Montour selected to represent at World Championship

Recent Sabres defenseman Brandon Montour was chosen among 22 players for the Team Canada roster by Hockey Canada to embark on the challenge of representing in the World Championship Tournament that will take place in Slovakia.

The announcement was made earlier on Monday that Montour will be joining Sabres winger Sam Reinhart, as Sabres General Manager Jason Botteril is running Canada’s entry with Ron Hextall and Ron Francis.

This will be Montours first time representing the country in international play, but he was selected as one of the Sabres few bright spots following his trade back in February. Despite the Sabres’ seasonal game struggles, he acclimated nicely to the new team, compiling three goals and 10 points in 20 games and averaging 21 minutes of ice time in an outing.

Perhaps playing for Canada will help Montour reignite a winning streak for himself. The Ducks and Sabres endured rough years as his teams only won 26 games with him this season.

Yet, Montour was outstanding following his trade. He had three goals with seven assists and a minus-4 rating in 20 games. As well, the Sabres had a 5-on-5 shot-attempt differential of 54.53 with Montour on the ice, and he bolstered the performance of every defensive partner he was paired with.

The 2019 IIHF Men’s World Hockey Championship will be played in Bratislava & Kosice, Slovakia from May 10-26, with the tournament consisting of 16 teams, broken into two groups of eight.

Canada will be playing in Group A along with Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Great Britain, United States, and the host country Slovakia. Slovakia will be six hours ahead of Canada’s eastern time zone during the tournament, but Team Canada will open the 2019 World Championship against team Finland on Friday May 10, 2019 at 10:15 a.m. ET / 7:15 a.m. PT. The Team Canada games will be broadcasted live on TSN and live streamed on TSN.ca

The Gold and bronze medal games will be played on Sunday, May 26, 2019.

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