Overall, I think this is about as good a team as could be reasonably be chosen and substituting players who were snubbed for players who were chosen 21-25 won't materially affect the chances of a medal. I'm a little surprised by the absence of Giroux but he hasn't been lighting it up this year. (Though neither has Nash.)
Torino 2006 was a problem because the team had a shortage of pure scorers. It had solid offensive players but, as became apparent in the tournament, they were first and foremost set up men or corner diggers rather than snipers who could bury the puck at key moments. At least this Team Canada will have some top goal scorers, especially if Stamkos is healthy. It will be interesting to see if the forwards as a group are fast enough on the big ice. There are some very good skating blueliners.
I think some posters are underestimating how solid Hamhuis and Vlasic are.
If this were an 82 game season followed by four best of seven playoff series, I would be very confident that Team Canada would win the Cup. But it isn't. It's a short series with one game elimination in the medal round. A hot goalie, lucky bounces, penalties, or a simple failure to come together as a team quickly enough can change the results drastically. Any of the top teams have goalies good enough to get hot and steal a game or even the tournament.
Speaking of goalies, I presume Luongo will start. It is slightly discouraging to remember that over the last year, every team in the NHL turned down the opportunity to get Luongo. I know, I know, it wasn't really about his game. "The contract sucks," to quote strombone on Twitter. But still, nobody went for him. Luongo has been better this year than last, probably because of the absence of all that trade speculation and uncertainty. I hope he, or Price if he starts, is the goalie who gets hot at the right time. It's been a long time since a Team Canada has had the best goalie in a tournament.
I think that, as a matter of long term strategy, I would have taken a younger goalie as the third goalie, rather than Smith. I would want to expose a player who might be chosen in 2018 and 2022 (and neither Smith nor Luongo will be) to the Olympic experience.
