Comparing Zamuner to Kunitz is an absolute insult to Kunitz. At least for the most of his time in Pittsburgh, Kunitz was a bonafide top 6 forward. A bit of a baffling pick given the ridiculous depth we have? Sure, but not nearly as bad as ****ing Zamuner. Dude never cracked 20 goals once in his career.
At least when Canada picked Draper he was coming off a Selke trophy win, the hell did Zamuner ever do?
Let me clear that up, Kunitz is definitely the better player. No question. What I meant with comparing them is that the media seemed to push for it to the point where it sort of got normalized saying it. In other words, in 2014 the idea was that Crosby is the best player in the world and why not pick a guy he has so much chemistry with? There is at least that reason for the selection of Kunitz. He made the team the same way someone like Rob Brown might have made the team if there were a Canada Cup in 1989. I "get" why Kunitz was there, I get the logic, but I didn't agree with it and we left much better players like Giroux and initially St. Louis at home in favour of him. Kunitz also missed a ton of scoring chances that drove me up the wall that tournament.
However, like I said there is at least a reason why Kunitz was picked. Zamuner I have no clue. Didn't then, still don't today. He gets 50 points, he finishes 7th (not great mind you) in Selke voting. I don't know, maybe because he was 6'3"? Seriously though, that's all I've got. Peca was the far better defensive forward at that time when it comes to killing penalties and such. I don't know what the reason truly was. His selection reminds me of a game we played as kids called the "telephone game". Where you whisper in someone's ear and they pass it down the row and the person at the end says out loud what they heard. Usually by then it is something totally different such as, "Hey what about Rob Zamuner?" I honestly thought it was such a dumb pick that they might have thought it could throw people off. No kidding here, the Hockey News prior to the Olympics did a mock Gold medal game and it was Canada vs. USA with none other than Rob Zamuner scoring the winning goal in a shootout. I thought - even then - you have GOT to be kidding me!
I weep for you.
Love shootouts. Love 'em, love 'em, love 'em.
Let's not get nuts here. They are the equivalent of a home run competition or a quarterback throwing the ball through a tire. A rare regular season game in the NHL I can live with - although still don't agree with - but it should never judge a big game like in the Olympics or Worlds. And to boot, Canada is more often than not on the right side of these things, we just weren't in 1998. Toews' WJC show in 2007..........no way! Let them play and finish the game as a team.
