2010 Olympics Early Look

Posted by Craig on October 22, 2008

Hockey is a truly international game, and in 2010 the best of what the game has to offer will be on display. We took a look at Team Canada and now it is time to look at the other favorites. Unlike other sports there are a lot of countries that have extremely high end hockey talent. Different countries have different styles, Russia loves offense, Sweden preaches team defense and individual talent and the United States plays very physical. Canada will be the favorite heading into the games in there own country, but these other countries are not far behind.

Team USA - The American team has some great young talent and look like they might getting near the top of the hockey world again. They are not as deep as some of the other nations, but have some talent. With the right leadership and coaching this team could compete for gold at the 2010 Olympics. I think the USA executives will need to make a choice of which veterans they will take, guys like Weight, Tkachuk, Modano and Schneider won’t all make this team. Team USA does have good goalies with Ryan Miller and Rick Dipietro. The third goalie spot will be up for grabs with guys like Conklin and T. Thomas.

Line 1        Parise        Gomez    Drury
Line 2        Malone    Umberger    Kane
Line 2        Cole        Modano    Kessel
Line 4        Dubinsky    Rolston    D. Brown

Those are a solid 4 lines, with a good mix a youth and experience. There will some other guys in the mix, Patrik O’Sullivan, Peter Mueller, TJ Oshie and Drew Stafford will have a real chance of making this team.

D 1        Rafalski    Schneider
D 2        Orpik        Suter
D 3        Hainsey    Preissing

Obviously This squad is lead by the number 1 pair and have some good pieces. Joe Corvo and Jack Johnson will also be in the mix for defenseman jobs. I like this team there is a good mix and if they play hard, they can have a real chance to medal. They don’t have as much high end talent as some other nations, but they have some young and up coming stars who could earn there way on to this team.

Team Sweden - Defending Olympic champions and extremely talented. Recently Swedish players have gotten a lot of press, when they led the Red Wings to the Stanley Cup. When you look at the European teams you need to realize that there will be some talent that is not in the NHL in there locker rooms. In my opinion Sweden is right up there with Canada for the most talented all around team.  Obviously the starting goaltender will be Rangers all star Henrik Lundqvist, and he is one of the best goalies in the world. There is a solid mix a veterans and young stars, a lot of which will be returning from there 2006 gold.

Line 1        Huselius    Zetterberg    Alfredsson
Line 2        D.Sedin    H.Sedin    Franzen
Line 3        Naslund    Pahlsson    Berglund
Line 4        Bruunstrom    Backstrom    Holmstrom

D 1        Lidstrom    N.Kronwall
D 2        Ohlund    Edler
D 3        Havelid    Wallin

You can see there is a lot of Red Wings on this team, and they will take a leadership role. The biggest change is that there in no Sundin or Forsberg and who knows they might be around next year. This looks like a good all around team, they will compete for the gold medal next year. They have great leadership, good young talent and excellent goaltending, all the tools to compete for gold in 2010.

Team Russia - High offense and exciting hockey is the brand of hockey the Russians like to play. This team will sport a lot of players from the Russian leagues, that I am not overly familiar with. Its hard to pick a Russian team because I am not sure which veterans will play, or what Russian league players will be involved. All that being said some of the biggest stars in the NHL are Russian and there team will compete in a short tournament. I think Phoenix goalie Ilya Bryzgalov will start in net and need to play well. The questions will surround which players are going to play, guys like Fedorov and Kovalev are getting older and may not be selected.

Line 1        Semin        Datsyuk    Ovechkin
Line 2        Kovalchuk    Malkin    Kovalev
Line 3        Kulemin    Filatov    Frolov

D 1        A Markov    Volchenkov
D 2        Grebishkov    Tyutin

Obviously there are some great offensive players on this team and they will score goals. The rest of this team will be filled with Russian league guys, some of which have enough talent to play in the NHL. The Russian national team is always hard to predict and I assure you they will not be the favorites in Canada. This team, if it looks this way will be very fun to watch. To compete for a gold medal next year the Russian executives will need to find players for depth for penalty killing, defense and goaltending.

Obviously it is way to early to be looking at this stuff, but it is fun never the less. I refuse to make any predictions at this time, ask me in a year. Team Canada and Team Sweden look like the favorites at this time, but a lot can change in a year. Hockey is a very international game and this tournament should be fun to watch. This might be the last time National Hockey League players play in the Olympics and will be a must watch during the games. Other teams to look out for will be Finland, Czech Republic and Switzerland and will create a very deep field for the tournament. This tournament will be exciting to witness and will possibly make history in the process.

