My Team Canada in Sochi
Posted 1:20 AM ET | Comments 0
This is who I think should be on the team, and the depth chart, regardless of who was invited to camp.
You could say Canada’s line up is a cluster f-….uh…. cluster bomb(!) in a good way, save for goaltending. Canada’s got so much elite level talent they could ice three teams and have them all receive medals. Although a problem that is easily noticed is the (incredible) surplus of centres and the lack of high-quality left shooting Dmen. It’s fairly obvious that a few centres will be playing out of their natural spots.
Tavares-Crosby-Giroux
Hall-Stamkos-St Louis
E Staal-Toews-Duchene
Benn-Bergeron-Couture
Spezza, Nash
The top two lines will be counted on for their offence, seeing as they were all top 10 in Canadian scoring this past year I think you already knew that. Tavares-Crosby-Giroux speaks for itself. An offensive dynamo line. In the past 2 seasons this line has combined for 1.15PPG. The Hall-Stamkos-St Louis line is really intriguing to me. The chemistry Stamkos and St Louis have cannot be ignored. The two were sitting side by side at the top of the scoring leader board by season’s end despite playing on the 3rd worst team in the league. Call me a homer for putting Hall up there with them, but I see a lightning fast line and that’s what CAN will be wanting on the big ice. (I could see an E Staal-Hall flip if you can’t see Hall in the top 6 despite him being 9th in league scoring this past year, wink)
The bottom 2Cs seem familiar on top/underneath each other(wink) seeing as they were 1 and 2 in selke voting and in faceoff win percentage this past season. The bottom 2 lines will be counted on for their defensive capabilities. Duchene-Bergeron Toews-Giroux would be counted on as the two PK units (led the starters in short handed time on ice per game).
Onto the D:
Doughty-Weber
Keith-Pietrangelo
Hamuis-Subban
Letang
To put it bluntly, that is a phenomenal D core. While not at as strong as the embarrassment of riches Canada has up front, Canada’s D will still arguably be the best in the tournament.
If you disagree with Doughty on the top pairing, don’t fret. I see the top 4 as being pretty evenly distributed and see no identified top pairing. I could see an argument for Bouwmeester as Pietrangelo’s partner on the same principle as having Stamkos-St Louis, but I don’t see Bouwmeester as being at the same level as Hamuis or Keith.
Some of you may also be scratching your head at Hamuis on the team. Hamuis is as solid as they come and he’s an incredibly smart player. When you see this guy play your favourite team 6 times a year and shut down your top line as much as I have, you’d know Hamuis can do everything. I’d give my left nut to get this guy on a pairing with J Schultz in EDM. A major selling point is the fact that he’s a left handed shooter. It may not seem like a problem, but I found that having Garrison and Edler (two left handed shooters) on the same pairing in VAN affected the offensive flow to an extent.
Here’s where I find it get’s tricky and I think most will disagree with me…a lot.
Goaltending:
Ward
Luongo
Reimer
Don’t turn off the computer or call me an idiot. Canada’s goaltending is a crapshoot. I could see Price potentially taking the job if he has a huge bounce back season, but until I see it happen, this is the depth chart I’d be going with.
Cam Ward. Overpaid, yes. Solid netminder, also yes. Don’t look at his past season’s number as he was out for 7ish weeks recovering from a knee injury. Over the past 3 seasons Ward has had the highest road even strength SV% among Canadian goaltenders. A lot of you should know that even strength SV% is important as it’s fairly immune to the effects of shot quality and barely fluctuates when changing teams (with better/worse defensive cores in front of you http://objectivenhl.blogs...d-even-strength-save.html ). Road SV% because well, they’ll be away. Did I mention he’s won a cup?
Lu is tied second in even strength road SV% over the last 3 seasons among CDN goaltenders..with Dubnyk (wink). You may want to say, “Luongo just chokes under pressure”. In the last 3 playoffs, Luongo’s averaged a .913SV%, which is right around league average. Wouldn’t call it elite, but wouldn’t call it choking either considering the squad that was struggling in front of him. I could see him taking the reigns with a big season. He’s won a gold medal and has been to the cup final.
I hope the TO fans reading this, if there are any, love it. I think Reimer is a solid, solid net minder. This guy was peppered with about 32.5 shots a game in the regular season in TO and put up solid numbers. Not impressed? How about the 39 SA/G he was facing in the playoffs and still posted a .923? I can’t see Bernier taking his starting role. The word ‘choke’ should not be used when talking about Reimer. The team collapsed. Not the net minder. If he can handle the pressure as well as he did in the playoffs, I think he should squeak into the top 3.
