Who Needs a Pest?

Canadian World Junior teams of the past have sported the likes of Steve Ott, Steve Downie, and Stefan Della-Rovere.

Their significance?

Other than their names containing some, or all, of the first name Steve, they held roles as the club “pest” during their stint(s) with the team.

Two of them – Ott and Downie – have based their NHL careers around this style of play, whereas Della-Rovere continues to battle his way through the minor leagues towards the NHL.

A pest is defined as a characterization of player who attempts to antagonize opponent players either by physical play or verbally – something all three to extremely well.

So far, Canada has used a combination of speed, skill, and dominating physicality to wear down their opponents – something not uncommon to previous years.

However, one thing that has differed from past tournaments is their apparent lack of a player with the job to get under the skin of the opposition.

Canadian coach Dave Cameron doesn’t see it as a bad thing.

“We need to be physical, but you never want to put yourself into a position where a referee can call [a penalty],” he said.  “We tell our guys to finish their checks and play hard whistle to whistle, but when the whistle is blown the play is over.”

Forward Quinton Howden backed up his coach’s sentiments.

“There’s guys out there speaking other languages who don’t understand very much,” he said.  “I don’t think there’s a reason to get under their skin.  We just need to go out there and finish our checks.”

If there were a few names to toss around that may fulfill the role of the “pest”, Howden’s name could definitely be put into the hat.  However, he feels that one guy in particular who – if called upon – could be a thorn in the side of the competition.

“Everyone is playing key roles; physical guys, guys who can score, and so on,” he said.  “But [Zack] Kassian is obviously a guy that’s strong and can get inside your head.”

Cameron re-iterated that he believes this specific strategy isn’t necessary to be successful in short tournament scenarios.

“Scrumming is not going to serve a purpose,” he explained.  “All these teams that come [over] now, we don’t intimidate them at all.  All of that hocus-pocus, or whatever you want to call it after the whistle, we want to eliminate it.”

With a combined score of 13-5 in their first two games of the tournament, including seven of those goals on the powerplay, team Canada has obviously found success without employing these tactics.

However, citing past occurrences, if there is a need for someone to agitate, any of the 20 players will step up and take on the task.