Should Canada’s hockey team be favoured at Vancouver? No
December 28, 2009 · 18 Comments
In advance of Wednesday’s Team Canada announcement, let’s pick the early favourite to win the Olympic men’s hockey tournament.
Canada will be playing in front of a wildly enthusiastic home crowd. And the North American ice surface will be something of an advantage to the Canadians and Americans. But don’t kid yourself. The top ranked team in the tournament won’t represent the host country. It will be, or should be, Russia.
The Russians will be led by arguably the two best players in the world in Alexander Ovechkin and Evgeni Malkin, as well as two more major offensive stars, Ilya Kovalchuk and Pavel Datsyuk. The goaltending of Evgeni Nabokov, Ilya Brzygalov and Semyon Varlamov should be solid and so, too, the defense, anchored by Andrei Markov and Sergei Gonchar. Sweden, the defending Olympic champions, will be strong in all three positions. The Americans, back-stopped by Ryan Miller, will be the team nobody wants to play.
Canada? An excellent team led by Sidney Crosby, but, like virtually every Canadian entry in an elite international competition, it will struggle to put the puck in the net. That’s why Canadian general manager Steve Yzerman should be putting a priority on offensive talent rather than checkers. You have to assume the scorers will care enough to back check and pay attention in their own end. If it’s a choice between Martin St. Louis and Mike Richards, you go with St. Louis.
As for goaltending, you could argue the Russians, Swedes and Americans are in better shape than Canada which will likely start Martin Brodeur, who didn’t play well in Turin four years ago, with Roberto Luongo and Marc-Andre Fleury as backups.
Hockey Night In Canada’s Don Cherry had it right when he said Yzerman, when making his final decisions, should give priority to the guys who have played well from October to December. Achievements from a year or two years past count for nothing in a short, extremely competitive, high pressure war that is the Olympic hockey tournament. For that reason, as well as his offensive skills, defenseman Drew Doughty should be on the team.
Canadian hockey cheerleaders like to say this country is so overflowing with talent that it could send two teams to the Olympic tournament. That’s true, but would either win? Canada’s 12th forward may be superior to Russia’s 12th, but I’ll take Russia’s core ahead of Canada’s. We’ll see.
- Who should be the captain of the Canadian team? Crosby, of course, but for those fretting about putting too much pressure on Sid, appoint co-captains, Crosby along with one of the veterans. That’s what was done for the 1984 Canada Cup team. Wayne Gretzky, the kid, shared the captaincy with veteran Larry Robinson.
- Leafs TV game analyst Greg Millen made this comment during a Leafs game last week: “You just can’t teach those things to kids. They learn them at a young age.” Yes, perfectly clear.
- It was finally said by TSN’s Pierre McGuire late in the Canada’s 16-zip win over Latvia: It was ugly. He might have noted also that an A-tournament doesn’t include dogs like Latvia.
- Weren’t you thrilled that CTV’s Toronto affiliate, CFTO, managed to air clips of newscasters Ken Shaw and Christine Bentley carrying the Olympic torch? We all were moved.
- Under the headline “Events that brought a tear to eye,” Toronto Star reporter Paul Hunter cited, among the decade’s most memorable, Scotty Bowman hoisting the Detroit Red Wing’s 2002 Stanley Cup. Pardon us for keeping a dry eye while watching a celebration by an arrogant, generally disagreeable hockey guy.
- A scene that really was moving was the Canadian women hockey players celebrating their gold medal triumph at the 2002 Salt Lake Olympics after defeating the Americans and overcoming perhaps the most dishonest officiating, by an U.S. referee, seen at an Olympic Games, not counting, of course, the corrupt figure skating judging.
- I’m sorry, but TSN’s The Reporters trying to compare Jordan Eberle’s last-second goal against Russia in last year’s junior tournament semi-final to Paul Henderson’s winner in 1972 is just ridiculous.
