CrashingTheGoalie

by Drew Baird

Wednesday December 30th, a day most Canadian hockey fans have been looking forward to for a few years. Thirteen forwards, seven defenseman and three goalies will be lucky enough to wear red and represent our nation at the 2010 Olympic games and we all find out who they are today. I took the morning off, set the alarm, made a cup of coffee and got ready to watch.

As the introductions began I just couldn’t wait for the selections to be announced, every hockey Canada rep. giving their speech inching closer and closer to Stevie Y.

Now the beauty of being a Canadian hockey fan is the team is so deep that we could make 2-4 competitive Olympic teams.

This also means a lot of players and fans will be disappointed.

*****

To the team.

Goaltenders

It would be more ridiculous than George Parros without his moustache to think that Brodeur, Luongo and Fleury wouldn’t be the three goaltenders on this team. Heading into the season two other goaltenders were invited to the selection camp, Steve Mason and Cam Ward have played themselves out of consideration. Again no surprises here.

Defence

The way most of the analysts hammered things out heading in was that the top 5 of Niedermeyer, Weber, Pronger, Boyle and Keith were locks to make the team. That left 2 spots for Phanuef, Regher, J-bo, Seabrook, Doughty and Mike Green.

Steve Yzerman and Co. decided that Doughty and Seabrook would be the best choices to fill out the D and I can’t disagree with him. As a Canucks fan at heart, I don’t hate the fact that all three Flames hopefuls didn’t make the squad.

Seabrook has developed great chemistry with Duncan Keith, is from BC and is sound defensively. It is interesting to think of whether or not the smaller ice surface to be used at GM place impacted this decision. Had the tournament been set to play on a larger surface I think Mike Green would have gotten more consideration but the young

Drew Doughty is set to step in as the final defenseman and the youngest player on the team. I like the look of this group, a great mix of size, mobility and experience. Let’s just hope the powerplay doesn’t falter with the absence of Mike Green.

Offence

Now if you thought that there were a lot of defenseman in consideration to make the team it fails to compare to the amount of forwards left off this team. Team Canada has the most difficult team to choose and especially on home ice, the most pressure to win. Steve Yzerman and Co. look to have built a strong mix of forwards, with a ton of star power as expected. The biggest surprise to me was Patrice Bergeron, not that I don’t think he’s an excellent player but he wasn’t even talked about 6 months ago. He is a great penalty killer and has proven chemistry with Sid the kid. Let’s hope this was the right decision.

Either way, like most Canadians I am just going to wait and hope that Yzerman is the man for the job. This team looks solid and well balanced. I can’t wait to see them play. I like the choice of more role players that can score as oppose to pure offensive stars (Jason Spezza).

This is the group we’re taking.

Let’s hope it is the right one.