Although Canada will win the Gold Medal in 2010 (c'mon take your best shot!!) I thought it would be fun to name the team now and save everyone the wait! Of course you might not agree with my opinion here and I look forward to your input.
Let's start in the back for a change because this could be more muddy than we think. To me, hands down, it's Luongo. BUT he honestly didn't play up to his own standards last year and we have the emergance of Price and Fleury. In terms of experiance Marty Turco is there and J.S. Giguere... i don'ty like him but he has results.
So: Luongo- Turco- J.S. for goalie
Defence is actually a lot easier as we are pretty set, the extra two guys they take are anyone's guess but i'll do my best.
Phanuef, Regehr ( it's not an accident I mentioned them first, i'm clearly biased), Pronger, Weber, Bouwmeester, Green. Extra spots will be up to a couple guys with my vote going to Keith and Burns.
Now as any opposing team would you like to line up against Dion or pronger?? Perhaps Regehr?? No?? Didn't think so. Oh, but IF you get by them you get to shot on Luongo...
NOW... The forwards... ( This is where you wonder if I'm smart enough to pick the best forward from your team!!)
Centers (not in order either)... J. Thornton, he just too good. Crosby...he's just too good. Lecavalier...He's just too good. And the last spot?? hmmm it's tough... I'll go with Spezza although Toews could work as well I'll save him for a wing.
L.W. (again in no particular order) Heatly, he's from Calgary and therefore is a shoe in. I'm kidding about that but he's awesome. Nash. Getzlaf and Toews. Yes I know they also play center and that's why they work! Cammalleri could make a push here as well depending on his time in Calgary with Iggy.
R.W. Iginla, Iginla, Iginla and Iginla quadruple shifted. If the coach doesn't like that suggestion let's go with St. Louis, Perry and E. Staal. Again centers work everywhere...it's great!!
I'm sure you have a huge list of natable you'd like in there and there will be injuries! There's left wingers I didn't even include like Gagne, and there's great players who are up and coming like Richards, there's players that have won it all like Brad Richards... But really does it matter?? Canada is winning Gold.
I would like to hear your thoughts and also who should coach??
S>O>
Shane Doan if he is still producing, and Mike Richards if he continues playing like he did last year would be on my team for sure.
mike richards will be on that team
I think you'll see Burns in the top 6 on the backend. I don't know about St. Louis, he's getting up there in age, but if he's still playing well, he would make sense. Also, it will probably be hard to keep out guys like Mike Richards, possibly Jeff Carter, Paul Stastny, Brad Boyes, Patrice Bergeron, and Nathan Horton. This team is absolutely loaded with potential talent, so fielding the best possible team shouldn't be that hard.
A little (actually a lot) homerish ;0But an interesting blog none the less
I think you'll see Burnsie in the top 6 for the blue line. He gives you the same production as Green and is much more defensively responsible.
Zombie.. I don't even try to hide it man... hahah
Im not sure if anyone watched the world championships last year... But heatley - getzlaf - nash... simply dominated everyone, and are gonna get a look together again... hense getzlaf should probably make the team as a center. The 4th line for canada, the shut own line, could include J.staal.. you gotta remeber teams need role players, not just the ones with the most offensive upside. Players that buy into what the coach is preaching, an 2 years on the 3rd line in pittsburgh has turned him into a top PK and shut down player, with offensive potential.
if ur talking about role players... theres no need to look further: mike richards > jordan staaland if they had actually dominated everyone.. they would've won the gold medal.
if ur talking about role players... theres no need to look further: mike richards > jordan staal, besides richards leadership will be too valuable to that team......and if they had actually dominated everyone.. they would've won the gold medal.
i see Brian Campbell on this team, rather than Regehr
Forgot to mention eric staal in my previous post, as another player i see making the team
mmCanada will put up a sicckk team.Watch out for the Russians tho.PotentialMalkin Hossa Ovechkin line.
sorry, hossa's not russian he's slovakian but you could always replace him with datsyuk. and don't forget kovalchuk on the second line. Wow... i never thought i'd say that last sentence in my life.
my lineup would look like this:heatley - crosby - iginlast. louis - lecavalier - e. staalnash - thornton - getzlaf wow what a checking line loltoews - richards - perrypronger - campbellphaneuf - greenburns - bouwmeesterluongothe other two goalie spots will go to price, turco or MAF. it's too hard to predict goalies this early
my lineup would look like this: FORWARDS: 1 (heatley - crosby - iginla) 2 (st.louis - lecavalier - e.staal) 3 (nash - thornton - getzlaf) wow what a checking line lol 4 (toews - richards - perry) DEFENSE: 1 (pronger - campbell) 2 (phaneuf - green) 3 (burns - bouwmeester) GOALIES: 1 luongo 2-3 the other two goalie spots will go to price, turco or MAF. it's too hard to predict goalies this early
Forwards 1.(Nash--Crosby--Iginla)2.(Getzlaf--Thornton--Perry)3.(Heatly--Lecavalier--Spezza)4.(Gagne--Mike Richards--Toews)Defence 1. (Phaneuf--Campbell)2.(Pronger--Weber)3.(Coburn--Burns)Goal 1.(Lunongo)2.(Price)3.(Fleury)
"if they had actually dominated everyone.. they would've won the gold medal." ... no I disagree... they, refers to one line, not the entire roster.... since none of them penalty killed, they could not do very much to stop that 4-3 OT powerplay goal, unless you consider it was nash who took that penalty. So in conclusion yes they did dominate as a line, its a team game not a line game so one line can dominte and the team still fall short.