sportsnet: canadian training camp invite list

[Cole Caulifield]

Let's say that Bertuzzi's reinstated, that Kariya's playing well. Why not ice 4 scoring lines ?

Nash-Thornton-Gagne
Richards-Lecavalier-St-Louis
Bertuzzi-Sakic-Iginla
Kariya-Lemieux-Heatley

Offense's the best defense. With the defense and goaltending we have, we could easily play run and gun and outscore everyone easily.

 

[espo*]

Let's say that Bertuzzi's reinstated, that Kariya's playing well. Why not ice 4 scoring lines ?

Nash-Thornton-Gagne
Richards-Lecavalier-St-Louis
Bertuzzi-Sakic-Iginla
Kariya-Lemieux-Heatley

Offense's the best defense. With the defense and goaltending we have, we could easily play run and gun and outscore everyone easily.

That would be a juggernaut if the chemistry got rolling.Imagine sending four hot lines with that talent over the boards? Scary stuff.

 

[Cole Caulifield]

That would be a juggernaut if the chemistry got rolling.Imagine sending four hot lines with that talent over the boards? Scary stuff.

Well we already know that the first 3 lines wouldn't have a problem with chemistry.

Sakic played with Iginla before. Tanguay with Sakic. It would look like a Tanguay-Sakic-Hejduk line if Hejduk was gritty.

The the proven Nash-Thornton-Gagne formula.

Then the 3 linemates from TB who have at times played together with the lightning in the past, even though not very often.

Kariya played with Lemieux before and Lemieux sees the ice so well that it shouldn't matter all that much.

With Crawford and Quinn, two guys with offensive styles, it would be pretty difficult to keep Canada off the scoresheet that's for sure.

 

[ShippinItDaily]

Morrow won't be on the final line up I'd not be too worried about this.

I'm glad Tanguay was there. It's near time they called him, he should have made the last WC squad, it was crystal clear Canada had too many grinders and not enough scorers.

The bottom line is there will be injuries to key guys but also look at this

Tanguay/Gagne-Sakic-Iginla
Nash-Thornton-Tanguay/Gagne
Richards-Lecavalier-St-Louis
Draper-Primeau-Smyth

I don't see the need for Kariya, Lemieux, Yzerman. 3 unbelievably talented and dominant scoring lines, the way it should be + 1 talented grinding line. Primeau has to be in this time, altough, on the big ice, maybe it's not the best choice. He would have been perfect for last september though. Anyway, Primeau still gets there and at any rates he's the biggest guy on this squad and could wreak a lot of havoc in front of many other countries' net.

I think you need to put Heatley on one of those first 2 scoring lines for sure. There is no way that he is gonna be left off of this team for either Gagne or Tanguay, not to mention all of those guys you have on the 4th line.

That being said, I like your lineup and if they are taking all the best players and icing 3 scoring lines + 1 checking line it looks prety accurate to what the final one will look like. Primeau might not be there and I'm guessing Gagne will be there over Tanguay if a decision comes down to those two. If we were icing all the best players to fit these roles then I would leave Smyth out. However he has been so loyal to Canada and vice versa that I just cant see him being left off this team.

The team Id like to see:

Tanguay-----Sakic--------Iginla
Heatley------Thornton---Nash
Richards-----Lecavalier--St. Louis
Draper-------Primeau-----*Yzerman

Neidermyer--Foote
Pronger------Jovanovski
Redden------Blake

Broduer
Luongo
Theodore

* I just cant leave Yzerman off of this. He is my alltime favorite player and I dont expect him to be on this team. However if they put him on the 4th line I still think he has some value. Heres to hoping Doan and Smyth get injured

And here is the team I expect to see, barring no injuries.

Lemieux-----Sakic----------Iginla
Gagne-------Thornton------Heatley
Richards-----Lecavalier----St.Louis
Smyth-------Primeau-------Doan


Neidermyer--Foote
Pronger------Jovanovski
Redden------Blake

Brodeur
Luongo
Theodore

Well the only real changes I made were to the forwards. I cant see the D being any different if everyone is healthy. Maybe throw Brewer in as the no.7 or something. However I think Redden is much better than Brewer. However Lowe is still part of this process so it would not surprise me at all to see him influence the inclusions of Smyth and Brewer again.

Either way I think we win this tournament with any combination of the 26 players that were invited.

The greatest competition will be from a reloaded Czech team and maybe the Swedes if they can get all their stars to play. Russia will probably be better than the Swedes though and Finalnd will be in there somewhere too as always.

 

[sawtooth420]

I see Lemieux has been left off a lot of peoples wish list. And some people believe Crosby, Gagne etc. should be there. Fact of the matter is that Lemieux is arguably the greatest player to play hockey. If you put any sort of talented player on his line i.e. Iginla, Nash, they will, almost guaranteed, lead the tournament in scoring. I know his injuries are a liability, but last time he played through a torn hip muscle that ended his NHL season and he still dominated the Olympics. I would take him over any player any day for the Olympics, I think your crazy if you wouldn't.

 

[arrbez]

I know his injuries are a liability, but last time he played through a torn hip muscle that ended his NHL season and he still dominated the Olympics. I would take him over any player any day for the Olympics, I think your crazy if you wouldn't.

Sadly, I think you're overrating Lemieux at this point in his career. He played well the last Olympics, but that was 4 years ago

Obviously Crosby won't be on the team barring some sort of Gretzky-like start to his career, but I could name a lot of players who I would take before Lemieux. His injury history and age are a huge factor, and he just can't play as much or as hard as he used to. Not saying he shouldn't necessarily be on the team (we'll see if he can stay healthy next season), but he's certainly not the best player in the world anymore

 

[Zopust]

Sadly, I think you're overrating Lemieux at this point in his career. He played well the last Olympics, but that was 4 years ago

Obviously Crosby won't be on the team barring some sort of Gretzky-like start to his career, but I could name a lot of players who I would take before Lemieux. His injury history and age are a huge factor, and he just can't play as much or as hard as he used to. Not saying he shouldn't necessarily be on the team (we'll see if he can stay healthy next season), but he's certainly not the best player in the world anymore

I think Lemieux is handy just to run one of the powerplay units from the side boards.

 

[Shareefruck]

IMO, Lemieux's still more than capable of being one of Canada's best players.