Don Hay given the job of coaching the Canadian team for 2012 IIHF World Junior Championships (Part 1)
Don Hay was given the job of coaching the Canadian National Junior team during which he came up with a decent performance in 1995. Now he has been given the job again, to coach the Canadian team for the 2012 International Ice Hockey Federation (IIHF) World Junior Championships.
The players that he had with him during his earlier tenure were Bryan McCabe, Wade Redden and some other talented players that played a vital role in staying unbeaten during the IIHF World Junior Championships in 1995.
They were brilliant during the course of the tournament and their offence was absolutely superb, witnessing them scoring 49 goals. They also had a very strong defence that allowed only 22 goals.
He has been given the job of coaching the team once again and he is hoping that with the amount of talent in the team, he can surely guide them to a title this time as well.
"I'm really excited for the opportunity and it's going to be a great challenge for myself and the staff in putting together a competitive team to challenge for the gold medal", Hay said. "I'm hoping the players we get this time are comparable to those in 1995. I think the game has changed since then, but it hasn't changed that much and the players are as good as they were in '95".
Currently, Hay is in-charge of one of the Western Conference League teams, Vancouver Giants, and has done a brilliant job with the team. Vancouver Giants piled up some superb performances in its title runs in the last couple of seasons.
Giants won the division title, five out of six times it was in contention. The current season has witnessed them coming up with a superb performance as they made their way into the Western Conference Finals for the fourth time in the last six seasons.
Hay won the Memorial Cup with the team in 2007 and he is hoping that he can win another one this year.
He will be closely watching players and their performances from now on since by the end of this year, he would have to decide 22 players for the tournament.
"I think players need to skate hard and compete hard at a high level", Hay said. "I'm looking for a high hockey IQ. It's a short tournament and there's really no time for teaching, so you have to play smart and pick up different aspects that the coaching staff throws at them”.
The standards that Hay has set in his team are very high and this is one of the reasons as to why the teams that have been coached by him have come across immense success.
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