Hockey Canada brass on hand to evaluate during the SUBWAY Super Series

Al Murray is more than just a casual observer during the 2009 SUBWAY Super Series.

Murray is the head scout for Canada's World Junior Team and is using the six game series between Canadian Hockey League stars and a team of Russian World Junior hopefuls to make his final evaluations before putting together the list of players that will be invited to Canada's final selection camp next month.

"It's the third year that I've been involved in it and it's been an excellent evaluation tool," Murray said during Game 1 of the Series on Monday in Drummondville. "It's not the only part of the evaluation process but it is the final part of the evaluation process to get to see all the players against a common opponent. We're really fortunate that the Russians have sent a strong team the last two years and looking at the team tonight, it looks like it's going to be a good challenge for all the teams across the country."

The SUBWAY Super Series continues on Wednesday in Shawinigan, Quebec (7:00 p.m. Eastern on Rogers Sportsnet and RDS and online at www.subwaysuperseries.com) before moving to Ontario with games in Barrie on Thursday and Windsor next Monday. The series concludes in British Columbia with games in Victoria on November 25 and Kelowna on November 26.

Team Canada is looking to win its sixth straight World Junior gold medal this Christmas in Saskatoon. Murray said that despite the opportunity to set a new tournament record, Hockey Canada isn't focused on the past half decade; they are completely focused on putting together the best team they can for this year's event.

"It's six in a row for our country but it's the first for a lot of the players and coaches," Murray said. "It's a very exciting time for all of us. The Series is starting now and it gives us our final chance to  evaluate the players and we're all looking forward to watching this event as it goes across (the country)."

For Murray, his scouting job means that he has to evaluate how players are playing right now. He needs to invite the players that are best prepared to help Canada win another gold medal.

"That would be the biggest difference I think in scouting for the National Hockey League versus our program," Murray said. "We're looking at short term competitions all the time. We're looking for the players most prepared to represent our country. We don't have to worry about projections. We just need the best players right now. It's a lot different than how a National Hockey League scout would be watching the game."

Murray is also looking to see if someone will step up their game in this series and earn themselves a ticket to the final evaluation camp next month. He cites past examples that have used this series to put themselves in a position to make the team at Christmas.

"Each year a player has come into this event not that highly touted - a good player in his own league - and has done really well," Murray said. "Two years ago it was Wayne Simmonds and last year it was Stefan Della Rovere who really came in and showed at this event that they were capable of competing for a World Junior spot, got an invitation to the camp and were able to get themselves on the team."