The John Tavares show is under way.
Seven minutes eight seconds into Canada's opening match of the world junior hockey championship, the 18-year-old from Oakville, Ont., may well have settled the debate over who will go first overall in the 2009 NHL entry draft.
He certainly settled last night's match between Team Canada and the Czech Republic with two spectacular power-play goals, followed by a deft pickpocket of a Czech defenceman to set up Angelo Esposito for a 3-0 lead in what would become an 8-1 Canadian rout.
And it all came on what Canadian goaltender Dustin Tokarski — his lip flicking between smile and tremble — called "the biggest stage possible."
For players such as Tavares, Tokarski and tiny 17-year-old Ryan Ellis — who put Canada ahead 4-0 before the game was half over — it couldn't get much bigger, not with 19,622 packing Scotiabank Place, a record single-game crowd for the annual junior tournament.
The Canadian players, in fact, seemed more concerned with the audience response than with the opposition. And why not? The national juniors, after all, have not lost to the Czech Republic since it was formed out of the breakup of Czechoslovakia, with 10 victories and two ties since 1994, and tripling the total score, 54-18.
The Canadians came out nervous and produced a rather tedious opening period until Tavares took charge.
Tyler Ennis put Canada ahead 5-0 late in the second period and at the same time put Czech goalie Tomas Vosvrda out of the game. Vosvrda was replaced with Dominik Furch, who gave up third-period goals to Chris DiDomenico, Zach Boychuk and Alex Pietrangelo.
Tokarski was beaten only in the final moments of the match by Jan Kana.
The game star, however, was clearly Tavares.
"Every kid dreams of being in that moment," he said after the game, "delivering on the big stage."
"He's fun to play with," linemate Jordan Eberle said. "You just have to get the puck to him and he finishes."
Tavares seems to have "an extra talent," a delighted Team Canada head coach Pat Quinn said — the ability to get in position for clear shots.
It was a promising opening for a Canadian team that hopes to win a fifth gold medal in a row, which would make 15 in total since this teen tournament began in 1977.
In the winter game of this country, all that shines is gold.
"Maybe you shouldn't say 'gold medal or nothing,' " diminutive Ellis said before the teams took to the ice, "but I think that's our attitude right now. We expect ourselves to be in gold-medal contention every year."
Such expectations, Quinn said, may be "unrealistic," but they are there all the same.
Victory not only requires a superb team effort against excellent opposition — the lethargic Czechs excepted — but also a smattering of luck.
A year ago in the Czech Republic, Canada was fortunate to beat Sweden by a goal in the final; two years ago in Sweden, Canada reached the gold-medal game only after a heart-stopping shootout victory over the United States.
"Let's face it," Quinn said, "the last two gold medals were won on a wing and a prayer."
A fifth consecutive victory would require several wings, with centres like Tavares to match. Ellis, who mostly plays the power play, says the Canadians are "underdogs" this year; and just maybe they are, with the Swedes and Americans strong and the Russians, as always, unpredictable.
The Canadians, in the same pool as the Americans, not only are relatively young and small, they are missing eight players who were not freed up by their NHL clubs.
One advantage to Canada is the smaller ice surface. When Quinn coached the Olympic men's team in the Turin Winter Games in 2006, he and his coaches insisted on playing the North American game on the wider European ice — and it did not work.
There are already numerous side stories to this tournament — such as Tavares against Victor Hedman of Sweden battling to become the top NHL draft pick in 2009 — but the tournament remains the main story.
The world junior championship is a phenomenon in Canada, a fuzzy-faced equivalent of the Grey Cup celebration. It is a two-week salute to youth and passion that momentarily sets even the NHL aside in fans' minds.
In some ways, this is not so much a hockey tournament as hockey's equivalent of a debutante ball, a place where names and faces previously unknown can instantly become household — from 16-year-old Wayne Gretzky's 17 points in 1978 to Jonathan Toews's head-spinning shootout performance in 2007.
Who will it be in 2009?
"Nerves?" Canadian captain Thomas Hickey said. "Yeah. Have to admit. We're all feeling that heat — but we wouldn't have it any other way."
