The Sports Corner

Team Canada 2010: It’s just over a year away

This is what I think about when the Canucks lose: 2010. About a year ago, I posted on the orginial TSC about what our nation’s team should look like come the Vancouver Olympics. Now, a year later, it looks even better.

What I really like is the championship management focus. In the early eighties, it was all Islanders. In the late eighties, it was all Oilers. Now, it’s all Detroit. While they can’t have Detroit players because the only ones that are any good are European, Steve Yzerman will run the team with the help of Red Wings GM Ken Holland, and the eventual hiring of Mike Babcock as the team’s head coach. 

Without further ado, the 2008 version of the projected 2010 Canadian Men’s Olympic Ice Hockey Team.

Vincent Lecavalier       Sidney Crosby        Jarome Iginla

Danny Heatley             Joe Thornton         Rick Nash

Ryan Getzlaf               Jason Spezza          Eric Staal

Mike Richards             Marc Savard           Brad Richards

Daniel Briere

Dion Phaneuf                      Chris Pronger

Mike Green                         Brian Campbell

Jay Bouwmeester                Brent Burns

Wade Redden

Roberto Luongo

Marc Andre Fleury

Now, what you’ll notice about this team is the surplus of center icemen playing the wing because of the loads of talent that Canada possesses at the position. This is not a problem. Think back to 1987 when Canada won the Canada Cup against the USSR. 

Down the middle, that team had Wayne Gretzky, Mario Lemieux, Mark Messier and Doug Gilmour as their four centers. It wasn’t a problem then, and it won’t be a problem in 2010.

The biggest improvement from my last projection of the team is the offensive prowess that the defense possesses. This is helped in huge part by the emergence of Mike Green and Brian Campbell.

Notice that this team doesn’t have that experienced leader that that the ‘06 team did. Pure talent is more like it. Even if Joe Sakic is still playing, he still shouldn’t be included on this team just because of who he is and what he’s done for Hockey Canada. Although he may be a great leader and still won’t be a liability on the ice, there will be players that will simply produce more than him.

Also notice that this team lacks the grinders and defensive specialists. Well, the defense will be able to hold its own. No question about that. And, one of the most underrated aspects of Crosby’s game is the battles that he wins in every corner that he goes to. Nine and a half times out of ten when he goes into the corner, he’s coming out with the puck. Crosby also finished second highest in the league in plus-minus in last year’s playoffs.

Guys like Jarome Iginla, Mike Richards and Ryan Getzlaf are three of the best two-way players in the world today.

But as high as I am on my Canadian team, let’s stop to think of Russia’s potential top line.

Ovechkin-Malkin-Kovalchuk.

I’ll pause so you can catch your breath.

This is the best line since the USSR dressed the KMB line of Makarov, Fetisov and Larionov. This is 302 combined points last season. 

And the list goes on. Datsyuk. Frolov. Kovalev. Afinogenov. All the freakin’ ov’s you can think of.

But where they will falter is on defense. If Sergei Gonchar can still make it there, everyone will still know that he’s a forward playing the point and at times a defensive liability who is prone to turning over the puck. Then you’ve got Andrei Markov and Sergei Zubov, after that, nothing. No shutdown man at all. Absolutely no one that will be able to contain Crosby, Lecavalier and Iginla.

And, barring a career second-wind from Khabibulin, the Russians will have to lean on Ilya Bryzgalov as their number one goaltender.

The offense the Russians possess will get them far, but not past Canada. 

That’s why I love this country.