Is Heatley on the team?

One player I've had on my second line since we started this debate was Dany Heatley. He'd be playing alongside of Rick Nash and Ryan Getzlaf on said line, providing a nice mix of finesse and physical ability.

It has come to light recently though that Hockey Canada is none too pleased with the way Heater's trade demand / no-trade blockage has been handled by the superstar forward. He's been dodging these questions all summer and in this article by Jim Kelly, he mentions that the brass plan to have him answer the questions, one and done, but there's no telling he'll actually cooperate.

What's even more interesting is the way Heatley has performed before in what Kelly calls a "best-on-best" situation. We all remember the 2008 IIHF championships, where the aforementioned Heatley-Nash-Getzlaf lineup racked up the points, with Heatley leading the way with 12 goals, adding 8 assists, and thinking "these guys are there in 2010". However, in these other "best-on-best" situations (where every country ices their best players, not just who's available), Heatley has struggled, with only 3 points (1G, 2A) in the 2006 Olympics, and 2 points (1G, 1A) in an even longer series at the 2004 World Cup of hockey (writer's note: the best time 15 kids from the East Coast could ever have, in the Montreal portion of the tournament anyway).

Now, I'll be the first to admit I hated the 2006 team. I didn't like the direction it took from the get-go, so I'm willing to forgive Dany for that. In 2004, Heatley was only a pup, and had been involved in a terrible accident which limited his season to 31 NHL games, so he probably wasn't at his best at this time. Both of these facts should make it easy to overlook Heatley's weak performances at the big time competitions. Add to this the fact that he's answered the bell and played for Team Canada just about every time he's been asked to, and he should be on the team.

With Stevie Y in charge of this year's team there's really no knowing whether anything in the past will make a huge difference, and if he only looks at the present, he's looking at a guy coming off a season in which he played only 71 games (due to injury), and is being followed by a whole lot of drama.

I still think he makes it though...

Camp on Monday!

WHAMMO!!

They probably wanted to make sure there were still some "Z" on the jerseys at camp.

Several things about this:

1 - He won't be taking Getzlaf's place when things are all said and done come this winter.

2 - He shouldn't be there over Savard.

3 - Spezz...watch out for Lucic in the corners.

Will be very interesting to see how the "sometime" wonder responds to this.

More to come on this for sure.

WHAMMO!!

Stepping up to the plate...

Unfortunately here at Canada Twenty Ten, we've both been extremely busy lately. With wedding season in full bloom, the nice weather finally starting to show up, and sneaking in rounds of golf whenever possible, it has led to a shortage in posts.

However, there really hasn't been that much to report on lately, but over the past week a couple worthy news tidbits have come up that are definitely worth discussing.

First off is this piece from the CTV Olympic homepage, where our boy, Marty Brodeur has said that it will be up to the "Young Guns" (not to be confused with this 1988... classic?) to really step up this coming February and lead this team to victory.

Ever since Matty and I started having these discussions one of my biggest gripes with the way Team Canada always seems to be run is that they always seem to bring along too many veterans. I have no problem with the experience factor, but if you take too many veterans, I just feel like their legs may not be able to keep up with some of the other younger squads that are iced for the tournament. Some veteran leadership is great, too much of it is just tiring.

This is why I believe this story is news worthy. I like how a veteran, who is probably one of the three safest players going to camp who will actually be on the team, is coming out and acknowledging these kids are going to be big time players for the Twentyten team. I think that most people I've spoken with agree that we need some of these younger kids there. Crosby, Getzlaf and Eric Staal are all what should be "givens", but with guys like Perry, Carter and younger brother Jordan Staal all on the bubble in my opinion, I believe that these guys are guys that should be on the team over some of the older guys that are being considered for the same spots on the team.

This also has a bit of a two-pronged effect. These young kids, who I am sure are all plenty confident about their own ability but may be feeling just a few butterflies about making the team, will have that little boost from a guy they know will be counted on for this team saying that they're going to be needed. This may just be all in my head, but I have to believe that some of these guys who know their on the bubble could really use a push like that from a guy they respect.

The other newsworthy piece to report actually deals with one of these kids who I have on just about any team I build, Ryan Getzlaf, who apparently had surgery for a sports henia on Wednesday. This of course means Getzy will be missing the orientation camp when it begins in the latter part of August. Could this hurt his chances of being on the team? I think it does, but I still think he's there in Vancouver. The kid has been dynamite in the NHL, showing improvement every season, and his performance with Heatley and Nash a couple years back definitely plays in his favor. That being said, if he comes out of the gates slow this season, showing that he's not fully recovered, I wouldn't put it past any of the Twentyten brass to consider someone else for his spot, and there will surely be someone who will gladly step in.

Oh and in case you didn't know... camp starts in 24 days...

WHAMMO!!

Fire Pierre McGuire

For those unfamiliar; this post is inspired by this blog.

Once again, our friends (and obvious twentyteners) at CTV have allowed Pierre McGuire to have his say on our twentyten team. I cringe every time I read anything written or spoken by the man, and alas…this time was not much better.

Below, I highlight some of the contradictory, blatantly obvious, and rambling musings of McGuire's article

When asked what he thought about the five goalies selected to camp:

“Those are the five that should be there.” Those are the five best right now that are Canadian…”

Really Pierre…Really??? You agree that those five are the best five to be there…really? Why don’t I take you you back to an article from only two weeks ago (June 26) where you discussed the potential goalies who could make up the twentyten roster. (Found Here).

To recount: Brodeur, Luongo, Ward, Fleury…and oh who? Price and Osgood? …and, oh wait a minute, no mention of Mason.

