Weinrich to take Hatchers place on US squad
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HellsBells
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so...anyone want to guess Team USA's defensive pairings?
With Gill and Miller, I guess Hatcher is expendable size wise. If Brian Leetch doesn't play, it's over.
Leetch-Miller
Chelios-Leopold
Gill-Rafalski
With Gill and Miller, I guess Hatcher is expendable size wise. If Brian Leetch doesn't play, it's over.
Leetch-Miller
Chelios-Leopold
Gill-Rafalski
HellsBells
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Reilly311 said:so...anyone want to guess Team USA's defensive pairings?
With Gill and Miller, I guess Hatcher is expendable size wise. If Brian Leetch doesn't play, it's over.
Leetch-Miller
Chelios-Leopold
Gill-Rafalski
That looks good to me. Leetch, Leopold & Rafalski as the offensive threats and Miller, Chelios & Gill as the stay at home guys. Pretty good mix.
Reilly311 said:so...anyone want to guess Team USA's defensive pairings?
With Gill and Miller, I guess Hatcher is expendable size wise. If Brian Leetch doesn't play, it's over.
Leetch-Miller
Chelios-Leopold
Gill-Rafalski
Based on Wilson's comments it sounds like Klee is probably firmly in their top 6. I'd have him ahead of Gill.
http://slam.canoe.ca/Slam/Hockey/WorldCup/2004/08/20/594096.html
Flames Draft Watcher said:
The only reason I'd have Gill in is for his size. If Hatcher was still playing I'd say Klee is a lock, but without him, Miller is their best big man, What will be interesting is how much playing time Chelios and Leopold will get. Chelios is really really old, and Leopold is really really young.
ALF AmericanLionsFan
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jstreet
LETS GO PREDS
my guess is he declinedLeo Naphta said:
he was suffering from nagging injuries all season and any extra time off would do him good.
19bruins19 said:
Oh, I don't know. Weinrich was really solid in his stint in St.Louis. Real solid. I know you guys are automatically going to go to water over Hatcher based on his reputation, etc., but Weinrich is easilly capable of playing at a high level still. He hasn't lost much if anything in speed and he still makes the smart, safe play and moves the puck effectively. He's a willing physical player if not an intimidating one. His puck skills are miles ahead, MILES, of Hatchers. IMO that's just as important as playing with a physical edge, which is what Hatcher does better than Weinrich.
Big Phil said:
America has had a really bad decade when it comes to producing highly skilled hockey players, like Modano, LaFontaine, Housley, Roenick, etc. The game simply isn't played by a signifigant number of American youth, so.... what do we expect? Hockey is not even an afterthough to most Americans. It's simply not on the sports radar of a vast majority of Americans. Ask ESPN. Nobody watches it (okay, few in comparison to the legion of baseball, footbore, basketball, etc.) here in the States and therefore no kids are going to play it in signifigant enough numbers to produce top level players. Our best athletes don't play hockey as kids.
Reilly311 said:Oh thats right, Canada didn't lose any stud defensemen
Canada is so clearly superior to America in all ways hockey that it is not even comparable. You could make up an A, B and C teams for Canada putting the best players on team A, second best on B, etc. and Team C would still beat America's best, IMO.
guitaraholic said:
I'd say for a country that ranks hockey below world series of poker, they do pretty good. If Hockey is #1 in America, they'd have the best athletes and would be the best country.
For a country where hockey is second only to breathing, Canadas superiority in hockey compared to the US isn't that great.
guitaraholic said:
well, i figure it's played by at least as many (if not more) kids than it was back 15 or 20 years ago when the usa's "golden generation" was coming up. i'd just chock it up to luck of the draw.
in the mid and late 90's there was a period when canada was hurting for a talent a little bit IMO, and it showed because we didn't win any major international tournaments. but at that same time our junior teams were dominating, and we're now reaping the benefits of those strong junior teams (thornton, iginla, luongo, smyth etc).
it all goes in cycles. both the russians and americans have some great young prospects now, and they've won the last few world junior championships accordingly
Lam7825
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Flyguys22
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No, but when you can add more stud defencemen and still have guys like McCabe and Aucion still ready if more injuries happen then it helps.Reilly311 said:Oh thats right, Canada didn't lose any stud defensemen
USA is in tough if Weinrich is forced to play as opposed to Canada if say Boumeester or Hannan are forced to play.
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