2010 Olympics

TSN recently had a poll on their website asking people to pick who they thought should be on the Canadian Men's Olympic hockey team in 2010. Two years is a long time, especially when it comes to predicting the development of young talent (and Canada has a lot of that commodity) and the erosion of old talent. But just for fun, here is the team I’d like to see in Vancouver.

Nash	Crosby	Iginla
Lecavalier	Spezza	Heatley
Gagne	Thornton	Toews
Getzlaf	M.Richards	Perry
	Sakic
Pronger	Phaneuf		Luongo
Bouwmeester	Weber		Brodeur
Redden	Green		Giguere
Campbell

One noticeable absence on the blue line is Scott Niedermayer. I question whether he will still be playing in two years. If he is, then I would select him in a heartbeat. He is the world’s second best defenseman (after Niklas Lidstrom of course). The likely deletion is Wade Redden. Or Mike Green. But the latter is just coming into his own. True, his sudden emergence is a hockey columnist's dream and as such he has been getting a lot of press lately. But I think it is well deserved. This guy has the raw skills to control the flow of a game, much like Bouwmeester does. Let's hope they both reach their potential.

Also, there are no Staals on this team. The competition for my last two forward spots was tight. I considered Eric Staal, Jonathon Toews, and Corey Perry. Though still a teenager, Toews has proven himself to be a solid two-way performer with loads of offensive potential – and he will only improve. Corey Perry is getting better every year and should be a consistent 40 goal scorer by 2010. Eric Staal has the tools to be a dominant player in the NHL (remember that he’s just 23 years old), but he seems to be regressing. I still think he will end up as a 40-50-90 first line centre. But in the end I’m partial to Winnipeggers and think Getzlaf-Richards-Perry would be an incredible 4^th line (2005 WJC team-mates; Crosby, Phaneuf, and Weber were also on that squad, the greatest junior team ever). Also, I’m not willing to give up Joe Sakic. If he’s still skating in two years, Burnaby Joe has a spot on my team. So Thunder Bay will have to wait until 2014 (if NHLers play, which is a big if) to see one of the favourite sons play for the national team. But I wouldn’t be surprised to see three Staals on that team (again, big if).

I doubt that my goalie selections are very different from what most people will choose. Marty Turco would also be a solid choice for third stringer, and I suppose Pascal Leclaire or Carey Price could be ready for such duties by then.

This exercise is very difficult because Canada has such a deep talent pool. I don’t envy the Executive Director of the team. He has a very difficult job. [And just for the record, I think that person should be Steve Yzermam. And team Canada’s coach should be Mike Babcock. The Detroit organization simply knows how to win.] Russia will be able to ice the best line (Ovechkin-Malkin-Kovalchuk, scary!) but no country can match Canada in depth. To demonstrate, I have picked a substitute team out of those not already selected:

Kariya	E. Staal	St.Louis
Morrow	Briere	Doan
B. Richards	J. Staal	Horton
Smyth	Bergeron	Carter
	Horcoff
Boyle	Seabrook		Leclaire
Phillips	Jovanovski		Ward
Regehr	Burns		Turco
Coburn

The second team includes the 2004 Hart, Art Ross, and Pearson winner (St. Louis), the 2004 Conn Smythe winner (Brad Richards), and three 2002 gold medalists in Kariya, Smyth, and Jovanovski. Plus some emerging superstars. Not too shabby for a bunch of cast-offs.