I’ll likely be alone on a lot of these opinions.
What do you think? What’s your line up look like?
You could say Canada’s line up is a cluster f-….uh…. cluster bomb(!) in a good way, save for goaltending. Canada’s got so much elite level talent they could ice three teams and have them all receive medals. Although a problem that is easily noticed is the (incredible) surplus of centres and the lack of high-quality left shooting Dmen. It’s fairly obvious that a few centres will be playing out of their natural spots.
Tavares-Crosby-Giroux
Hall-Stamkos-St Louis
E Staal-Toews-Duchene
Benn-Bergeron-Couture
Spezza, Nash
The top two lines will be counted on for their offence, seeing as they were all top 10 in Canadian scoring this past year I think you already knew that. Tavares-Crosby-Giroux speaks for itself. An offensive dynamo line. In the past 2 seasons this line has combined for 1.15PPG. The Hall-Stamkos-St Louis line is really intriguing to me. The chemistry Stamkos and St Louis have cannot be ignored. The two were sitting side by side at the top of the scoring leader board by season’s end despite playing on the 3rd worst team in the league. Call me a homer for putting Hall up there with them, but I see a lightning fast line and that’s what CAN will be wanting on the big ice. (I could see an E Staal-Hall flip if you can’t see Hall in the top 6 despite him being 9th in league scoring this past year, wink)
The bottom 2Cs seem familiar on top/underneath each other(wink) seeing as they were 1 and 2 in selke voting and in faceoff win percentage this past season. The bottom 2 lines will be counted on for their defensive capabilities. Duchene-Bergeron Toews-Giroux would be counted on as the two PK units (led the starters in short handed time on ice per game).
Onto the D:
Doughty-Weber
Keith-Pietrangelo
Hamuis-Subban
Letang
To put it bluntly, that is a phenomenal D core. While not at as strong as the embarrassment of riches Canada has up front, Canada’s D will still arguably be the best in the tournament.
If you disagree with Doughty on the top pairing, don’t fret. I see the top 4 as being pretty evenly distributed and see no identified top pairing. I could see an argument for Bouwmeester as Pietrangelo’s partner on the same principle as having Stamkos-St Louis, but I don’t see Bouwmeester as being at the same level as Hamuis or Keith.
Some of you may also be scratching your head at Hamuis on the team. Hamuis is as solid as they come and he’s an incredibly smart player. When you see this guy play your favourite team 6 times a year and shut down your top line as much as I have, you’d know Hamuis can do everything. I’d give my left nut to get this guy on a pairing with J Schultz in EDM. A major selling point is the fact that he’s a left handed shooter. It may not seem like a problem, but I found that having Garrison and Edler (two left handed shooters) on the same pairing in VAN affected the offensive flow to an extent.
Here’s where I find it get’s tricky and I think most will disagree with me…a lot.
Goaltending:
Ward
Luongo
Reimer
Don’t turn off the computer or call me an idiot. Canada’s goaltending is a crapshoot. I could see Price potentially taking the job if he has a huge bounce back season, but until I see it happen, this is the depth chart I’d be going with.
Cam Ward. Overpaid, yes. Solid netminder, also yes. Don’t look at his past season’s number as he was out for 7ish weeks recovering from a knee injury. Over the past 3 seasons Ward has had the highest road even strength SV% among Canadian goaltenders. A lot of you should know that even strength SV% is important as it’s fairly immune to the effects of shot quality and barely fluctuates when changing teams (with better/worse defensive cores in front of you http://objectivenhl.blogs...d-even-strength-save.html ). Road SV% because well, they’ll be away. Did I mention he’s won a cup?
Lu is tied second in even strength road SV% over the last 3 seasons among CDN goaltenders..with Dubnyk (wink). You may want to say, “Luongo just chokes under pressure”. In the last 3 playoffs, Luongo’s averaged a .913SV%, which is right around league average. Wouldn’t call it elite, but wouldn’t call it choking either considering the squad that was struggling in front of him. I could see him taking the reigns with a big season. He’s won a gold medal and has been to the cup final.
I hope the TO fans reading this, if there are any, love it. I think Reimer is a solid, solid net minder. This guy was peppered with about 32.5 shots a game in the regular season in TO and put up solid numbers. Not impressed? How about the 39 SA/G he was facing in the playoffs and still posted a .923? I can’t see Bernier taking his starting role. The word ‘choke’ should not be used when talking about Reimer. The team collapsed. Not the net minder. If he can handle the pressure as well as he did in the playoffs, I think he should squeak into the top 3.
I’ll likely be alone on a lot of these opinions.
What do you think? What’s your line up look like?