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World Juniors Hit Home

The Tampa Tribune

Published: January 4, 2009

Lightning center and No. 1 overall draft pick Steven Stamkos is making the transition this season from junior star to NHL regular. Throughout the season, the 18-year-old from Markham, Ontario, will share his experiences with Tribune writer Erik Erlendsson to give readers an insight into a new way of life during his rookie journey.

I'm not going to lie, there is a little, small part of me that wants to represent my country at the World Juniors. It was a dream come true for me to play last year, and this year with it being in Ottawa, on your home turf, there's still that little part of me that wishes I could play in the NHL and be there at the same time.

But at the end of the day, there is nowhere I'd rather be than in the NHL, right here with the Tampa Bay Lightning, trying to win some games and get back into the flow. Although it would be a great opportunity to play for Canada, especially on home ice, this is definitely where I want to be.

I've been watching a lot of it online and we stayed in and ordered room service on New Year's Eve and watched the Canada-U.S. game on the computer. It was probably one of the most exciting hockey games I've ever watched, with the final 7-4 and Canada being down 3-0 in the first 10 minutes of the game and then winning.

It was pretty exciting, especially when you know guys that you played with in the previous World Junior Championship tournament and played against some of those guys. It's definitely close to heart when you see them doing well up there.

It's fun to watch the games, especially after watching the U.S.-Slovakia game a 5-3 Slovakia upset, you know anything can happen in that tournament.

I talked to some of the guys before the tournament, but I know that pretty much when the tournament starts they are on lockdown over there, trying to stay focused. I've been in that position, so I'll let them do their thing and then after the tournament, hopefully, when they have the gold medal I can make those calls and let them know what a good job they did.

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