Picking 14 forwards and 8 defensemen to represent Team Canada will be no easy task for Steve Yzerman and his team of executives and coaches leading up to the Sochi Olympics. A gigantic pool of talent that even the slightest flaw – say P.K. Subban and his risk-taking – could be enough to swing the vote against him. For this exercise, I took on the role of Yzerman and assembled a group of seven EOTPers to cast votes (unclear who was Kevin Lowe). Here is the consensus team that was assembled as if the Olympics were to start in November, rather than February. As always, feel free to post your own teams in the comments. The number in brackets is the number of votes out of seven each player received.
Forwards
Taylor Hall (6) – Sidney Crosby (7) – Steven Stamkos (7)
Eric Staal (7) – John Tavares (7) – Corey Perry (7)
Logan Couture (5) – Jonathan Toews (7) – Martin St. Louis (6)
Joe Thornton (4) – Patrice Bergeron (7) – Matt Duchene (5)
Jamie Benn (4) – Tyler Seguin (3)
Defense
Duncan Keith (7) – Drew Doughty (7)
Marc-Edouard Vlasic (6) – P.K. Subban (7)
Shea Weber (7) – Alex Pietrangelo (5)
Dan Hamhuis (4) – Kris Letang (4)
Goalies
Carey Price (7)
Roberto Luongo (7)
Corey Crawford (5)
The first call-ups for EOTP would be Ryan Getzlaf at forward, Brent Seabrook on defense, and Mike Smith at goalie. Keep in mind that guys like Rick Nash and Dan Boyle may have lost votes because of their injury status, although Taylor Hall was deemed to be too critical to drop. This team combines youth and experience, power play prowess with penalty kill acumen, and differing ideologies on right vs. left when it comes to both defense and forwards. It also contains guys that have had success in the past on big ice, and might not have been chosen otherwise. Check back in early December for the next edition.
More from Eyes On The Prize:
- Ears on the Prize – Episode 8 – Podcast
- Retour sur le match Canadiens vs Avalanche
- Game Recap – Feeling the defeat, is Therrien the right guy?
- Highlights of the Habs’ 4-1 loss to the Avalanche
- Top Six Minutes – Habs drop their second straight/
