Sean Burke: Gold 'realistic' for Canadian Olympic squad

Team Canada isn't lowering the bar.

Despite the fact that NHLers won't partake in the 2018 Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang, Team Canada general manager Sean Burke feels he can still put together a team that can compete for the top spot.

"We go into Pyeongchang believing gold is realistic," Burke told Andrew Podnieks of IIHF.com. "The last time that Canada wasn't favored was back in 1994, and I played in 1988 and 1992 so I remember those days very well.

"But even then, when the Russians were so powerful and the Czechs weren't far behind, you still went into the Olympics expecting to compete for a gold."

In scouting out who could make up the final roster, Canada played six exhibition games as part of the Sochi Hockey Open and the Nikolai Puchkov Tournament held in Russia.

Canada came away with a 4-2 record, posting wins against Metallurg Magnitogorsk and SKA-Neva St. Petersburg, plus two victories against HK Sochi, while falling to SKA St. Petersburg and the Russian "B" team.

"We know there's a lot of work to do and that things are different," Burke added. "We have to build our team differently. We'll be as prepared as we can possibly be when we go into Pyeongchang to compete for a gold, and that will give us a chance to win."

Participants in the exhibition games included former NHL netminder Ben Scrivens, in addition to defensemen Cam Barker, Carlo Colaiacovo, and forwards Derek Roy, Mason Raymond, and Ryan Garbutt.