On Wednesday Canada plays its key preparation game for WFC 2024 in Malmö (7-15 December) against the allsvenskan top team IBK Lund.
IBK Lund also plans to give its young upcoming junior players the chance to play an international game so the A-team will be strengthen by at least one junior line and hopefully a few other promising players from our second team.
This is a perfect opportunity to challenge and test our young players as well as give them a memory for life according to sports manager Christer Sölve.
Canada is playing a few preparation games during the week, but wanted to train also it’s defence game and decided to play IBK Lund.
Before the game we decided to talk with Canadian head coach Mattis Karlsson, with experience from coaching in the world’s best league SSL, about the team and it’s players.
World Championship is approaching rapidly, how are you preparing?
We are in Malmö for one week of training and games before the tournament, it will be fun and interesting and the whole team looks forward to the world championship.
What are your goals for the championship?
We are still trying to break the Europe dominance and hope to get into the top 10, we where 12:th last world championship.
How does your team look like? Where are your players playing during the season.
We have a few players from Europe, Finland, Sweden, Switzerland and Czech Republic, but about 60% are living and playing in Canada.
Who are your biggest stars and profiles that will stand out for the crowd?
I would think #91 Valteri Viitakoski is our Top player, he plays in a top team in Finland.
A player from Canada that i have high hopes for is Cedric Grenapin, he is really quick and has good stickhandle as well.
Matt Smith has been with the team for a long time and is a tricky player with lots of points to his bale as well.
A dark horse on the team can be Carter Coole.
Meet up in Lerbäckshallen to se how they stand against our guys
/IBK Lund
