The Puck Stops Here
Canadian Olympic Team Announced
by PuckStopsHere on 12/31/09 at 02:42 PM ET
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Yesterday the Canadian Olympic Team roster was announced. As expected, about 3/4 of the players on my selections made the team. The remaining players are largely depth players who will not make significant difference to the team. Nevertheless, I wanted to make the case for why I selected the player I did and not the player Team Canada selected.
The six players who made Team Canada that I did not select are Patrice Bergeron, Brenden Morrow, Eric Staal, Dan Boyle, Brent Seabrook and Marc-Andre Fleury. In their places I had Brad Richards, Steve Stamkos, Martin St Louis, Mike Green, Robyn Regehr and Jean-Sebastien Giguere.
Steve Stamkos over Patrice Bergeron If I told you that one Boston forward would make this team, wouldn’t you have guessed it would be Marc Savard? That isn’t how it turned out. Bergeron is valued for his two-way play and seems to have recovered from the concussion that cost him most of the 2007/08 season. He is beginning to show his offensive talent again. He leads the low scoring Bruins with 30 points. Steve Stamkos is a better player. He has succeeded despite tough circumstances. He is stuck with the mismanaged Tampa Bay Lightning and made the NHL immediately following his first overall selection in 2008 despite not being ready. He has improved by leaps and bounds since then. Stamkos became a very good scorer by the end of last season and is currently seventh in goals in the NHL. He is a young talent who looks ready to make a big jump to stardom. By Olympic time, his omission could look really silly. Bergeron may be a “safer” pick as he is more experienced, but Stamkos looks like the far better player.
Brad Richards over Brenden Morrow These players are Dallas Stars teammates. Both are veteran players who have played for Canada internationally in the past. Richards was a solid contributor on the last Canadian Olympic Team netting four points in six games. Morrow has World Cup and World Championship experience, but with less offensive success than Richards. Morrow is valued for his gritty play, but is yet to re-establish himself at the level he had been at before missing most of last season to injury. The clearest comparison of the two is to look at their scoring so far this year. Richards has 44 points and Morrow has 25. I think it is a mistake to pass up on a proven Olympian like Brad Richards when he is playing this well in the NHL.
Martin St Louis over Eric Staal Both of these players are capable defensively as well as offensively and both have Olympic team experience. The main difference is that St Louis is having a better season. St Louis has 44 points to Staal’s 26. This difference appears bigger than it actually is in that injury has limited Staal to 29 games, while St Louis has played 40. St Louis has the benefit of having good chemistry with Steve Stamkos on my team, but since neither made the actual Olympic team, that point is moot.
Mike Green over Dan Boyle I believe the omission of Mike Green is the biggest mistake in Canada’s roster. He offers skills as an offensive defenceman that nobody else on the team can offer. He would make a good puckmoving defenceman and a power play pointman. I believe Green has been the best defenceman in the NHL so far this year and passing up such a player is a mistake. The issue is Green’s defensive play, which is not nearly as bad as it is made out to be. He plays against slightly less than average quality opposition and he scores a lot more than they do. It is his offence that makes him so dominant. It is a very reasonable argument that he provides the most win shares to his team among all NHL defencemen. In Dan Boyle, Canada has a player who is in many ways similar to Green. Green scores more. Boyle is better defensively (but not by a significant margin). Boyle plays against slightly better opposition. I suppose that means Boyle is a safer pick to not make a mistake. He is also less likely to create offensive opportunities. Canada probably only has room for one such defenceman on their roster and I think they should have taken Mike Green as he is the more talented choice.
Robyn Regehr over Brent Seabrook Seabrook is here as Duncan Keith’s partner. He has played very well in the last year or so in that role and they will attempt to keep their chemistry together in the Olympics. Regehr is a very good stay at home defenceman who is capable of shutting down his opposition. He has Olympic and World Cup experience that Seabrook lacks. Like Green, he better fits a specific role on the team (shutdown defenceman in his case - offensive defenceman in Green’s) than Brent Seabrook does. Seabrook might be making the leap to a top level defenceman in the NHL this season, but he doesn’t have the track record of success that Regehr offers.
Jean-Sebastien Giguere over Marc-Andre Fleury We already have a thread on this topic. Basically, Giguere has shown the ability to carry a team in the NHL playoffs that Fleury has not. I make this pick despite the fact Giguere has not been particularly strong so far this year because neither has Fleury (though he has been given significantly more chance to play) and because Giguere is the more talented of the two.
In the end, none of these picks are likely to make a big difference. I think the biggest thing that will be missed by these picks is the puckmoving and power play point man abilities of Mike Green. He offers a dimension as an offensive defenceman that no other player in the world today can provide and Canada chose against taking it.
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Tags: Brad+Richards, Brenden+Morrow, Brent+Seabrook, Dan+Boyle, Eric+Staal, Jean-Sebastien+Giguere, Marc-Andre+Fleury, Martin+St+Louis, Mike+Green, Olympics, Patrice+Bergeron, Robyn+Regehr, Steve+Stamkos,
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