Anze Kopitar was 17 years old when he first skated on the ice at the IIHF World Hockey Championships in Innsbruck in the NHL lockout year of 2005.
"It was awesome," he said.
"I remember my first face-off. I faced Mike Modano," said the only NHL player in the history of Slovenia.
The nation Canada faces here today is a country with only seven sheets of ice and only "a bit more than 100 adult hockey players - incomparable numbers to the elite countries, wouldn't you say?" according to the delightfully written Slovenia tournament fact book which adds "our coaches have to choose among 40 players in total."
Today, 20 of them will take the ice here against players, most of whom are household names in Canada.
edmontonsun.com - Hockey- One slick Slovenian
One slick Slovenian (Edmonton Sun) 
