Shenanigans!!

I will be back in two days...and you can bet I'll put an end to this Grapes and Milbury (two lesser minds have never patrolled the Bruins bench) BS about who's who on the twentyten team.

Till we reconnect twentyteners...till we reconnect...

WHAMMO!!

Surströmming und meety bolls forr eveeryvan! Børk børk børk!

No doubt the Swedish team will be a formidable opponent, what with being the defending Olympic champions. Today we know a little more about our meatball making opponents, as they have released the list of players on who will represent their country in Vancouver.

The team is full of veterans, and have some strong players, with Henrik Lundqvist in goal, Nick Lidstrom on the blue line, and the Sedin twins up front. They also have Daniel Alfredsson and Peter Forsberg, but Alfie is out the next 4 - 6 weeks, so who knows if he'll be in game shape in time, and Forsberg is always a wildcard. The recent emergence of a guy like Loui Eriksson certainly helps the Swedes, but I'm not sure they'll have a team that will compete as well as they did in '06. Here is the full list:

Goalies:
Jonas Gustavsson (Toronto Maple Leafs/NHL), Stefan Liv (HV 71), Henrik Lundqvist (New York Rangers/NHL)

Defense:
Tobias Enstrom (Atlanta Thrashers/NHL), Magnus Johansson (Linkopings HC), Niklas Kronwall (Detroit Red Wings/NHL), Nicklas Lidstrom (Detroit Red Wings/NHL), Douglas Murray (San Jose Sharks/NHL), Johnny Oduya (New Jersey Devils/NHL), Henrik Tallinder (Buffalo Sabres/NHL), Mattias Ohlund (Tampa Bay Lightning/NHL)

Forwards:
Daniel Alfredsson (Ottawa Senators/NHL), Nicklas Backstrom (Washington Capitals/NHL), Loui Eriksson (Dallas Stars/NHL), Peter Forsberg (MODO Hockey), Tomas Holmstrom (Detroit Red Wings/NHL), Patric Hornqvist (Nashville Predators/NHL), Fredrik Modin (Columbus Blue Jackets/NHL), Samuel Paahlsson (Columbus Blue Jackets/NHL), Daniel Sedin (Vancouver Canucks/NHL), Henrik Sedin (Vancouver Canucks/NHL), Mattias Weinhandl (Dynamo Moscow/RUS), Henrik Zetterberg (Detroit Red Wings/NHL)

Just keeps getting better (Satellite Hotstove edition)

This just in on Hockey Night in Canada's Satellite Hotstove, MIKE MILBURY makes his choices for Team Canada! Matty, I know that you're missing this...

Forwards
Crosby
Nash
St. Louis
Marleau
Mike Richards
Jordan Staal
Perry
Iginla
Getzlaf
Thornton
Heatley
Morrow
Toews

Defense
Pronger - Niedermayer
Keith - Weber
Seabrook - Boyle
Doughty

Goalies
Brodeur
Luongo
Fleury

No doubt old Mikey has been reading our blog...

For good measure, Pierre Lebrun's picks, who with both Smyth and Doan makes his picks the absolute worst I have seen. Terrible. I don't even care about who else he picks (AND ST. LOUIS!! HE REALLY HATES ME!!!)

Forwards
Nash
St. Louis
Thornton
Brad Richards
Perry
Jordan Staal
Toews
Crosby
Heatley
Iginla
Getzlaf
Smyth
Doan

Defense
Niedermayer - Weber
Pronger - Boyle
Keith - Seabrook
Bouwmeester

Goalies
Brodeur
Luongo
Fleury

Glenn Healy chimed in too... too busy typing to hear what him and Milbury argued about tonight, no doubt it was intellectually stimulating as it always is... Healy was pretty big on David Clarkson, if it had not been for his injury, but I'm not sure he would have been available as I doubt he would have been on the original list.

Forwards
Crosby
Thornton
Perry
Nash
St. Louis
Toews
Fisher
Iginla
Getzlaf
Heatley
Brad Richards
Marleau
Bergeron

Defense
Niedermayer - Weber
Pronger - Boyle
Keith - Seabrook
Bouwmeester

Goalies
Brodeur
Luongo
Fleury

Other notes:
Lebrun said Stevie Y scouted Tampa heavily, probably for Stamkos, who he doesn't think makes the cut.

He also mentioned he told Yzerman that they were picking their own teams, to which Stevie said he was "with Grapes".

Grape pickin'

Because I know Matty is missing Coach's Corner out there in Thailand, I had to post this... Cherry's team that he picked tonight on Hockey Night. Matty, I know you're scrambling to find a TV playing the Corner somewhere in Asia, but fear not, I have you covered...

