Being the head coach of Canada's National Junior Team brings with it some extra work and that included a lot of travel miles this week for Moose Jaw Warriors head coach Tim Hunter.

The week started with Hunter, Josh Brook, Jett Woo and Justin Almeida setting up shop with Team WHL in Kamloops for Game 1 of the 2018 Canada-Russia Series. After a 2-1 win on Monday, they moved to Vancouver on Tuesday, dropping a 3-1 game to the Russian.

The players rejoined the Warriors after that, but Hunter headed to Sarnia, ON on Thursday to take in the third game of the series between Team OHL and Team Russia with the Ontario Hockey League representatives taking a 3-1 win.

"It was fun," said Hunter. "Real good games in B.C. with the Kamloops and Vancouver games, then the game [Thursday] was a little slower and scrambley, wasn't quite as much speed, but able to see lots of skill and get lots of good viewing of players in all three games."

Hunter will finish his cross-country trek next week when he heads to Oshawa, ON on Monday for the fourth game between Canada and Russia, and then onto Sherbrooke and Drummondville, QC on Tuesday and Thursday.

This weekend, Hunter's focus returns to the Warriors, who will be suiting up against the Red Deer Rebels on Saturday at Mosaic Place.

It's the first game in seven days for the Warriors, who have spent the weekend running through drills at Mosaic Place.

"It's good to give the guys a rest from the coaches and have a bit of a laid-back week, but still lots of work and lots of skill [development], we had Scott [King] and Rodney [MacPhee] at practice this week, two real good coaches and lots of good stuff going on," said Hunter.

The Rebels come into Moose Jaw after a 6-3 loss in Brandon dropped them out of the lead in the Central Division, one point behind the Edmonton Oil Kings.

Hunter said the Warriors expecting a good test from the Rebels, "[They have] good goaltending, a couple of good lines, their D move the puck well, so we have to get some traffic and not allow their goalie to see the puck, slow their top-two lines down and get some scoring obviously," he said.

"We have to use our speed and use our puck pressure to not give them any time in our zone or clean looks or puck possession or too long of a scenario on our end."

The Warriors and Rebels face-off at 7 p.m. Saturday night at Mosaic Place. You can catch all the action live on Country 100, starting with the Pre-Game Show at 6:40 p.m.

Almeida Out This Weekend

19-year-old forward Justin Almeida won’t be in the lineup for the Warriors on Saturday after he left Game 1 of the 2018 Canada-Russia Series with an upper-body injury.

"It's too bad, he had a great scoring chance on his first shift and then gets pushed down into the boards," said Hunter. "He's going to be a week, maybe next weekend, hopefully, but it's nothing too serious, just a pain management thing."

Almeida leads the Warriors with 23 points in 15 games this season.