Team Canada 2014

[flyswede]

http://www.onesecondleft.com/2013/02/07/team-canada-2014/#

Who are they missing?

[JA_Boomer]

Eric Staal - Sidney Crosby - Steven Stamkos: 1'st scoring line

John Tavares - Claude Biroux - Tyler Seguin: 2'nd scoring line (young guns)

Jordan Staal - Jonathan Toews - Patrice Bergeron: Shut-down / PK line

Evander Kane - Ryan Getzlaf - Corey Perry: Energy/Checking line

Jordan Eberle: in case we need a goal late

Alex Pietrangelo - Kris Letang

Shea Weber - Drew Doughty

Duncan Keith - Brent Seabrook

Marc Staal

Carey Price

Marc-Andre Fleury

Cam Ward

[ifiwaschucknorris]

Is Claude Biroux new?

This might be blatant homerism but am I the only one who thinks Iggy should be on this team. He has been one of the top scorers for team Canada at all the other Olympics and I think has shown he is not slowing down much.

He would be a favourite for the Captaincy if he was on the team.

I see him as a solid option on the second line.

[Flyerfan52]

Ferraro had a different lineup on TSN. Mike Richards is the 1 I recall him mentioning.

[DirtyDeeds]

Who are they? when you say who are they missing.

It appears to me just someones blog on who they think should be on the team.

My next and only other question is where is Iggy?

Edit: Well I did a few minutes research and I know who "They" are. They are the idiots out of Ontario that have that disclaimer they may work for TSN or CTV.

They really screwed up on their preseason previews and showed they don't know how to use a spellchecker let alone put more than two sentences together.

As for this blog on who they think should be on Team Canada.... Who cares what they think??

Edit / Edit:

You have to wonder why this website has such a dismal following, when they are reaching out to a North America Hockey audience. When you start to read some of the blogs it becomes much more clear why.

[Carty]

I forget who it was, but someone else made a post not that long ago with a link to the same blog... It was in reference to their preview for the season on the Flames, so I took a look... http://www.onesecondleft.com/2013/01/16/nhl-preview-calgary-flames/ It seems to me that at the time I thought it was just posted by somebody who started an account to advertise their blog...

This rag of a waste of blog space is full of so many errors, omissions and BS it is beyond pathetic... Their list of staff only includes a handful of no-name morons with zero credibility that just felt compelled to start a blog... http://www.onesecondleft.com/the-osl-team/

The only thing this blog is good for is wasting time by reading biased and misinformed opinions from the endless supply of wizards of hockey knowledge in Ontario...

[The_People1]

My team so far is,

Forwards

E.Staal - Crosby - Eberle

Tavares - Stamkos - Giroux

Perry - Getzlaf - M.Richards

Lucic - Toews - Bergeron

x: Seguin

Defensemen

Keith - Weber

M.Staal - Pietrangelo

Bouwmeester - Doughty

x: Letang

Goalies

Price

x: Luongo, Brodeur

I'm making a case for Bouwmeester for 2014 based on his play right now. He's flying out there, moving the puck well, and most importantly, he's scoring. If he keeps this up, i think there's a 6/7 role for him on the team. He's a Left Hand shot while most of the Canadian studs on defense are Right Hand shots, such as Letang, Boyle, Green, Subban, etc. There's also fringe guys like Campbell, Del Zotto, Schultz, etc who i think Bouwmeester can beat out due to his size and previous experience at the Olympics.

Carey Price is the best Canadian goalie by far. Luongo has been there before so he's pretty much a lock to at least be a back-up. I'm also going with Brodeur for his experience although, he might be too old by next season.

Forwards will be competitive. Leaving out Nash, Thornton, Marleau, B.Richards, Benn, Lecavalier, St.Louis, etc. I think James Neal can make a case for himself if he plays with Crosby more and finds chemistry in Pittsburgh.

Are Clarkson and Couture for reals? Could make a case for them in a 4th line energy/PK role. Also, maybe Iginla will get some votes to be the 13th forward if he can get off to a good start next season.

I don't like Taylor Hall's game and don't think he'll get on the team. Eberle is the much smarter player but Eberle is 1st line or bust.

[DL44]

^ only thing peeps... i would be worried about the speed of our bottom 6 on big ice.

