God Bless Canada
Registered User
One last thing to remember: With the exception of 1996, 1999 and 2000, Canada has produced at least one elite-level defenceman every year, starting with Aucoin in 1992. (Pronger and McCabe in 1993, Jovanovski in 1994, Redden in 95, Brewer and Hannan in 1997, Stuart and Regher in 1998). Hamhuis in 2001, Bouwmeester in 2002, Phaneuf and Coburn in 2003 and Barker in 2004 seem destined to join that group. Defence is not a problem. After goaltending and playmaking centres, it's been our strong suit the past dozen years.
When we lost to the Yanks in 1996, Blake was coming off a torn ACL, Bourque said no and MacInnis got hurt. We were carrying Sylvain Cote, Doug Bodger and Lyle Odelein, for crying out loud. Our defenceman production stream had hit a lul. Even with our best nine guys, we would have lagged behind the Americans on the blue line. Now, the roles have reversed. We're the ones with top young talent on the blue line, and they're the ones who have to bring in suspect players (Hal Gill).
When we lost to the Yanks in 1996, Blake was coming off a torn ACL, Bourque said no and MacInnis got hurt. We were carrying Sylvain Cote, Doug Bodger and Lyle Odelein, for crying out loud. Our defenceman production stream had hit a lul. Even with our best nine guys, we would have lagged behind the Americans on the blue line. Now, the roles have reversed. We're the ones with top young talent on the blue line, and they're the ones who have to bring in suspect players (Hal Gill).