Team Canada's J.C. Lipon fields a phone interview after a team photo at the MacPhail Centre in Calgary, Alta., Dec. 14, 2012. (LYLE ASPINALL/QMI Agency)
The mere suggestion is ludicrous, senseless, maybe even a little stupid.
I heard somebody say the other day this year's Canadian World Junior team might rival the best of them all by the time it returns from Ufa, Russia.
The thinking is because NHL players are locked out, Team Canada is stacked with junior talent that should really be chasing green, ie seven-figure paycheques, and not gold.
While that's no doubt true, comparing this team to the best of them all is a losing man's game.
If Mark Scheifele, Ryan Nugent-Hopkins and co. waltz through the opposition in Ufa without breaking a sweat and coast home with the gold medal, then we'll have another discussion.
But it's not going to happen. Not the overwhelming way it happened in 2004-05, the last locked-out World Junior.
Want to prove me wrong, fellas?
Here's all you have to do: go undefeated while outscoring the opposition, 41-7.