Benn - Crosby - Stamkos

Hall - Tavares - Perry

Couture - Towes - Giroux

E.Staal - Bergeron - Nash

Benn's lack of speed more than made up for by his linemates.. and those hands.

- I would pick the other Oiler. Oilers fans themselves would take Hall over Eberle now.. in another yr, i think he'll be ready... that speed on the wing will be deadly vs international D.

Bergeron is too much of utility guy to leave off... PK, faceoffs..

The one guy i had on there last yr, but has gotten off to a slow start... but is the perfect mix of speed, size and (almost) skill.. Evander Kane.

Overall... That was as much speed and skill as I could put on there to best play on the big rink.

The D i would have to have deeper think on... but one guy i'm definitely not considering a lock for this team is Letang.

He was brutal last yr and he has not impressed me nearly as much as the other guys when you watch him play this yr... (just seen a couple games this yr)

IF we don't need him for his scoring.. we don't need him at all.

Much rather have Boyle back there as a PP specialist instead... and he's a lefty.

[The_People1]

^ only thing peeps... i would be worried about the speed of our bottom 6 on big ice.

Benn - Crosby - Stamkos

Hall - Tavares - Perry

Couture - Towes - Giroux

E.Staal - Bergeron - Nash

Benn's lack of speed more than made up for by his linemates.. and those hands.

- I would pick the other Oiler. Oilers fans themselves would take Hall over Eberle now.. in another yr, i think he'll be ready... that speed on the wing will be deadly vs international D.

Bergeron is too much of utility guy to leave off... PK, faceoffs..

The one guy i had on there last yr, but has gotten off to a slow start... but is the perfect mix of speed, size and (almost) skill.. Evander Kane.

Overall... That was as much speed and skill as I could put on there to best play on the big rink.

The D i would have to have deeper think on... but one guy i'm definitely not considering a lock for this team is Letang.

He was brutal last yr and he has not impressed me nearly as much as the other guys when you watch him play this yr... (just seen a couple games this yr)

IF we don't need him for his scoring.. we don't need him at all.

Much rather have Boyle back there as a PP specialist instead... and he's a lefty.

Yea i've got Bergeron on the team. Agreed there. His versatility in a defensive role is top notch. Better than a Jordan Staal in my opinion. You get Bergeron, Toews, M.Richards, and either E.Staal or Perry killing penalties. I believe Getzlaf is good on the PK as well but with Crosby, Stamkos, Giroux, and Tavares as scoring Centers, there's enough scoring Centers to go around to leave Getzlaf off the roster.

I like Benn too but E.Staal was great with Crosby in 2010. Iginla was riding shotgun with those two but E.Staal-Crosby carried that line. I think you gotta keep those two together for 2014.

Taylor Hall skates effortlessly, tirelessly, and is great for bringing the puck up ice but once in the offensive zone, i think Eberle is the much smarter/clever player. He'll read Crosby and vice versa. Hall floats around once he's in the offensive zone and doesn't have that "Eberle-feel" for open ice. With E.Staal and Crosby so good along the boards, you really just need an Eberle to find open ice. E.Staal-Crosby-Iginla was pretty decent in 2010. I think E.Staal-Crosby-Eberle can be a killer line.

I don't like Evander Kane as much as i like a Mike Richards. There might only be room for one of those two players who are pretty good at everything but doesn't particularly excel at anything either. I would take Richards over Kane but if both make it, it's not a bad thing. It would mean the team goes without a Lucic who can bring a physical change up, or Couture who can generate the energy.

EDIT: plus, your team has no natural RWs. Giroux is hybrid C/RW. More reason to have Eberle over Hall/Benn.

[DL44]

I've seen Mike Richards float so much he could be a boat.

I consider him to be sooo overrated.. Watch any Kings game coming up and look. He's been brutal this yr.

He does score and agitate, but I wouldn't want him on this Team Canada. Plus the bigger ice would expose his skating to a larger degree.

Too many comparable choices that i would rather have - Couture being a prime one.

And I remember 2010 a little differently.. The Crosby line was the one that just couldn't get going consistently. Crosby ended up paired and tried along side quite a few players. I don't recall him and Staal being a force. ah well... old age..

At the end of the day... as long as the top 3 centers are Crosby, Tavares, Towes (Stamkos if he isn't playing wing)... then the rest is all gravy.. No other nation can come close to that top 3.