Filed under Article Posts · · 
Email This Article
I'm late, but I just wanted to say that since that 2002 Women's Olympic final, I have never once used the hyperbole "this is the most poorly officiated game I've ever seen." That is because that game, which you rightly point out, William, was presided over by an American ref, was without a doube the most poorly officiated game I've ever seen, and hope to ever see. I just laugh sometimes when people complain of biased referees in the NHL and think back to that game. It was beyond awful, but it was a great moment when Canada won anyway.
Whatever the outcome of the Olympic tournament, there will be some GREAT hockey games!!! Unlike the debacle going on in Saskatchewan right now. This might be the worst ever WJHC that I've ever seen. Bring it back to a 6 or 7 team round robin format with the top two facing off for gold.
I’ve always liked Neidermayer but he’s not the same player he was 4 and 8 years ago when Canada’s best defenceman. Towes should not be on the team despite being picked by everyone. Does this guy have pictures of hockey writers or what? In four years, maybe but not now.
It is not true that Brodeur played poorly in Turin…………..he played very well but Canada couldn't score.
You can make a decent case for being concerned about Brodeur based on his play in the playoffs the last few years but you can't make a decent case for being concerned based on his play in the 2006 Olympics..
"As for goaltending, you could argue the Russians, Swedes and Americans are in better shape than Canada which will likely start Martin Brodeur, who didn’t play well in Turin four years ago, with Roberto Luongo and Marc-Andre Fleury as backups."
Nabokov(Nothing), Brzygalov(Nothing) & Varlamov (absolutely nothing) are better than Brodeur(Venza, Stanley Cups, Gold Medal) and Luongo(Nothing of note, except for top 3 goalie last 6 years) and Fleury(Stanley Cup and Cup appreance 2 yrs running)?
What are you talking about, please let me know how the Russian goalie with no big game success are better than the Canadian goalies.
Go back to the bashing the media William
I think that Neidermayer will be captain as well, Crosby and Iginla would make good assistant captains.
As for the favourites, I like Canada to win gold over the Russians. I think that after that any of the Czech Republic, Sweden, Slovakia or the Americans could win bronze. My money is on the Slovaks to beat the Swedes in the bronze medal game
I can't stand TSN's pale imitation of The Sports Reporters. Too much of Steve Simmons being a total ass!
ALL tournaments include dogs such as Latvia. In every sport.
Did you just refer to Latvia as "dogs"?
I think the team to beat is Sweden …they are REALLY good. Great 2 way forwards, very solid (and hard hitting) D, Good goaltending. That's a killer team.
Good points on the above article by Dre, . . . , the last I looked, Canada has 15 of the top 26 total point producers in the current NHL stats. Russia has three. Canada has 21 of the top 40, Russia has six. We haven't even looked at the "D" yet. It will be a battle, for sure but we should be just fine.
The article has a few contradictions.
JB
A few points about the article
1. Niedermayer will be captain, if not Niedermayer, Iginla. Sid doesn't have the experience at this level to justify being captain.
2. You say Cherry is right, and that the players who excelled from Oct to Dec should be on the team, but in the preceding paragraph you seem to slam Brodeurs play four years ago as if it is relevant. Did you not witness the record breaking December Brodeur has established and continues to add to?
3. The Americans are the team no one wants to play??? You're all wet buddy.
4. Sure the top 2 Russian D men are good, but don't forget that Grebeshkov made the Russian squad. You may like the Russians forwards better than Canadas, but no one has a better D corps on the planet than Canada.
5. I hope you write up a nice article when Canada has very little trouble putting the puck in the net, Marty stands on his head and the Russians bring the silver back across the pond cause the Gold is staying in Canada.
No, typo is Evgeni, not Evgeny
The Russians will be led by arguably the two best players in the world in Alexander Ovechkin and Evgeny Malkin.
Must be a misprint, certainly you mean Ovechkin and Datsyuk…
Agreed – Datsyuk with his Selke is a better player than Malkin….(wouldn't Canada love to have both?)