1. Nigeria10. Mexico9. Belgium8. Chile7. Uruguay6. Colombia5. France4

TORONTO, Ontario -- Every other year, Griffin and Sam Reinhart skated on the same teams in minor hockey. Ultra Boost Uncaged Canada . Now the brothers from West Vancouver hope to be teammates for Canada at the world junior championship. Griffin, a 19-year-old defenceman for the Edmonton Oil Kings who was drafted fourth overall in 2012 by the New York Islanders, is a lock to make the squad even though he will be suspended for the first three preliminary round games due to a suspension incurred at last years world juniors in Ufa, Russia. Sam, who is in contention to be picked first overall in the 2014 NHL draft, is battling for a spot on the 22-man squad. Canada will be looking to end a four-year gold medal drought at the world juniors that begin Dec. 26 in Malmo, Sweden. "Its exciting -- it goes back to minor hockey," said 18-year-old Sam Reinhart, a centre for the Kootenay Ice. "Its nice to get back with him. "The last couple of years Ive had to play against him and I dont like that very much." They were on the ice together for some drills Friday as Canada opened a three-day camp on the international-size rink at the Mastercard Centre. As expected, Jonathan Drouin was not on the ice. The high-scoring Halifax Mooseheads forward is recovering from a concussion suffered in a Quebec Major Junior Hockey League game last week. The 18-year-old is expected to recover in time for the tournament. The third overall pick by the Tampa Bay Lightning at the NHL draft in June was examined by team doctors on Thursday night. Coach Brent Sutter expects Drouin to be ready to skate and described his condition as "status quo." He said it would not hinder the teams preparations for the tournament. Griffin, Sam and 21-year-old Max Reinhart, a Calgary Flames prospect, are the sons of former NHL defenceman Paul Reinhart. All three started out as defencemen, but Sam and Max both ended up as centres. Griffin, a towering rearguard at six-foot-four 212 pounds, and the six-foot-one Sam are looking to become the third brother duo to play for Canada at the world juniors, after Randy and Mike Moeller in 1982 and Freddie and Dougie Hamilton in 2012. "Its always more fun playing with Sam than against him, so if hes able to make it as well it would be awesome for me," said Griffin. The brothers embody two issues on the squad -- Griffins suspension and Sam being among three "underage" players in camp along with Erie Otters 16-year-old phenom Connor McDavid and Barrie Colts defenceman Aaron Ekblad, who is one of Sam Reinharts main competitors for the No. 1 draft position. Griffin was slapped with a four-game ban for a slash during Canadas semifinal loss to the United States in Ufa. He served one game after that, and is suspended for the next four IIHF sanctioned events he enters. He will miss the first three group stage games in Malmo against Germany, the Czech Republic and Slovakia but will return for a Dec. 31 showdown with the Americans. "Ive definitely seen the schedule," he said. "I cant play the first three, but coming back to play the States on the 31st -- thats a huge rivalry. Everyone in Canada gets hyped up for those games." That Canada included him among the 25 camp invitees showed they value Reinharts package of size, skill and leadership enough that missing three games doesnt faze them. They are games Canada should win, and Sutter will still have six solid rearguards in the lineups. Reinhart will also be able to mesh with his teammates while playing in pre-tournament exhibition games next week against Finland, Sweden and Switzerland. But he appreciates the confidence the Hockey Canada management showed in him. "Itll be hard watching," he said. "Everyone wants to play. "Ive sat out before in the WHL with injuries, so Ill kind of take it like that. I know there was a chance they wouldnt take me because of the three games. Ill try to prove to them they made the right decision and try to be a leader on and off the ice when I return." They also had him paired with Matt Dumba, who was loaned to Canada for the tournament by the Minnesota Wild. Dumba is expected to be an anchor on Canadas defence, and they could end up as the teams top pairing. Sam Reinhart found himself once again on a line with McDavid, with Kerby Rychel of the Guelph Storm on left wing. Reinhart and McDavid, the runaway favourite to go first overall in the 2015 draft, have played together before, including at the world junior teams summer camp in Montreal and Lake Placid, N.Y. Reinhart moves over to right wing for the occasion. "I had a chance to play with (McDavid) and the hype is not wrong by any means," he said. "Hes a special player. Its easy to play with him." Like with most national teams, there are more centres than spots to put them in, so a few have moved to the wings. "Ive already made the transition to right wing," Sam Reinhart said. "Down the middle theres so much depth on our team. Ill play on the penalty kill, the power play, whatever they want me to do. Ill be ready." Drouins absence left Frederik Gauthier of the Rimouski Oceanic and Josh Anderson of London Knights -- the only player on the roster listed as a right winger with his team -- without a third man for their line, although the units Sutter and his staff used on the first day of camp are likely to change. If he is healthy, Drouin will likely play on whatever is the top offensive line. Anthony Mantha of the Val dor Foreurs, the QMJHL scoring leader, is a left-winger who found himself on the right side of London centre Bo Horvat and natural left winger Charles Hudon of the Chicoutimi Sagueneens. Centre Curtis Lazar of the Edmonton Oil Kings was on right wing with centre Nic Petan of the Portland Winterhawks and Hunter Shinkaruk of the Medicine Hat Tigers. And centre Felix Girard of the Baie-Comeau Drakkar played right wing with Scott Laughton of the Oshawa Generals at centre and Portlands Taylor Leier on the left side. During practice, the players were introduced to four former world juniors stars who were named honorary captains for the 2015 and 2017 tournaments to be shared by Toronto and Montreal. They are former Leafs Wendel Clark and Gary Roberts, former goalie Marc Denis and Montreal Canadiens player development man Martin Lapointe. The team has an exhibition game Saturday