Once you wear the Maple Leaf, it never comes off

Back then, making Team Canada meant surviving a true grind. Nearly 40 of the country’s top junior players were brought together for a full training camp, five to seven days of practices, intrasquad games, and exhibition action with coaches watching everything.

“It was more of a competition back then,” McMillan explained. “They wanted to see everyone together before making those final decisions.”

McMillan arrived not as a flashy scorer, but as a player who understood his identity.

“I think I brought something different,” he said. “I was more of a role player. That’s where I fit, doing the work, competing, helping the group gel.”

Sometimes, timing helps too.

McMillan still remembers a night in Kelowna when then-Rockets coach Ryan Huska gave him a quiet nudge before puck drop.

“He told me Willie Desjardins was coaching against us that night, and that he was also the head coach of Team Canada,” McMillan recalled with a laugh. “I went out and had a really good game. Maybe that stuck.”

Desjardins did notice. McMillan made the team.

Training camp set up shop in Regina, with an exhibition game in Calgary before the team moved on to Saskatoon for the tournament itself. Canada’s roster was loaded. Taylor Hall, Brayden Schenn, Nazem Kadri, Jordan Eberle, a group that mirrors today’s World Junior teams packed with first-round talent.

“We had an unbelievable group,” McMillan said. “Really strong forwards, strong defence. Every game was tight, intense. Just like you see now.”

Canada’s tournament ended in heartbreak — a 6-5 overtime loss to the United States in the gold medal game.

“That one was tough,” McMillan admitted. “Four-on-four overtime. We had a great chance at one end, didn’t score, and they came back on a two-on-one and finished it. That’s hockey.”

The final was chaos in the best and worst ways. Both goalies were pulled late. The game was tied 5-5 going into overtime. One bounce decided gold and silver.

“Pretty crazy game,” McMillan said. “But I’m thankful to have been part of it.”

McMillan finished the tournament with eight points in six games — production that surprised even him.

“I was never known as a gifted offensive guy,” he said. “My offence came from work, compete, and playing with really skilled players. My job was to get the puck back, get it to them, and good things happened.”

Despite the pressure that comes with wearing the Canadian jersey in a hockey-mad country, McMillan says he never felt overwhelmed.

“Maybe I was just young and naive,” he said. “I didn’t feel the pressure. I was present. I just played. I think that’s why things went well.”

That lesson still resonates today, especially as a coach watching the next generation navigate the same spotlight.

Discipline, he says, remains just as critical now as it was then.

“The power play at this tournament is huge,” McMillan said. “If you take bad penalties, that can be the turning point. We talked about that a lot.”

As for the silver medal?

“I don’t even know where it is right now,” he said with a smile. “Probably in a safe somewhere.”

But the memories are easy to find.

The stick he used in the tournament, signed by his teammates, still sits in his garage. The jersey hangs high above it.

“Making that team and wearing that jersey at the World Juniors,” McMillan said, “that’s one of the top experiences of my hockey life. Talking about it now brings it all back.”

Fifteen years later, as Canada chases another championship and a new group of teenagers carries the weight of a nation’s expectations, Brandon McMillan’s story is a reminder:

The games are still tight.

The margins are still thin.

And once you wear that jersey, even for a moment, it never really comes off.

by Regan Bartel

Once you wear the Maple Leaf, it never comes off

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