So, let me get this straight Pierre.The five chosen for camp are the best Canadians right now. There have been no games played since your last musings two weeks ago when you included two goalies who were not invited, and did not include the goalie that canadatwentyten.blogspot.com correctly predicted would be invited

When asked if he saw any players not invited to camp, playing their way onto the team:

“I could see Marc Savard because he'll be watching Milan Lucic a lot…”

I don’t even know what that is supposed to mean. Those two, in case you haven’t notice O Shiny Bald One, play very different types of games. I fail to see how Savard will make the team by watching Lucic.

“Ed Jovanovski if he has a tremendous start to the year. Maybe Chris Phillips if he has an amazing start…”

OH COMMON!! If these guys aren’t even in the top 16, they aren’t going to be in the final seven.

When asked why he thought Steven Stamkos was left off the camp roster:

“When you look at it, Ryan Getzlaf right now is ahead of Steven Stamkos…”

That’s not insightful…that’s painstakingly obvious. To recap: Getzlaf, almost a point a game through four NHL seasons (91 & 82 the past two) and not to mention a Stanley Cup. Stamkos: yes, a nice hockey player and soon to be All-Star, but really Pierre…
really???

When asked about possible defesive pairing taking shape:

“Phaneuf and Weber in the 2005 world juniors were an unbelievable tandem against Alexander Ovechkin and Evgeni Malkin during the whole tournament and in the gold medal game.”

I just laughed at this one, in light of a recent post by Dewey.

When asked about Brian Burke calling Chelios personally and extending an invitation to an off-ice role:

“Steve doesn't have to call and apologize to anyone. This isn't highschool hockey or the local house league. These are big time players. Anyone that plays hockey for money understands. It's a cold hard world.” …then just rambles on and on and on.

Nevermind the non-sensical nature of his response here. I have already made clear…several time…how Stevie Y can reach out to a certain hockey icon and offer him an off-ice post with the twentyten team.

Pierre’s final words of wisdom:

“Anyone that's a fan of Canadian hockey should be impressed.”

Close Pierre, close. But it shoulda been, “And if you’re a fan of Canadian hockey, get excited…”

Keyboard Cat... play our friend Pierre away...

Line juggling

As Matty and I sat around last night thinking up who could possibly make up the "grind line" (post on that to come soon, rest assured). I questioned whether or not the name "grind line" still held relevance and what other names you might possibly be able to give such a line. Unfortunately, we were unable to come up with any real great names for our grinders, but we did manage to come up with some pretty interesting line possibilities for Coach Babcock to try out at this summer's orientation camp. We know that Nash, Healtey and Getzlaf will more than likely be the number two line after their showing at the worlds a couple of years ago, but these lineups we thought up were a little more unorthodox, and we believe could bring some real spark to the twentyten team.

Hockey Canada has already taken a bunch of our suggestions for who to bring to camp, while also overlooking a few (no matter how much they deny it), but they might as well try some of these lineup combinations, which we would love to see.

The Staal Line - So obvious that it almost makes me sick. You take the three Staal kids, you throw them on the ice together and you watch the magic happen as it did on the outdoor rink oh so many years ago in Thunder Bay. While the naysayers may argue that Marc is a defenseman, I don't think it matters. He could play opposite of Eric, and the two of them could flank brother Jordan. It's crazy enough that it just might work.

The Poutine Line - Our friends in Quebec were not represented as much as some may have thought, with the exclusion of Savard and Briere to name a couple, but that doesn't mean team twentyten isn't laden with French talent up front. Simon Gagne would be the fries for the line, a solid base, while Vinny Lecavilier and Martin St-Louis would top it off with gravy and curds, which work so well together. I know that I have said that I didn't think St-Louis should be on the team (or even at the camp), but on a line like this, it would just be so delici... good, I mean good.

The Goals of the Year Line - Nash, Toews, Getzlaf. These three guys are all absolute beauty players who, over the past few seasons in the NHL, have scored some of the nicest goals we've ever seen. Putting them on a line together would no doubt cause a cataclysmic effect on the ice, the likes of which we've never seen leading to some of the greatest goals in the history of everything.

The 'Extra Maple Syrup' Line - It hasn't been talked about much, but one of the players overlooked to come to camp for a goaltending spot was on JC Petit. The competition was fierce though, and not even we had him pegged to make it to camp, so his omission by the brass is forgiven. However, in honor of JC comes this line. Marty St-Louis again plays on this line, with Andy McDonald and... uh... well, there's not really another "small" guy that I can find going to camp, so we'll just take any of the guys off what is an undersized American team. It may be a bit of a problem getting them on to the Canadian team, but I mean, to see what would resemble a Timbits Hockey squad on the ice at camp would be a once in a lifetime event.

The 'Pierre McGuire Just Blew His Load' Defensive Pairing - The only non-offensive grouping on this list, and because Pierre loves everyone, it was probably the hardest one to pick. However, that being said, we really couldn't figure out who would cause McGuirre to go off on a string of "kaboom" and "whammos" like would Dion Phaneuf and Shea Weber. It was this tandem that really led to a lot of Pete's ridiculous sayings back in 2005 when the World Juniors were played in Grand Forks, Michigan. Here, the defensive pairing not only led Canada to Gold then, which is the color we're all expecting to see in Vancouver, but it also led to the now famous "Double Dion", just another intolerable call from our old 'buddy' McGuire. If you're a fan of Canadian Hockey, then you're excited at the prospect of these two playing together again.

That's all we have for now, but with 46 guys, there are sure to be other creative ideas out there. What about you? Got any good line ideas?