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Robby Fabbri celebrates with teammates Nick Paul and Nic PetanThe Canadian Press

Assessing performance under these circumstances is problematic.

Yes, Team Canada steam-rolled a hapless Slovak team 8-0 in their tournament opener, the most comprehensive victory of the first day of the World Junior Championships.

The difficulty is the Slovaks offered only token resistance, which likely counts as a surprise given the fits they gave Canada 12 months ago (Slovakia led 3-1 in the round-robin before the Canadians mounted a comeback and won 6-3).

Friday's triumph marked the seventh straight opening game where Canada has scored six or more goals.

The mantra in the Canadian camp this year is "play quick" – coach Benoit Groulx said before the game that "we want to put a fast game on the ice" – and that they did.

"I like what we're doing with the puck," he said after the game. "We have to stay that way."

They skated, they hounded, a total of eleven different players recorded at least one point.

It was to the point where Groulx began testing out different line combinations in the third period.

And why not? When players like Robby Fabbri and Nic Petan, nominally members of the third line, are contributing points by the shovelful, there's plenty of margin for tinkering.

The under-sized pair's talent is beyond argument – Fabbri was picked 21 overall in the 2014 draft by St. Louis, Petan was selected in the second round by the Winnipeg Jets in 2013 – but what impresses Groulx is their competitive fire.

Though both players are centres on their junior teams, each has seen time on the wing during the Team Canada camp; Petan mostly played on the left side in the tourney last year, but Groulx figured he'd try him in the middle.

"Based on the way he answered tonight, I'm guessing he doesn't want to go back to the wing," he said.

Petan (goal, two assists) said he's developed an understanding with Fabbri (two goals, two helpers) because "we both have similar vision on the ice." Fabbri returned the compliment, saying "he's so easy to play with."

So that's the third line sorted, then.

Scoring depth doesn't appear to hold much of a challenge for this year's Canadian squad, Groulx has the luxury of choosing from several high-octane offensive players in third and fourth-line roles – Vancouver Canucks draft pick Jake Virtanen, a 40-goal player in major junior, is one of those players, he caught the eye on Friday and scored in the third to make it 8-0.

The lineup is also stacked with 19-year-old players, including all three members of the presumptive top line, and as the cliché holds, this is a tournament for 19-year-olds.

The main question for Canada is whether the team will be able to keep the puck out of their own net, that's a question that will have to wait for stouter opposition.

Zachary Fucale, a Montreal native and a draft choice of the hometown Canadiens, started in net and was barely challenged. He faced only 12 shots and was called upon to make only a couple of difficult saves, including a fortuitous one in the third period where he deflected a puck into the crowd with the nub of his stick.

"I totally didn't realize what had happened on that play, just that my stick was spinning away from me," he smiled afterward.

Though he wasn't tested with a barrage of shots, Fucale says he was still challenged: "it's not easy when you're not busy, it forces you to stay in the moment and in the game. Maintaining your focus isn't something that's easy."

It's also too early to judge conclusively whether special teams will be a strength for this team; the power-play is best described as evolving, it was blanked on all three of its chances and didn't provoke the sense of impending doom that the U.S. man-advantage did earlier in the day.

Canada opened the scoring just before the five minute mark, Fabbri finishing off a passing play initiated by Anthony Duclair and Sam Reinhart – who took a pass with his skate and fired a no-look backhand feed directly onto Fabbri's stick blade.

Duclair would then score a lovely goal, gathering in Max Domi's pass to go backhand-forehand-backhand before sniping it top shelf past a mesmerized Denis Godla.

Fabbri added his second of the game from Petan and Madison Bowey before the game was 10 minutes old, and the rout was on.

The Slovaks mustered just three shots on net in the first period – although they did manage to earn a couple of half-decent scoring chances – and in the second the floodgates opened.

First, Nick Paul chipped a puck into the net with a Slovak defender draped on his back, then Brayden Point, who typically plays on the fourth line, Domi and Petan, with a ridiculous top-shelf shot after he slithered away from his check in the corner, got to work.

Domi's goal, a rocket from the high slot, was singled out by Groulx after the game as an example of the attitude his club will need to be successful: despite a lop-sided score-line, the offence-first Domi back-checked furiously to break up a Slovak rush before roaring back up the ice to score.

When it was put to Domi that he's the first member of his family to be cheered by a Montreal hockey crowd – his tough-guy father Tie was a much-loathed visiting player – he grinned and said "I might have to talk about that with my dad."

Connor McDavid, Team Canada's 17-year-old budding superstar, started brightly and created all manner of scoring chances for himself and linemates Curtis Lazar and Nick Ritchie.

The perennially sunny Lazar said after the game there's no point in letting the frustration build because "the chances are there."

In the third it would likely have been easier for McDavid to score than to shoot into backup goalie David Okolicany's equipment – he had stormed to the net only to have his initial shot stopped, he circled and scooped up a loose puck, dipsy-doodled around a defender and found himself alone in front of the netminder.

He could only find padding.

It was a good showing for a player who is still working his way into game shape after sitting out for five weeks because of a broken hand; on a night where the puck was bouncing his way he could easily have recorded a hat trick.

There's a cheery thought for the Germans, the next to face Canada on Saturday night.

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