andrewhitson

"Rolling out updates on Red Wings hockey"

AB • Canada • 2013 Years Old • Male

Motown Musings: The Red Wings vs. Team Canada

So Mike Babcock is going to coach Team Canada. That's a shocker. Seriously though, lets talk about something that hasn't been known for the past year. It isn't news folks.

How about we mock up some lines for Team Canada, that's always fun.

Here's what I got lining up on Forward:

Towes/Crosby/Stamkos
Perry/Giroux/Getzlaf
Nash/Tavares/Staal
Couture/Bergeron/Lucic
extra: Hall

(I'd be tempted to put Hall in for Couture, but let's face it, he's probably injured by Christmas. On a sidenote, how the heck do you pick a PP1 and PP2?! We're talking crazy skill, speed and a bit of good ol' Canadian facewash for good measure)

Defense (a bit easier):

Weber/Letang
Seabrook/Keith
Pietrangelo/Subban
extra: Beauchemin (wait...that guy?!! Didn't the leafs give him away? Well..look at his stats 24 points in 48 games, +19 over 23:00 a game. Yeah, i'm happy with him as insurance)

Goalies (easiest due to our lack of depth)

Luongo
Price
extra: Crawford
I fully expect Price to grab the starting job after game two and ride it all the way to Gold. He seems to always play better with the Maple Leaf on his chest.

I think that team wins Gold. I think they score at least 4 goals a game.

But on to the title of this blog. Team Canada vs. the Detroit Red Wings. Wouldn't that be fun. Team Canada certainly has the depth at forward, but I give goaltending to the Wings hands down. I think it might be closer than you think...the Wings Defense would have their hands full..I think it goes something like this:

- The puck has barely been dropped before Zetterberg finds Franzen alone in front and he scores on a shocked Luongo in the first two minutes of the game. 1-0 Wings. Getzlaf whines to the ref that it was goaltender interference, Bill McCreary laughs and tells him to sit down.

- Team Canada doesn't want to be embarrassed and Toews takes it on himself to have a peptalk on the bench. Giroux isn't listening, instead he's actually watching the game and sees an opening, hopping the bench he takes a Weber pass and snipes the equalizer. It's 1-1.

- Babcock knows that Team Canada's third defensive line is weak, Pietrangelo is overrated and Subban thinks he's a forward, a swifty line switch has Datsyuk with Nyquist and Tatar. Taking advantage of the poor third pairing, the threesome control the play before sending it back for a Kronwall bullet. Luongo never sees it coming, and it's 2-1.

-Fearing this game could get out of hand, Lindy Ruff quickly pulls Lunogo, shattering his remaining confidence. He figures Price is probably better anyway.

First period ends.

- Team Canada comes out hard, Lucic whines and tries to pick a fight, Abdelkader punches him in the head. The refs give Lucic a penalty for being a baby.

Team Canada kills the penalty but Ruff benches Lucic because he doesn't like him anyway. Staal, feeling he has something to prove after being shunned out of a top six spot ties it on a Tavares one-timer. 2-2.

- Team Canada settles down, Price makes three saves in a row (personal best) and Crosby decides he should start trying and puts Team Canada up 3-2 all by himself.

Second period ends

- The Red Wings sleep walked through the second period (as they do) and feel pretty good about only being down one goal. Weiss has been pretty quiet through 40, but it's by design. He knows that Corey Perry is terrible at coverage, and he's about to expose it. Alfredsson who is just happy to be there hits Weiss with a cross-ice pass, Weiss connects to beat Price...tying the game 3-3. Alfredsson hits the showers. Solid effort Krusty.

- Bergeron goes 10-10 in the faceoff circle, he feels pretty good about it.

- Nash realizes he is still a relevant player and should drive the net a bit more, he decides why not start now, stealing the puck from Drew Miller who forget to be sick today and scoring on Howard who despite giving up 4 goals has saved 66 shots.

- It's 4-3 with ten minutes left and then Crosby who wants to come out of this game with the most points finds a wide open Stamkos thanks in part to a Brenden Smith blown coverage and puts team Canada up 5-3..and that's the game folks. Not too shabby.

Proud of those Wings. They played hard.