Team Canada 2010

Posted by Craig on October 20, 2008

Next year the Olympics will be held in Vancouver, Canada and the most anticipated event will be the hockey. The NHL’s best will compete for the pride of there countries and not for money. No matter what your thoughts are on professional athletes at the Olympics, the hockey will be great. Being in Canada, will top it off, the players chosen to play for Team Canada will have more pressure on them then any hockey fan can imagine. Over the weekend Team Canada took the first steps toward building there team, announcing that Steve Yzerman will be the executive director. Joining Yzerman will be Ken Holland, Doug Armstrong and Kevin Lowe with Wayne Gretzky as a special advisor. This team of executives have a lot of experience and will have plenty of time to build the best team possible. Its time to take an early look at what the team might look like, starting from the coach, to the forwards, defenseman and goalies

The Coach - There will be a short list of coaches for this team, but you can be assured the management team will make the right decision. Obviously with Yzerman and Holland making the decisions Red Wing coach Mike Babcock will be at the top of this list. Don’t over look Wayne Gretzky, if he wants to coach this team, it will be hard to say no. Other guys who will be in the mix is Ken Hitchcock, Pat Quinn, Guy Carbonneau, Lindy Ruff and Brent Sutter. For my money I would think Babcock will be the coach if he wants it, look for Hitchcock to be involved as well.

Forward Lines – This is where it become fun, Canada in very deep up front and the executives will have to try and find the best mix. Its not all about talent, they will need to find some players who can play in all situations. Well I think the top line will be Sydney Crosby at center and a couple wingers who you think he can get the best out of. I think all Canadians will love to see Jerome Iginla on the right side of Crosby. A healthy Simon Gagne would look very good on the left side and create a fantastic first line. The second line would centered by Vincent Lecavalier in my opinion and would be joined by Rick Nash playing left wing and Danny Heatley on the right. As the second line these three will be big and physical, and able to create a lot of offense. On the third line I would make it a little bit more of a checking line with Flyers captain Mike Richards as its center. Joining Richards would be physical players Shane Doan and Brendan Morrow, all three can penalty kill and play a physical game. The fourth line is where the tough decisions will have to be made, Canada will need to pick guys who can play a role and contribute when needed. If San Jose all star Joe Thornton is willing to play a role he will be the fourth line center. Martin St. Louis can play in all spots and is a good penalty killer which will get him a spot on this line playing right wing. Much like St. Louis under rated Sabres forward Derek Roy will make this team.

Line 1        Gagne        Crosby    Iginla
Line 2        Nash        Lecavalier    Heatley
Line 3        Doan        Richards    Morrow
Line 4        Roy        Thornton    St. Louis

Defense - The defense will be a mix of young and veteran players. Canada is not as deep on the back end as they are up front, but they still have a tone of talent. The group will be led in my opinion by tough physical defenseman Dion Phaneuf and Chris Pronger. For offence Team Canada will look at young exciting Capitols D-man Mike Green and veteran puck mover Dan Boyle. The third pairing will open for competition over the next year and I think Wild defenseman Brent Burns will earn one of the spots. Jay Boumeester will join Burns to make the final pairing.

Pairing 1    Phaneuf    Pronger
Pairing 2    Green        Boyle
Pairing 3    Burns        Boumeester

Goalies - The top two goalies are very easy to figure out, Martin Brodeur and Roberto Luongo are locks for this team. The third goalie will probably be the goalie who is playing the best at the time, look for Marty Turco to be picked because of his team Canada experience.

Obviously this is my opinion and there are a lot of players left to fight it out for the roster filling spots. Its important to note that if Joe Sakic and Scott Niedermayer are still playing next season there is a good chance they will be on this team. Team Canada knows the value of experience, that is a role Yzerman himself played for team Canada in the later years of his career. There are some notable players not of my list, who I think will battle it out for the final roster spots. Jason Spezza, Corey Perry, Ryan Getzlaf, Jonathon Toews, Eric Staal and Ryan Smyth will fight to make the forward lines. On defense guys like Shea Weber, Brian Campbell, Sheldon Souray, Wade Redden and Marc Staal will be in the mix for jobs. Goalies in the mix for the final roster spot will be JS Giguere, Carey Price and Marc Andre Fleury.

Hockey Canada is very deep and will be interesting to see the decisions that need to be made over the next year. Its been said that Canada could put two teams into these tournaments that could compete a world class levels. It’s a long time from now still and this list will change, and some players will earn there way into the conversation over this season. Its fun to look at and I am sure the Olympic hockey tournament will be the highlight of the games. These are my opinions and I am sure a lot of people have different ones, but will all know Canada will have a deep team and will be there to compete with the best in the world.