I am warming up to Kane as well for the exact same reasons. Also warming up to James Neal and Jamie Benn as well. 3 weeks ago, i was against guys like Kane, Neal and Benn, but their play has earned them the right to be in the mix. What do you think of Neal and Benn as well? Neal alongside Crosby for Sochi might be a good look, because of their familiarity as teammates.
With Benn, I find myself flip flopping quite a bit. I like that he can play any forward position and kill penalties. I find him pretty inconsistent when I watch him though, and I'm not sure that Canada needs another playmaker offensively.
Neal is an interesting case. He's basically just a finisher. This is good since Canada is so loaded with players who love to carry the puck, so it's important to have guys who do not need to carry it on their stick. If you put Neal with Crosby though, you still need someone to do the dirty work and provide some defensive cover, since those aren't particularly strong areas for Neal. If you plug that hole with an appropriate player, you still have Tavares, Stamkos, Giroux and others for the lower lines and things start getting crowded. Depending on how Neal does the rest of the year, the ideal situation that I see is putting him as a thirteenth forward type PP specialist. Otherwise, I don't see a spot for him.
If the rosters are expanded, do you think these are the two additional DMen they carry? Personally If I were Canadian I'd rather see Staal than Seabrook. I think he's severely underrated with such a stunning D core ahead of him. Hamhuis is a bit underrated to. I know this won't happen as of Seabs' success which is going to win him a spot but Letang paired with a shut down guy would make a great third pairing. Not to mention Letang can be an extremely mobile DMan on the PP.
I would be quite happy with either Staal or Hamhuis on the team. Both have good size and skating ability, and both play very strong defensive games. Left handed shots are a plus too. I haven't heard anything bad about either player when it comes to ego, so that's a plus when you're looking at the eighth defenceman. As of right now I would probably pick both to make the team.
Seabrook is similar to Bergeron for me. He was bad at the last Olympics, but he has unquestionably improved since that time. He's defensive minded, which is nice given the guys who are already locks. Most importantly, if things are going wrong he can be paired with Keith to give Canada an instant elite pairing that we know will work.