Also on the fringe possibly Giroux. maybe FF52 can enlighten us on whats up.. keep seeing threads on how bad his start has been on a certain website that shall remain nameless.

[ConnorFutureGM]

There's talk that it'll be a 25 man roster from 23. I think they might as well go for 26 to have an extra player for each position.

Yzerman, Lowe, Holland, Armstrong and whoever the coaches are will have a major impact on who's on the team. They're going to want their guys on the team.

Hopefully Canada learns from the other times the game was on the big ice surface and goes for speed over size.

Stamkos-Crosby-St.Louis

Tavares-Giroux-Neal

Couture-Toews-Nash

Marleau-Getzlaf-Perry

Hall-RNH-Eberle

Bouwmeester-Weber

Letang-Doughty

Keith-Seabrook

Hamhuis-Pietrangelo

Price

Luongo

Dubnyk

[The_People1]

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/sports/hockey/international-lessons-learned-for-team-canada/article8421744/

A decent article worth a read

International lessons learned for Team Canada

ROY MacGREGOR

The Globe and Mail

Published Friday, Feb. 08 2013, 10:52 PM EST

It’s been a long time since Canada could take advantages for granted in Olympic hockey competition.

It’s 93 years since team secretary W.A. Hewitt, who also happened to be sports editor of The Toronto Star, was asked if he’d mind refereeing the first Olympic match at the Antwerp Games.

And it’s 89 years since ringer Harold (Moose) Watson predicted Canada would whip the Americans 10-0 or 12-0 in the gold-medal match at Chamonix, France. Perhaps the fact that the final score was only 6-1 – with Moose picking up three goals to take his Olympic total to a record 36 – was a harbinger of decades to come.

There would be a day when Canada would just be one of several teams with a chance at Olympic glory.

Sochi will presumably mark the fifth time NHL players have been released by their clubs to play for their countries. In that time, Canada has won two gold medals (Salt Lake City, 2002; Vancouver, 2010), finished fourth in Nagano in 1998, and came a shocking seventh in Turin in 2006.

There are lessons for Sochi in all of these victories and losses, but whether they will be heeded will not be known until the gold-medal game slated for Feb. 23, 2014.

Will Canada win that gold-medal game or not? And if not, why not?

Russia has already sent back some good advice for Canadian teams headed over there. The junior Team Canada was in Ufa over Christmas and New Year’s with Canada’s usual “gold-or-nothing” attitude and returned with nothing, despite sending some fabulous young talent over.

The lessons of Ufa are simple:

*Don’t grab an NHL head coach – in the case of the world juniors, a major-junior head coach – and send him off to win in international competition. Make sure most, if not all, of the coaching staff have considerable international hockey experience.

*Do not presume to play your game on their ice, as the Canadian coaching staff stated it would in Turin. It is not the same game. Only the equipment, the size of the nets and the puck is the same; everything else is in another world.

*Do not continue to assemble the best players and presume they can perform assigned and unfamiliar functions. There is no need for the traditional “grinder” lines of NHL and major junior. The most any team will play another is twice in such competition – no time for personal grudges to build up, no point to avenging anything the way international hockey is called. The very idea of turning young Nathan MacKinnon into a grinder for Ufa was preposterous. He might be the hottest prospect in hockey, but he was invisible in Ufa.

The abiding theory in putting together Canadian teams has been to gather together the top players, assemble the machine and, over time, work out the kinks. While this can work, and has worked for Canada, it is worth noting players familiar with each other and teams dedicated to speed often have success in the Olympics.

The Swiss beat Canada in Turin. The Slovaks came within a shot of taking Canada to overtime in Vancouver, and were, at the time, in control of the game. The tough games aren’t always the ones checked off in advance.

Then, there is the matter of size. Canada – for reasons that baffle – was given exceptional permission by the International Olympic Committee to stick to the smaller NHL ice surface in Vancouver, and this undoubtedly proved helpful as Canada and the United States faced off in the gold-medal game. No such variance will be available in Sochi, where the regulation Olympic ice surface will return.

If Canada were to put together one team for the big ice and one team for the North American ice, they would not be the same. Or at least they should not be the same.

The forwards Team Canada chooses for Sochi should be as adept at cycling as they are at shooting, as skilled working the boards as they are coming through centre ice.

