By HUGO FONTAINE

December 24th, 2017

Almost four years ago to the day, Jonathan Drouin, Charles Hudon, and Zach Fucale were commencing their quest for gold at the World Junior Championship in Malmo, Sweden. While they didn't manage a podium finish, what the three accomplices went through together will be forever etched in their memories. With the 2018 tournament on the horizon, we sat down with them to learn a bit more about their journey together with Team Canada's Junior squad. Before you played together with Team Canada, did you know each other personally, other than from playing against one another in the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League? JONATHAN DROUIN: We always played against each other when we were young, in Pee-Wee and Bantam. CHARLES HUDON: When I got here from Lac-Saint-Jean, I was seven years old, and that's when we started playing against each other. There was a rivalry between myself, Jo, and Samuel Aquin. We were on three different teams, but there was always a rivalry. ZACH FUCALE: Jo and I knew each other well because we played together in Halifax. I've known Charlie since Bantam; we played on the same team. He was our leader and best player back then. DROUIN: After that, we played each other for a few years in the QMJHL, but we never had the chance to take part in a Hockey Canada camp together before the World Junior Championship in 2013 because Charles is a year older than me. HUDON: Don't forget, we also played on the same line at the Subway Super Series. DROUIN: Zach is a pretty serious guy and does his own thing. We won the Memorial Cup together with the Mooseheads and we wanted to win a gold medal for Canada. That's the goal when you go to the tournament. We talked about it a lot. HUDON: Zach doesn't really talk "a lot." (laughs) DROUIN: I think we've said too much! (laughs)

Zach Fucale played five games in the 2014 World Junior Championship

You guys were supposed to take part in the 2013 World Junior Championship together, but Charles got hurt a few days before the tournament began. HUDON: It was really tough because I broke my back at practice the day before we were leaving for Moscow. It was really hard. We were in Helsinki, I was alone, and I had to leave Finland in a wheelchair. No one could help me. Then on my way to Montreal, I had a layover in London, in one of the biggest airports in the world. I had to take two trains to get to my terminal. DROUIN: It was really hard to see what Charles had to go through. I remember it well. The whole team was leaving and we had to leave him behind because we were headed to the tournament. It was really tough because he had earned his spot on the team. I felt for him because it was a dream for all of us to play in the World Junior Championship. HUDON: I had told myself I wouldn't watch any of the games, but when I got home I changed my mind. I stayed in touch with Steve Spott, who was the head coach, when he was in Russia. He told me I should've been with the team and made me feel part of it. I was there for them in spite of it all. You guys also played on the same line on several occasions. What was it like playing together on such a big stage? DROUIN: At moments like those, you've come really far. That's the highest you can get before you turn pro. Everyone watches Canada at the World Junior Championship during the holidays. When you get there with other Quebecers, it's really special, especially when you've been playing against them pretty much your whole life. All of a sudden, you find yourself in Sweden with someone you've been playing against since you were really young. It's a cool experience.

The tournament was in Sweden that year. Was that your first time there? What did you think of the country? HUDON: That was my third time in Sweden, actually. I had already been there to play a few games with a summer team beforehand. Sweden is one of the countries I love the most. The people there are incredible, the cities I've visited were really beautiful. We had a lot of fun. Hockey Canada took really good care of us. They thought of everything, they organized a bunch of activities. It didn't feel like a hockey tournament, it almost felt like we were on vacation! (laughs) There were five Quebecers on the team [Anthony Mantha and Frederik Gauthier being the other two], which was different than other years when I was often the only one. FUCALE: We had some time to tour around a bit. It was the holidays, so it was cool to see how the Swedes celebrate Christmas. We had our Christmas dinner in a big castle. It was really special to experience that together as a team. How was the atmosphere within the group? Did the chemistry develop quickly? DROUIN: We were pretty united. We spent a lot of time together every day for four or five weeks. HUDON: It's easier to make friendships. In hockey, you have to start building chemistry right away. DROUIN: You don't have time to waste. You can't wait a year or a few months for the chemistry to develop. That's how you win the tournament. HUDON: When you win something with someone else, you're a winner for life. We were a team for life. On the team, there were guys like Josh Anderson and Boone Jenner, who I became close with. We talk once in a while these days and we see each other whenever we can. FUCALE: On top of having good chemistry, there was a lot of talent on that team. We were a young team, but we were solid.

Charles Hudon recorded two points (1G, 1A) in seven games at the tournament

Zach watched the first two games from the bench, before taking Jake Paterson's spot for the rest of the tournament. DROUIN: We didn't really have a No. 1 goalie at the start. If you won the game, you got the start the next day. That's what Zach did. He was confident and we were all behind him. HUDON: It wasn't the kind of year where there was one goalie who was going to take up all the space, like Carey Price did back in the day. One of them had to pull ahead. Jake and Zach both did some good things, but I remember Zach had an amazing game against the United States in the preliminary round. He made some big saves. That's when he really established himself as our goalie. FUCALE: I wasn't supposed to be used that often. Jake was a year older than me, he had tournament experience because he was the third-string goalie the year before. He knew how things worked. I was just learning then. But things can change from one day to the next. I replaced him and I had to perform from the get-go. That's what makes the tournament so interesting. Everything happened so fast. At the end of the preliminary round, you won three of four games and the only one you dropped was in a shootout against the Czech Republic. How did you feel at that point? HUDON: It's the kind of tournament where you take things one day at a time. You win on the first day and you right away start thinking about the next one. They gave us a sheet with the words, "The Journey" written on it. You had to go day-by-day. I don't think we were thinking about the finals at that point. We played Germany, we knew they weren't as highly ranked as countries like the United States, but we weren't thinking about that. Same thing for Slovakia, where we played [Martin] Reway. Every game was big. We were playing against the best in the world. FUCALE: We were confident. We knew all the staff had confidence in us. We were aware we were in a good spot. We just wanted to follow the plan laid out by our coaches, use the rest of our teammates, and work together to win, which was our ultimate goal. But everything happens so fast that you don't have a lot of time to think about it.

During the tournament, you played against players who had been drafted by your respective NHL teams [Martin Reway and Artturi Lehkonen to Montreal, Andrei Vasilevskiy to Tampa]. Did it occur to you then that you were playing against potential future teammates? DROUIN: You don't really think about that, other than you know the bigger names. Like Vasilevskiy, you knew he was Russia's goalie. But you're not thinking about the fact you might be playing with him later on. If I could have scored seven goals on him, I would have! You then beat the Swiss in the quarterfinal, before losing to the eventual champions, Finland, in the semifinal. Did you start thinking about the bronze-medal game right away, or did you just feel like it was over for you? DROUIN: In our heads, it was over. HUDON: It was over, but the bronze was still there. DROUIN: We for sure had the chance to come home with a medal, but... FUCALE: Every time Canada plays in a tournament, we want to win gold. It was never a goal of ours to get silver or bronze. It really hit hard after that loss. I took it hard. You realize that in not even 24 hours, you're going to play Russia. It wasn't against just anyone. Vasilevskiy in the other net and the Russians had some darn good players on their team. It was something else. But if you lose, you don't have any time to think about it.

Jonathan Drouin finished the tournament with the second-most points on his team with nine (3G, 6A)