The Canadian Olympic Men's Hockey Roster was unveiled this afternoon in Saskatoon. Following the disastrous outing in Turin in 2006, Steve Yzerman put a greater emphasis on team cohesion, youth and versatility, overlooking some veterans by picking players with known chemistry together (see San Jose's top line). Going into the selection process there were some indubitable locks to make the team, but the rest of the roster was up in the air.
Canada's Olympic Men's Hockey Roster in my projected, but rather obvious line combinations:
| GOALTENDERS | ||
| Martin Brodeur | Marc-Andre Fleury | Roberto Luongo |
The schedule is not as tightly packed as last Olympics', so there is a good chance that one goaltender gets a majority of the workload. Brodeur will likely get the nod as #1 for the tournament barring injury or a demoralizing loss. Fleury will likely get the call against one of the lesser teams to see how he performs on the international stage. Luongo, who has never been past the 2nd round of the Stanley Cup Playoffs has plenty of international experience, but not as much as Fleury in the pressure-cooker games of the finals. | ||
| DEFENSEMEN | |
| Scott Niedermayer | Chris Pronger |
| Anchoring the top spot are Canada's defensive stalwarts, and top pair from the 2007 Stanley Cup winning Anaheim Ducks, Niedermayer and Pronger, epitomizing the desired mix of intelligent playmaking defense with a bruising physical presence. | |
| Dan Boyle | Shea Weber |
| Boyle is a smart, and gritty puck mover who can put pucks to the net while Weber is as solid as they come in the defensive end. | |
| Duncan Keith | Brent Seabrook |
| Keith and Seabrook are a young pair that anchor the Chicago Blackhawks defense corps together. | |
| Drew Doughty | |
| Drew Doughty, at only 20 years of age, brings a complete game to the ice and will be ready to fill any role required of him. | |
| FORWARDS | ||
| Patrice Bergeron | Sidney Crosby | Rick Nash |
| Crosby and Nash found some intriguing chemistry on the ice during the orientation camp held in Calgary earlier this year. Patrice Bergeron was Crosby's set-up man back in his last World Juniors appearance on arguably the strongest team ever iced in that tournament. Bergeron was a sleeper pick whose solid two-way play, ability to play all three forward positions and familiarity with Crosby gave him the leg up on other contenders. I am hoping Bergeron changes his name to "Stills". | ||
| Dany Heatley | Joe Thornton | Patrick Marleau |
| These three are San Jose's top line. This line pairs Thornton's big-body playmaking with a pair of shooters in Heatley and Marleau. They are a consistent scoring threat that will add even more depth and balance to Canada's attack. | ||
| Mike Richards | Eric Staal | Jerome Iginla |
| Eric Staal and Jerome Iginla will be looking to prove themselves as they are having sub-par seasons. They are both very gifted scorers who've had some trouble finding the net recently. Mike Richards, a defensive-minded power forward and captain of the Philadelphia Flyers and captain of the 2005 World Juniors squad that featured the likes of Crosby, Bergeron, Seabrook, Weber, Getzlaf and Perry, adding a defensive presence to an otherwise offensively oriented line. | ||
| Brenden Morrow | Ryan Getzlaf | Corey Perry |
| Corey Perry and Ryan Getzlaf have played together since junior, both reaching mainstream recognition with their stellar campaign in the aforementioned 2005 World Juniors when they took home gold. This line will be relied upon to tire out the other team as they are big, fast and can hold the puck down in the opposing zone for a long period of time. | ||
| Jonathan Toews | ||
| As one of the youngest members of the roster, but also one of the most dynamic scorers in Canada's arsenal, Jonathan Toews and his hard to read name is an indicator of the direct Steve Yzerman wants to take this team: young, fast, responsible, and oh so very talented. He is on this very deep squad to fill in for any injury. He is a game-breaking clutch performer, as evidenced in the 2007 World Juniors when he scored 3 times in the 7-round shootout to seal the victory for Canada over the US. | ||
The team Steve Yzerman has put together is characterized by size, skill and skating. Learning from the Turin debacle in which a team chock-full of talent and experience had their collective butts handed to them by border-line NHLers, Yzerman aimed for putting together a team with existing chemistry. The Olympic teams have about 2 weeks to gel together as a unit under a different coaching system, the pressure of the national stage and teammates that were, just a week before, the enemy. This year we also see a changing of the guard. Gone are the likes of Ryan Smyth, Shane Doan, Brad Richards, Martin St. Louis, Vincent Lecavalier, Adam Foote, etc. In their stead is the successful core of younger players from the World Juniors of 2005 led by Sidney Crosby and other standout players who've developed their game to take on new roles.