The defence will need to be as mobile as possible. In international hockey, the NHL’s much loved “stay-at-home” defenceman is a liability, not a plus.

If the Canadian NHL players are finding officiating in the NHL confusing as the shrunken season speeds along, just wait until they hear the first few whistles in Sochi. It is popular in Canada to dismiss international officiating as incompetent, but it is really just different, and likely no more consistent or inconsistent than NHL officiating.

The greatest difference may well be in off-ice rulings. If the players think NHL vice-president Brendan Shanahan can be quick with the suspension, think again. You’ll pay much more for stupidity in international hockey.

And finally, there has been one important lesson in all the previous four Olympic competitions that have included NHL players: Luck will take some unexpected shifts.

From Dominik Hasek in Nagano, to Martin Gerber in Turin, Canada can run into goaltending that cannot be solved in a single game.

In Salt Lake City, it was clear to all, even Team Canada, the best team in the tournament was Sweden – only to see Sweden doomed by a Belarus dump-in that wouldn’t even have hit the net if it hadn’t bounced off goaltender Tommy Salo’s glove, head, back and into the net.

It happens. It almost happened in Vancouver, where pesky Slovakia had a skate on Canada’s throat in the dying minutes, only to see Pavol Demitra either miss the net or Roberto Luongo make a miracle save, take your choice.

Luck will have a say in Sochi, too.

Just as it has, and should have, in every Olympic hockey game that has ever been played or will be played.

Makes some good points that Vancouver Olympics was played on NHL sized ice. 2014 will be international ice. This means big and slow will be a liability. So, gotta scratch guys like Lucic off the short list and go with a Martin St.Louis instead or something like that.

[Heartbreaker]

If I'm picking an Oiler other than Eberle, I'm looking at you, Ryan Nugent-Hopkins.

That kid is ridiculous, and if he's healthy, he's only going to get better. He's got good hockey sense.

If Iginla's on the 2014 team, I think he's captain. That'd be pretty well-done-navajo-fry-watermelon-strawberryin' awesome!

Love.

[The_Don]

My team:

Giroux - Crosby - Stamkos

St. Louis - Toews - Perry

E. Staal - Thornton - Nash

Tavares - Bergeron - Eberle

Sharp/Getzlaf/Iginla

Weber - Pietrangelo

Keith - Letang

Doughty - Campbell

Seabrook/M. Staal/Hamhuis

Luongo

Price

Ward/Fleury/Smith/Anderson

If I'm picking an Oiler other than Eberle, I'm looking at you, Ryan Nugent-Hopkins.

That kid is ridiculous, and if he's healthy, he's only going to get better. He's got good hockey sense.

If Iginla's on the 2014 team, I think he's captain. That'd be pretty well-done-navajo-fry-watermelon-strawberryin' awesome!

Love.

RNH should be even better by this time next year, but he has much more versatile centers ahead of him on the depth chart, either that have proven they can move to the wing, or have the physical/size/defensive advantage. I think he'd have to be on the top 2 lines to be effective, or be taken as a spare forward.

[ConnorFutureGM]

My team:

Giroux - Crosby - Stamkos

St. Louis - Toews - Perry

E. Staal - Thornton - Nash

Tavares - Bergeron - Eberle

Sharp/Getzlaf/Iginla

Weber - Pietrangelo

Keith - Letang

Doughty - Campbell

Seabrook/M. Staal/Hamhuis

Luongo

Price

Ward/Fleury/Smith/Anderson

RNH should be even better by this time next year, but he has much more versatile centers ahead of him on the depth chart, either that have proven they can move to the wing, or have the physical/size/defensive advantage. I think he'd have to be on the top 2 lines to be effective, or be taken as a spare forward.

I just don't see Iginla on the team. He's still decent but not the player he used to be.

[Carty]

I just don't see Iginla on the team. He's still decent but not the player he used to be.

I like the way Eberle plays the game and he is a possibility, but RNH and Hall have more to prove before earning a spot on Team Canada,... All of the above have a ways to go, and may very well never achieve the level that Iggy has performed at as a player...

As for your choice of Dubnyk as a goaltender, you can`t be serious...

[The_Don]

I just don't see Iginla on the team. He's still decent but not the player he used to be.

Hence why I left him on the bottom line. He will probably be given every chance to prove he should be there. A lot depends on how he plays in the next calender year.