get together every month from September through to the Games in March. It started with the September Showcase, which brought together 30 players and Korea’s national team for a week of practices and games.

The event also served as selection camp for the 2017-18 season, with 20 players chosen to be part of the Paralympic pool leading into PyeongChang.

“Our season plan was to have more hybrid camps, where you have a mixture of training on the ice and off the ice, but also some games mixed in.” says Babey. “We started with the showcase where Canada split teams and we brought in Korea, with each team playing four games and we picked our national team from those games. We [also] mixed in some practice and off-ice training.

“It was the same thing with the three-game series in Korea [in early November]. We trained two times a day on the ice and also a weight session in between. So it put the guys through the paces and we mixed in some games.”

The Canadians have been perfect against the Paralympic hosts this season, winning all four games at the September Showcase before a three-game sweep of the Koreans in Gangneung last month.

The season schedule was created with the goal of the team playing its best at the Paralympics, which open March 8 in South Korea. Part of that is getting acclimatized, which is why players and staff spent just over a week in Asia in early November.

“I believe that trip will serve our team significant benefits when we go over there again in March,” says Canadian forward Tyler McGregor. “It was a quick trip. We were there for nine days and when you include travel and how many practices and workouts and games we packed in, it was a very difficult week both physically and mentally.

“It was a challenge for our team to rise to the occasion. It was all about making that environment the most challenging it could be so that when we go back in March, the experience seems a lot easier. There will be a little more pressure but we will be used to the food, the different culture [and] the facilities.”

The schedule continues this week as Canada welcomes Italy, Korea and the United States for the 2017 World Sledge Hockey Challenge in Charlottetown, P.E.I., the second year in a row the city will play host.

McGregor says Canada has unfinished business, both at the World Sledge Hockey Challenge and the Paralympics. Although the Canadians are the defending world champions, the U.S. owns the most recent WSHC and Paralympic golds, more often than not going through Canada to get them.

“We can’t wait. Our team looks great right now,” says McGregor of heading to Charlottetown. “We’ve been training hard the past few months, coming off of our showcase in September and just having the opportunity to go to Korea within the past month. We look good, we’re in great shape [and] we continue to get better.

“The special thing about the World Sledge Hockey Challenge is it’s the only short competition that we get to play before we go over to Korea in March. We have some of the best teams in the world coming over. Going into Charlottetown, where we were last year, we’re excited to turn the page on last year’s result and hopefully leave there with the gold medal and make the most of the opportunity to play some tough competition.”