Canada starting to bear fruit from the WJC gold streak now?

[Big Phil]

I've had time to cool off over that loss the other night. 5 straight gold was amazing and the fact that we came within a shot of making it 6 just goes to show you that even when we've lost the Gold the last 10 years it is almost always ridiculously close.

But I thought I would mention that this streak Canada had of 5 golds has produced a big part of the core of our Olympic team (not news, I know). Seven players were from the 2005 WJC team:
Crosby, Bergeron, Getzlaf, Perry, Richards, Weber, Seabrook

One from the 2006-2007 team
Toews

One from the 2008 team:
Doughty

I thought that was very, impressive to be honest. Not to mention Fleury was on the two teams that predated the gold run and players like Stamkos from the gold run make impressive pushes to make the Olympic team.

So the bottom line is, has hockey in Canada been stronger in recent memory? I think most Canadians would take 5 straight golds in exchange for a silver every 6 years in a heartbeat. I know I would. The gold medal game drew an average of 5.3 million viewers in Canada, peaking at 7.5 million. The most ever for a WJC game. So here's the question:

And on the silver medal winning team for 2010, which Canadians in your mind could some day play for the Olympics in Canada?
Just my thought: Hall, Pietrangelo look to be locks someday. No one else I would bet on quite yet since I want to see what Eberle and Kadri and Schenn do in the NHL first

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[Homesick]

Pietrangelo could be there in 2014, but I would say almost definately in 2018.
The others are a crapshoot inc. Hall, and Eberle

 

[jbean]

It's tough enough to predict what they'll do in the NHL, let alone on the Olympic stage. I think a lot of our 2010 team could be back for 2014 too.

Of recent Jr. teams maybe Price, Mason, Tavares, Stamkos, Hall, Eberle, Pietrangelo, Hodgson have shots of Olympic teams. I think maybe 5 of those players will be on the 2014 or 2018 teams.