(CLS re-visited) My Wacky Vision for Team Canada

Written by James O'Brien

Saturday, 21 November 2009 20:04

With Team Canada's roster being announced, we decided to share our picks as well. Much like the U.S. roster, we must remind you that these picks were made before injuries and such.

southparkcanada

I've thought about how I'd construct Team USA and Team Canada (the two national rosters with the most choices ... say what you want about Russia, the pickings get pretty slim for them once you get past the superstars) on and off since the summer. Since my opinion is that it's wrong to simply assemble All-Star teams, it's a little more difficult than to simply throw the best talent in 23 and call it a day.

You need guys who are willing to play the PK, players who can win face-offs/board battles and (in my opinion) players who have some familiarity with each other. On some level, I still don't know if this is a "perfect" list ... but here's what I would do with Team Canada:

(after the jump)

teamcanada

Offense:

Line 1: Rick Nash - Sidney Crosby - Jarome Iginla

Line 2: Dany Heatley - Joe Thornton - Patrick Marleau

Line 3: Ryan Getzlaf - Mike Richards - Corey Perry

Line 4: Jordan Staal - Jonathan Toews - Martin St. Louis

Reserve: Steve Stamkos

Defense

Scott Niedermayer - Chris Pronger

Dan Boyle - Jay Bouwmeester

Mike Green - Robyn Regehr

Reserve: Duncan Keith

Goalies

Martin Brodeur

Roberto Luongo

Reserve: M-A Fleury

***

On my Offense:

jumbojoe

The first line is a "no brainer" line. It's been surprising to see Thornton not even make some pundits' teams; he's consistently been one of the league's best centers and would probably be a lot more productive playing against second line defensive pairings. His second line would make sense even if they weren't NHL teammates but that really seals the deal for me. The Olympics are a crash course without any time to gel so why not just put as many of the league's best lines together?

Richards-Getzlaf-Perry would be a hellacious terror of a line; only Canada could provide a line with such a collection of grit and skill. Finally, the fourth line would be a "heart" line with three of the league's most like-able players.

You don't want a malcontent on your taxi squad which is why I thought of bringing Steve Stamkos. If he didn't get to play much, he'd probably be satisfied (right?).

It was tough to choose between Jordan Staal, his brother and Brenden Morrow but someone has to be single minded when it comes to defense. Staal averages about 3:00 of shorthanded time per game and is used to taking a backseat to star players. Works for me.

PK forwards: Marleau, Nash, Richards and Staal.

***

On my Defense:

prongerandbrodeur

At first I had the wacky idea to put Green on a "fourth line" offense and only use him in PP situations but that seemed a little too radical.

Niedermayer and Pronger are experienced and bring a yin and yang of brutality and elegance. They are in the top 5 best D in the world. Boyle-Bouwmeester would be among the best skating D pairs the hockey world's ever seen. Green's unreal offense would be a fantastic catalyst (especially against mid/lower line opponents) and Regehr's stay at home tendencies would help cover up Green's mistakes.

If Green's freelancing becomes more of a minus than a plus, then you could switch in Duncan Keith and gain a lot of defense at the expense of dynamic offense.

PP D: Green, Boyle, Niedermayer, Pronger

***

On my Goalies:

My initial thought was that a Luongo-Brodeur pair would clash in an alpha dog battle but I didn't like the other options. Sometimes you just need to allow the natural pressure push players to the top ... besides, Luongo's performances in certain big game situations make me worry a bit. I'd think that Fleury would just be happy to be there, not an irrelevant factor in picking a possible taxi squad goalie.

***

So what do you think? Impressed? Feel like I'm an idiot? Feel free to share your rosters/feedback.

Comments (4) Add Comment

morrow
written by sethconn, November 21, 2009

I like Morrow in big games, but with him hurt a year and not playing great this year pushes him down some notches. Perhaps Morrow instead of Stamkos in reserve? Morrow is even on record saying that just being there would be an honor, so I doubt he'd be a malcontent..

...
written by cyclelikesedins, November 22, 2009

There's plenty of good players who could be there instead of Stamkos and Morrow's high on the list. I saw that Bucci at ESPN chose a lot more players in his picks, so maybe taxi squads are bigger than I thought ...