Group B: FINLAND

Last year’s finish: Sixth
Last year’s round robin record: 3-0-1-0

Yahoo! Sports has asked current Canadian Hockey League imports – some of whom are playing in the tournament – to break down their national teams.

Helsinki native Mika Partanen, a forward with the OHL’s Mississauga Majors, keeps in regular contact with his countrymen and how they’re faring back home thanks to Facebook and other social media. He believes this year’s team will be much better than last year’s squad in terms of firepower thanks to their 10 NHL draft picks, including YouTube sensation Mikael Granlund, whose lacrosse-style goal against Russia in the semifinals of the 2011 World Hockey Championship earned him a place on a Finnish postage stamp.

“They (the Finns) have more offensive skill,” said Partanen, who failed to garner an invite to Finland’s camp this year. “They’ll have the best player there – Granlund.”

Actually, the Finns will have two Granlunds – Minnesota Wild first-rounder Mikael and

Ryan Spooner says a coach once told him: When life hands you lemons, make lemonade.

But now, after being told he has mononucleosis on the eve of Canada’s world junior camp, those lemons are particularly bitter and biting.

“At the end of the day it would have been amazing to play in the tournament,” said the Kingston Frontenacs forward on Saturday afternoon. “But hopefully in a few years I’ll be having a successful career somewhere and I’ll be able to look back on it and say, ‘Yeah, it would have been a fun time.’

“It’s disappointing right now, but I have the mentality where I can’t really do anything about it so there’s no point in being too upset about it – that’ll only make me feel worse.”

It is particularly tough because Spooner had been playing his best hockey of late with 20 points (nine goals, 11 assists) in his last 10 OHL games. He also was a standout with Team OHL in their Super Series games against Russia, earning a ‘player of the game’ honour and collecting six points in two

When Jamie Wise was suspended for eight games earlier this season, he had a lot of time to sit and reflect in the stands.

The veteran Mississauga St. Michael’s Majors forward acknowledged he was responsible for the hit he put on Kingston Frontenacs defenceman Kyler Nixon, who was uninjured.

“I guess I was kind of a bit late and he was in a vulnerable position,” said the 20-year-old Wise. “I could have held back, but I was just finishing my check and it was kind of my mistake.”

Wise, a self-proclaimed grinder, was forechecking in the Kingston zone when Nixon gathered the puck. The 18-year-old quickly released the puck and seconds later he was sent flying by Wise.

“I’m the type of player that will finish my check,” said Wise. “I’m just doing my job. It was a little bit late, but it’s too fast to think that quickly. I could have held back but that didn’t go through my head – it was a mistake on my part.”

Mistakes that many other players in the Ontario Hockey League have made this season

After an 8-10-0-2 start to the season the Oshawa Generals felt the need to shake things up. The team, far better on paper than their record suggests, announced on Monday morning that Chris DePiero was no longer the head coach but would stay on as the organization's general manager.

"Something had to happen," said DePiero on Monday afternoon. "This is a different way to shakeup the room and maybe challenge the guys to play to the level of their expectations.

"I believe 100 percent that this is the right time (for a change)."

To help right the ship, the Generals went out and hired Gary Agnew, who was most recently an assistant coach with the Columbus Blue Jackets for four seasons up until June 2010.

"I'm thrilled to be a part of this tremendous organization," said the 51-year-old in a team press release. "The Oshawa Generals have a long and distinguished history and I'm confident that we can add to that winning tradition this year. We have a very strong team and I looked forward to

At this point, there’s not much more Michael Houser can do.

His stats are stellar and the goaltender’s performance thus far has helped the London Knights claim the distinction as the top-ranked team in the Canadian Hockey League.

And yet, as he stood outside the visitors’ dressing room after a win against the No. 2-ranked Mississauga Majors this week, Houser spoke about being the odd man out.

That is, undrafted, unsigned and, in his mind, unwanted by USA Hockey.

“Hopefully I get noticed, that stuff is in the back of my head,” said the native of Wexford, PA. “The [NHL] draft isn’t important to me, but world juniors would be nice. If it doesn’t happen, it doesn’t happen. It seems like USA Hockey already had their team picked a while ago.”

The 19-year-old has attended two junior camps in the past, but missed the final cut. The past two seasons, the American team has gone with Windsor Spitfires starter Jack Campbell, who helped backstop the Americans to gold in 2010. Since the Spitfires,

Jim Thomson lived that life.

And he often thinks about his friends in the NHL’s enforcing fraternity: John Kordic, Marc Potvin, Bob Probert, Wade Belak, Derek Boogaard.

All of them are former friends because they’re no longer with us.

He thinks about his own experiences in the NHL and AHL over a 10-year span in the 1980s and ‘90s. His memories of that decade are clouded by drugs, alcohol, pain, painkillers and even thoughts of suicide.

Thomson lived that life. And now he wants to rid hockey of fighting and the role he so dutifully served for so many years and on so many teams.

“There’s no need for it,” said Thomson who played for six different NHL teams with 115 games and 416 penalty minutes. “Yes, I did it for a living. Yes, it gave me an opportunity; but it’s a terrible life and it’s destroying human beings.

“A lot of us enforcers have died. I can tell you, John Kordic, Bob Probert, Derek Boogaard and all these guys – we were all the same. Some of us made it through. . . some of us

While the debate over hits to the head, concussions and fighting in hockey rages on, Rouyn-Noranda Huskies forward Anthony Verret lies in an Amos, Que., hospital.

The 18-year-old underwent successful emergency surgery on Tuesday night to repair four facial fractures and damage to his ocular nerve after a hit from Gatineau Olympiques defenceman Guillaume Rousseau in a Quebec Major Junior Hockey League game last Saturday.

“He’s not in perfect condition, but he’s doing well,” said Huskies head coach Andre Tourigny shortly after speaking with Verret on Wednesday morning. “The surgery was successful and the doctors are saying everything will be fine -- so time will tell - but for now the news is good.”

From all reports, Rousseau’s hit would be considered a “hockey play” by NHL standards and there was no penalty assessed at the time. Both players were chasing after a loose puck when the 6-foot-1, 200-pound Rousseau caught the diminutive 5-foot-9, 159-pound Verret in the face with a shoulder.

KITCHENER, ONT -- Ben Fanelli says he doesn’t remember the hit from behind that fractured his skull and left him hospitalized for a week.

As a result, the Kitchener Rangers defenceman believes there won’t be much apprehension when he finds himself once again at the scene of the accident -- going for a puck back behind net.

“I don’t remember that being me when I watch the video of me being hit,” says the 18-year-old of the vicious collision on Oct. 30, 2009. “I won’t be nervous going back into the corners or behind the net as much as being nervous of the situation of me coming back to play my first game. It’s a bit of nervous excitement, so I’m not concerned.”

But while Fanelli can’t remember much what happened to put him in intensive care, his mother – Sue Fanelli – is having a difficult time trying to forget.

“It was the most terrifying thing I’ve ever gone through and I hope to God I never have to experience anything like that ever again.”

So when her youngest son finally regained