Goalies
Brodeur
Luongo
Fleury

Defense
Pronger - Weber
Niedermayer - Boyle
Robidas - Green
Phaneuf

Forwards
Getzlaf - Crosby - Perry
Marleau - Thornton - Heatley
Jordan Staal - Brad Richards - Nash
Fisher - Toews - Iginla
Stamkos

He admitted that he knows a lot of these guys probably won't be on the team, but these are the guys he thinks should be on the team. If I'm not mistaken, the first time Matty put his board up in the Twenty Ten household, it looked almost the same, just going to prove that great minds think alike...

WHAMMO!!

Say hello to the enemy...

Well, with that first WJC game in the books, a 16 - 0 drubbing of Latvia (who I am beginning to believe don't actually have ice in their home country), there's some news relevant to our beloved Twenty Ten team.

The Russians have announced their Olympic team that will hit the ice in Vancouver in 2010.

A quick look at the team...

Goalies
Ilya Bryzgalov (Phoenix), Evgeni Nabokov (San Jose), Semyon Varlamov (Washington)

Defence
Sergei Gonchar (Pittsburgh), Denis Grebeshkov (Edmonton), Dmitri Kalinin (Salavat Ufa), Konstantin Korneyev (CSKA Moscow), Andrei Markov (Montreal), Ilya Nikulin (Ak Bars Kazan), Fedor Tyutin (Columbus), Anton Vonchenkov (Ottawa)

Forwards
Maxim Afinogenov (Atlanta), Pavel Datsyuk (Detroit), Sergei Fedorov (Metallurg Magnitogorsk), Ilya Kovalchuk (Atlanta), Viktor Kozlov (Salavat Ufa), Evgeni Malkin (Pittsburgh), Alexei Morozov (Ak Bars Kazan), Alexander Ovechkin (Washington), Alexander Radulov (Salavat Ufa), Alexander Semin (Washington), Danis Zaripov (Ak Bars Kazan), Sergei Zinoviev (Salavat Ufa)

Surprised by some of the omissions (you can read that on the CTV site, I don't need to parrot who was left off as well as who made the squad), but I'm not too concerned, as they must feel they're giving their team the best chance to win, and there's no shortage of skill with Ovi, Malkin, Datsyuk and Kovalchuk up front.

Turn on and tune out

Howdy Twentyteners!

Hope the jolly fat man found you all well this Christmas! I for one made off like a bandit, but that's not what this post is about...

This week marks one of the years most exciting times for Canadian hockey fans, when the IIHF World Junior tournament kicks off. These youngsters always provide a lot of excitement to the fans, and all in all, it's a great tournament if you enjoy watching hockey.

The problem of course with the tournament, much like the upcoming Olympic hockey tournament, is that the games are on TSN, which of course means you get a healthy serving of Miller and McGuire, with a side of Randorf, which never goes down well after a big Christmas dinner and the accompanying sweets.

Have no fear, as I am here with the solution to your woes! It's a very simple solution, and this World Junior tournament is the perfect time to practice before the Olympics in February.

When you turn your TV to the TSN station, locate the button labeled "Mute" on your remote. Press it once and your ears will not be subjected to the auditory vomit spewed by the TSN play-by-play crews.

What's that? You don't HAVE a mute button? No worries, I've got you covered!

If you're still living in the stone ages without a mute button, simply locate the "volume down" button on the remote control and hold it down until sound ceases to come from your television set.

We here at Canada Twenty Ten are always here to help... so you're welcome.

WHA*mute*...

Interesting notes from Dreger

I woke up this morning and groggily turned on the television to see Sportscentre talking about our beloved team. I was still half asleep while I listened to this, and I was too lazy to wait to watch it again in the unforgivably long morning loop (really, this new girl they have on there MAY be more annoying than McGuire... I'm not sayin', I'm just sayin'...).

Babcock had a quick interview where he said that about "95% of the team HAS been decided on". Darren Dreger expanded on this, with just a single week left to go before the announcement:

• Phaneuf will NOT be on the team
• The 7th defenseman will be one of Green, Bouwmeester or Doughty
  
• There are about 18 guys fighting for the last 3 spots on the team. Martin St. Louis is one of those guys (my heart is breaking... /sarcasm). Apparently Milan Lucic is being strongly considered for a spot on the squad

The time of the announcement is nearing, and it looks like the pieces are all falling into place...

WHAMMO!!

PERFECTLY TIMED UPDATE: Just after publishing the story, I checked out the CTV Olympics site, and came across this article, which says the field has been narrowed to 15 forwards and 8 defensemen. When asked, Steve Yzerman did not confirm nor deny that all of those players attended camp this summer... the plot thickens