As my esteemed colleague wrote earlier today, Eric Duhatschek named his choice for 2010. It's nice to see someone respected in the hockey world name a team... (I said respected so McGuire's list is out the window).
... but he didn't do that much better...
Let's start with the goaltenders. This is probably the easiest argument to make. Right Duhatschek has Brodeur, Luongo and Ward as his guys between the pipes. I have no problem with those guys, but do you honestly think that Ward will want to go there and sit as the third guy?
HECK NO! The guy has a ring, which is more than Luongo can say. We've had a situation similar to this before where the always classy Pat Roy stepped aside and said that he wouldn't be the third guy. I'm not saying Ward is an old guy, but as the youngest of the 3 I hardly believe he will be willing to take a spot reserved for what is usually there for a young kid who can play, but will spend the entire tournament from wherever it will be that players will watch games from in 2010.
Next up is Marty, and I don't mean the goalie here...
Honestly, Martin St. Louis has got to be the most over rated player in professional hockey today. Did anyone see Canada's IIHF Gold medal match with the Russians, where every time he got the puck he just would up and blasted shots into the opposing players shins? "HEY MARTY, HE'S GOT SHIN PADS ON AND YOU'RE A SCRAWNY PUNK!! YOU WON'T HURT HIM OR PUT IT THROUGH HIM!", I yelled at him through my television multiple times throughout the game.
I'm absolutely sick of hearing how Marty will make this team. Everyone wants to talk about how much "heart" the guy has... I will tell you exactly why this means NOTHING in two simple words: Captain Planet.
Remember the old cartoon? We always made fun of little Mogli or whatever his name was. His friends had the power to control earth, to start fire, to uproot the earth and to manipulate the wind. Mogli had the power of heart, which I to this day could never understand how it fits in. If you want to take a hockey player with heart, be my guest, but I'd take a fire breathing one any day over St. Louis. I'm not sure that last sentence even made sense, but I'm more certain it did and that it was absolute genius. If you want to try and make the argument that any one guy on that team doesn't want it as much as Marty you can, it's a free country, but it's absolute garbage because there won't be one player on that team not willing to make every sacrifice necessary, and they sure as hell can find a better player than him to fill a roster spot.
In closing, I don't think there's any player that I want less to see on Team Canada than Martin St. Louis. I made this comment to Matty last night and added, "If he's on the team, I'm cheering for the Americans". A bit harsh to say the least, but I'm 90% ready to do just that...
Wednesday, May 27, 2009
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Don't count out the show Fleury has been putting on in these playoffs having an affect on his invitation to team Canda. Yes, Ward is a great goalie but Fleury's team just swept them in 4 and he's a huge reason why.
ReplyDeleteThe great wildcard with the goalie situation - as with others, I suppose - is the fact that the games are in Canada. Otherwise, one might suspect that Brodeur ( a goalie that actually deserves the "always classy" tag) may say "been there, done that" and approaching age 38 would step aside. Luongo has done little to merit automatic inclusion, but he'll be there.
ReplyDeleteWhat might happen, says the conspiracy theorist in me? Yzerman et al will subtly tell Brodeur that they've decided Luongo is their man, in hopes he'll elect to sit out, allowing Ward/Fleury to both step in as rotating #2/#3 until the inevitable Luongo collapse.