A Report Card Look at Team Canada

http://slam.canoe.ca/Slam/Hockey/WorldCup/2004/09/04/616225-cp.html

A Report Card Look At Team Canada

TORONTO (CP) - A report card look at Team Canada after Saturday night's 3-1 round-robin win over Russia:

Forwards

Kris Draper, A: Selke Trophy winner delighted hometown friends and family with super night, shutting down Russia's top forward line and scoring Canada's second goal.

Shane Doan, A: The best-kept secret on Team Canada has been consistently terrific. Made a great play on his assist for Canada's opening goal and threw his weight around all night long.

Brad Richards, A: Showed his elite scoring touch on his one-timer goal to open the scoring, a threat throughout the game.

Vincent Lecavalier, B-plus: Flashy rush down the ice led to opening goal, but took a foolish cross-checking penalty on Darius Kasparaitis.

Simon Gagne, B-plus: His best game of the tournament, a great feed to Richards for the opening goal and yeoman's work on the penalty kill.

Mario Lemieux, B-plus: Still can't buy a goal but showed some nice touches, especially his set-up sending Scott Niedermayer in alone in second period. Recording his first point of the tournament on Sakic's goal.

Joe Sakic, B-plus: Fanned on his shot with an open net staring at him in the second period but he stuffed a rebound home early in the third to give Canada a 3-0 lead.

Joe Thornton, B: Not much doing offensively but to his defence he was centring the checking line with Draper and Doan.

Jarome Iginla, B: Had two more great scoring chances but remains in the hunt for his first goal.

Ryan Smyth, B: Not quite as involved as his first two games, took a bad penalty in the third.

Dany Heatley, B: Canada's best player in the exhibition games has yet to score. He's pressing too much.

Martin St. Louis, B-minus: Horrible giveaway in the first period nearly led to a Russian goal, off the mark with some of his passes.

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Defence

Scott Niedermayer, A: Power play, penalty kill, tape-to-tape passes, just another night at the office.

Adam Foote, A: Left a few Russians black and blue. Great work on the penalty kill.

Robyn Regehr, B-plus: Does this guy ever make a mistake?

Eric Brewer, B-plus: Has got better with every game.

Scott Hannan, B-plus: Smart physical game and showed a little more confidence pinching in and nearly scoring in the first period.

Jay Bouwmeester, B: A little tentative in his own zone at times but was accurate with his outlet passes.

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Goal

Martin Brodeur, A: The rock that makes Canada so hard to beat. His highlight-reel pad save on Alexander Frolov in the second period was the exclamation point of another super outing.

 

Draper an A?
And they have Regher a B+ while saying he doesn't make any mistakes... sounds like an A to me

edit: sorry, didn't see the slam part, haha

 

Why shouldnt Draper be a A? He may only have 1 goal but his defensive work is amazing!

EDIT: I didnt make this list. Slam sports did, duh!

 

Pretty accurate, I'd say.

It's unfortunate, it's not a very long tournament, and with a team full of so much scoring talent, there's bound to be 2 or 3 guys that have dissapointing tournaments scoring-wise. Mind you we're just getting into the good stuff, but it's hard for guys like Iginla, Lemieux and Heatley, they've got such a short time span to produce, and people will critisize them if they don't score. But all 3 of them have been doing everything but score, and they're still helping the team enormously.

 

Players like Thornton, Doan, and Draper have had considerably less time by being a checking unit and have a combined four points( 1g, 1a Thornton, 1g Draper, 1a with more to come from Doan). Iginla, Lemieux, and HEatley will all have their time come when the games count....