Captain Canada vs. Captain Canada

Dewey, the upstanding young gentleman that he is, notified me today that our readership over the past couple weeks has risin significantly. This can only mean one of two things: either you all put a wealth of stock in our musings...or you all find us amusing. Whichever the case, you, our readership, are now officially named "The twentyteners"...to quote Dewey when I suggested the name, "I like it. It's corny enough it just might work."

Just the same, I couldn't help but wonder about the origins of a certain story I found today on www.ctvolympics.ca, which raised the question over who is best suited to lead the twentyten Canadian team. The title of this story "Captain, My Captain?" (found here) reminded me of one of my own posts from only a few short weeks ago - See Here Well, I guess we know where our new readership is coming from Dewey! Way to go us!

This got me thinking about a couple other "Captains" who have endeared themselves to many of us over the past decade, as they have more than a few times answered the bell for Canada at the World Championships. Of course, I speak of Shane Doan and
Ryan Smyth both aptly identified by many amongst us as Captain Canada.

So I raise the question, who would you take on your team? Both are, excuse the corniness, 'heart and soul' type guys. Gritty leaders who can be counted on to head to the front of the net, dig in the corners, drop the mits and score the big goal. Look at their stats over their careers and you will see that they are almost identical.

More importantly, as we've seen from their previous Olympic and World Championship contributions, they can be counted on to show up for the Maple Leaf when it counts the most. Yes, it's because they play on terrible teams, but just the same we've loved seeing them in the 'red and white'.

As a realist, I am rather confident that there is not room for both these vets on the twentyten team. And to be completely honest, I don't think that either one of them should be on the team at all...not with the likes of Morrow, M. Richards, J. Staal and Lucic - did I mention we love Lucic - (to name a few) as the young guns vying for those checking line roles.

Just the same, I feel it right to give these "not to be overlooked" Captain Canada's their proper due.