It might still be a day or two before Ryan Nugent-Hopkins arrives in Edmonton to get ready for training camp.  He's still getting some rest after a gruelling journey home from the World Junior tournament in Russia.

"We flew from Ufa to Helsinki to London.  In London, our flight got cancelled so stayted there for 12 hours.  Then we flew to Toronto then to Vancouver.  It took just over 48 hours," Nugent-Hopkins explained.

Despite being disappointed over not winning a medal at the tournament, Nugent-Hopkins calls it a great experience.  On two occasions, he squared off against Russia and fellow first overall pick Nail Yakupov.

"Before the games we just would say 'good luck' and then after just 'congratulations.'  I didn't get a chance to actually talk to him."

Canada missed out on a chance for gold with a 5-1 loss to the United States in the semi-final.  "At the start of the game, we kind of sat back a bit," Nugent-Hopkins said.  "I thought our second half of the game was really good, but by the end of the game it was just too late." (jrw)