A couple weeks ago, my buddy J-Rock and I were making up our Canadian Olympic hockey team during our breaks at Safeway overnights. Here's the list he and I came up with and I'll test them against the actual team announced in a few hours here.GOALTENDERS (3 for 3)
Martin Broduer
Roberto Luongo
Marc-Andre Fleury
DEFENSEMEN (5 for 7)
Chris Pronger
Duncan Keith
Shea Weber
Scott Niedermayer
Brent Seabrook
Drew Doughty
Dan Boyle
FORWARDS (9 for 13)
Jarome Iginla
Rick Nash
Sidney Crosby
Joe Thornton
Dany Heatley
Patrick Marleau
Ryan Getzlaf
Brendan Morrow
Jonathan Toews
Eric Staal
Mike Richards
Corey Perry
Patrice Bergeron
So, there it is with our sleepless list. Granted, if we gave it a couple more weeks-- we would have been solid for the picks now, but we stand by it. If we get 50% of them right, we'll be fantastic. This post will be updated after the announcement.
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The real selections that we didn't pick are in italics. We ended up going 17 for 23, shooting at 74%, which isn't half-bad for two night-clerks at Safeway.
The one thing I don't get is the inclusion of Patrice Bergeron. Especially over someone like Marty St. Louis, Marc Savard, or Brad Richards. It seems like it's something because he has had good chemistry with Crosby or whatever-- but I don't think Bergeron is the best Bruin that could have been there. It also seems that Mike Richards may or may not be worthy of the spot, but GM Steve Yzerman seems to like him for his grit, I suppose. Whether he's better than the four that were mentioned-- time will tell.
The Doughty selection is something I wasn't too surprised at, but it's a good thing for him. He's a young player and has done a lot of good things for himself. It is a surprise that he was able to push out the likes of Robyn Regehr and Jay Bouwmeester. Without Regehr and Bouwmeester, it puts a cramp on the Flames claiming to have a strong defense, as they tout themselves to have.
It should be interesting how this all shakes down, especially if they tank on home ice. There's a lot of familiarity on this team, however. There's a lot of guys who played together before, which creates great chemistry. The question is whether or not this chemistry can hit at the right time for the two week long tournament.
2 comments:
Not bad. I am not happy about the Pekka snub by the Fins.
The Rinne snub is interesting, especially considering he should have beaten out Niittymaki. But, shows that Finland is the new goalie factory for now.
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