Taylor Gauthier has never done prison time but he can relate to that feeling of being cooped up against your will.
Like the other 45 players, coaches and staff of Hockey Canada’s world junior camp, the 19-year-old Prince George Cougars goalie would much rather be at the rink in Red Deer, stopping slapshots instead of serving two weeks of solitary confinement in his hotel room.
“We’ve got lots of downtime right now, it’s pretty boring,” said Gauthier, while taking a break from binge-watching the Sons of Anarchy.
“I’ve been watching a lot of Netflix and a lot of college football games and I’ve been riding the bike for about an hour a day and then working out as well, just pushups and situps and stuff like that. We’re doing prison workouts.”
The players have to stay in their rooms alone. Other than daily Zoom calls with the team, the only time Gauthier sees any of the other players is when they poke their heads out the door to retrieve trays of food brought to them. He has an exercise bike in his room but no other gym equipment to work with, and no visitors are allowed.
“It’s definitely tough, especially with me being a pretty social guy, not being able to see anyone or hang out with anyone,” he said. “It’s a good challenge for myself and I think I’ll come out of this stronger mentally.”
Team Canada officials announced on Tuesday the camp that started with the first practice Nov. 17 was being shut down for 14 days after two players tested positive for COVID-19. That came three days after a non-core staff member of the team had a positive test. According to Hockey Canada, no one is showing symptoms of the virus. The two-week team quarantine ends Dec. 6.
“It was frustrating for all of us when we got the news,” said Gauthier. “Personally, I was just starting to feel comfortable in the net with the speed of the game and being shut down again for two weeks is disappointing but it’s just the adversity we have to go through and hopefully it helps us grow as individuals and a team.”
The 10-team tournament in Edmonton is scheduled for Dec. 25-Jan. 5, with exhibition games planned Dec. 20-23. The other nine teams are due to arrive Dec. 13 on chartered flights. All are required to test their players and isolate them for seven days prior to leaving for Canada and will be tested again in Edmonton. They must serve a five-day isolation in their hotel rooms before they are allowed to enter the world junior bubble.
While some pundits have doubts the tournament will not go ahead as planned, Gauthier is convinced it can be done safely and the games will happen, just as they did in the NHL playoffs. Twelve NHL Western Conference teams isolated themselves in Edmonton from July 26-Sept. 28 with no positive tests and Gauthier is confident the 250 under-20 hockey players on the world junior list will be equally successful with their isolation tactics if everybody follows the rules.
“I’m not worried at all,” Gauthier said. “There are protocols put in by the IIHF to ensure that everyone’s safe whenever they come in to Edmonton and they’re not bringing in the virus. I know with Team Canada, we’re doing everything we can to make sure when we get to Edmonton there aren’t going to be any kinks and we can just focus on playing. That was part of the reason we came in so early, it’s better to go through this now than two weeks before the tournament.”
Gauthier played in both intrasquad games for Team White a week ago. He allowed two goals on 19 shots playing half of a 4-2 loss to Team Red on Nov. 21 and the following night played the full game in what turned out a 6-3 loss. Gauthier made 26 saves on 30 shots in that game and Red finished with two empty-net goals in the final two minutes.
“Playing with those guys after being off for so long, there’s definitely an adjustment period and it kind of shows in the first couple games,” he said. “I let in a couple goals that I would like back. It’s something I just have to get back in the swing of things. It’s a little harder as a goalie to get back into it. There’s nothing like game intensity you can replicate in practice. The biggest thing for me is the speed of everything.”
Gauthier is locked in a battle for spot on the team with four other goalies - Dylan Garand (Kamloops Blazers), Tristan Lennox (Saginaw Spirit, OHL), Brett Brochu (London Knights, OHL) and Devon Levi (Northeastern University).
Gauthier and Garand are friends away from the rink and have had gone head-to-head against each other several times over the past two seasons in the WHL. They also got to know each other at U-18 national team camps.
“We have a great deal of respect for one another and it’s nice to see another western guy out here,” said Gauthier. “Hopefully we continue that and hopefully it’s good news for both of us when it comes time to make the team.”
Gauthier has been asked to write a daily blog/video for the Hockey Canada’s Twitter account and he plans to start that over the next few days. He’s hoping that will continue right up until Jan. 5. He wants the country’s hockey fans to have a chance to rally around their TV sets like they do every year watching Canada go for world junior gold, especially now, with virtually the whole country in pandemic lockdown mode.
“Everyone has that in the back of their head, playing for Team Canada, it’s not the name on the back, it’s the crest on the front you play for and we realize that we represent 37 million people in this country,” said Gauthier. “It’s been a tough year for everyone and it’s our responsibility as a team to do all we can to make sure we’re bringing that tournament to everyone’s TV on Boxing Day and giving the people some positivity at the end of this year.”