afternoon against local university players and a practice Sunday morning before leaving for Sweden. Adidas X_Plr Canada .com) - New England Patriots starting center Bryan Stork will not play in Sundays AFC Championship against Indianapolis due to a knee injury the rookie sustained last week. Adidas Prophere Canada . -- Former Penn State coach Joe Paterno was admitted to the hospital Friday for observation due to minor complications from cancer treatments, his family said. http://www.nmdshoescanada.com/superstar-cheap-canada.html . Despite Barcelona showing the same vulnerability in defence, Messis best performance since returning from a lengthy injury layoff ensured that his side bounced back from a defeat by Valencia in the previous round.International football badly needed a good World Cup. The jury is yet to deliver a verdict with the knockout rounds still to come, but all indications are that this will not be a good World Cup. Indeed, it is on track to be a great World Cup. Two weeks to the day that the opening match of the tournament between Brazil and Croatia came to a close, the curtain came down on the group stages and what a sensational show it was. We are now already through three quarters of the tournament, but rather than be sad that much of it is over, we should be grateful with what we witnessed. It was a group stage that gave us more special moments than the three previous World Cups combined. A group stage of surprises, where tactically versatile and organized sides shocked the so-called super powers of the game. A group stage that saw the renaissance of 3-5-2, used so well by surprise teams like Netherlands, Costa Rica and Mexico. A group stage of counterattackers, comebacks and headers, trends that the Netherlands used in their demolition of Spain back on Day 2. Their superb pressing and clinical finishing gave us a glimpse of what was to come in Brazil, but not before that look and pass by Daley Blind just before the half-time break. The ball landed on top of the supremely intelligent head of Robin van Persie and his magnificent header over Iker Casillas changed everything. It became the group stage of headers with 27 more following van Persies, but none of them beating it. It became the group stage of comebacks. Spain, massacred by the Dutch 5-1 in the third game of the tournament, was already the second team, after Croatia a day earlier, to lose a game they led. A small, exclusive group of only four from 2010 would grow quickly as Uruguay, Japan, Ecuador, Algeria and Australia joined them in the first week. During their second group games Germany, Ghana, Portugal and USA all managed to not win games against each other that they led in. Even Uruguay, Greece and Algeria had comebacks of their own, all qualifying despite losing their opening World Cup match. Only Spain did that in 2010. It became the group stage of counterattacks, once again ignited by the Dutch over Spain as they scored their last three goals with a combined 29 seconds in possession, and never more highlighted than when Switzerland broke away in the final seconds to score a dramatic, crucial winner over Ecuador. It became the group stage of creative, left-footed masters who glided across the field into space left open by a transition. The group stage of substitute goals, 24 in total, highlighted by Miroslav Klose joining the great Ronaldo on 15 World Cup goals and James Rodriguez dancing his way through the Japanese defence for one of the goals of the tournament. In the end, though, it was the group stage of goals as an incredible 136 wennt in (there was a total of 145 scored in South Africa). Ultra Boost Canada Sale. It was no surprise that a wind of caution blew around the stadiums as the third group games took place but before they started the goals per game ratio stood at a wonderful 2.96. It ends the group stage at a beautifully high 2.83. There are still 16 games to go, of course, but no World Cup since 1970 has come close to that average. It wasnt just about the amount of goals, however. Many of the worlds stars were the ones scoring and we already have three world class stars on four goals each through three games. My 23 man squad of the group stages GK – Guillermo Ochoa (Mexico), Keylor Navas (Costa Rica), Vincent Enyeama (Nigeria) D – Serge Aurier (Ivory Coast), Cristian Gamboa (Costa Rica), Kostas Manolas (Greece), Rafa Marquez (Mexico), Mario Yepes (Colombia), Raphael Varene (France), Giancarlo Gonzalez (Costa Rica), Daley Blind (Netherlands). M – Jose Vazquez (Mexico), Hector Herrera (Mexico), Blaise Matuidi (France), Charles Aranguiz (Chile), Toni Kroos (Germany), James Rodriguez (Colombia) F – Neymar (Brazil), Lionel Messi (Argentina), Karim Benzema (France), Thomas Muller (Germany), Arjen Robben (Netherlands), Robin Van Persie (Netherlands) Group Winners – Brazil, Netherlands, Colombia, Costa Rica, France, Argentina, Germany & Belgium. For the third time in the last four World Cups, three teams that were not seeded won groups. For the second successive World Cup, the only seed that didnt progress through to the next stage was the previous winners (Spain 2014, Italy 2010). Since the World Cup went to 32 teams in 1998, over the last four World Cups, nine group winners have lost in the next round (average of more than two per World Cup) and there hasnt been a World Cup in that time when all group winners advanced. Runners-up – Mexico, Chile, Greece, Uruguay, Switzerland, Nigeria, USA & Algeria. With that stat in mind it is likely that at least one of these teams will beat their opponent. Look for Greece, Uruguay, possibly Mexico, USA and even Chile to continue this streak. After that? In nine of the last 10 World Cups a group runner-up has made it to at least the semi-final stage. That will be the target of one of these teams going forward. Ranking teams eliminated at this World Cup based on performances in Brazil 32. Honduras31. Cameroon30. Japan29. South Korea28. England27. Iran26. Bosnia & Herzegovina25. Russia24. Portugal23. Australia22. Spain21. Croatia20. Ivory Coast19. Italy18. Ghana17. Ecuador Ranking teams left at this World Cup based on their chances of winning the World Cup 16. Switzerland15. Algeria14. USA13. Greece12. Costa Rica11. Nigeria10. Mexico9. Belgium8. Chile7. Uruguay6. Colombia5. France4. Netherlands3. Germany2. Brazil1. Argentina ' ' '