Possible Team CANADA Roster

[Jazz]

Another link....

www.canada.com/sports/hockey/nhlplayoffs2004/story.html?id=10F9825F-0117-4607-B799-3A11E770F309

Gold medal means World Cup nominations for Heatley and Luongo

PIERRE LEBRUN
Canadian Press
Thursday, May 13, 2004

(CP) - Winger Dany Heatley and netminder Roberto Luongo almost certainly earned themselves nominations to Team Canada's World Cup team with their gold medal performances at the world hockey championship in Prague.

Executive director Wayne Gretzky is expected to announce his 26-player World Cup roster before the end of next weekend, likely at a news conference in Calgary or Toronto. Only 18 skaters and two goalies can dress for games in the Aug. 30-Sept. 14 tournament, meaning six bodies will watch from the press box.

What remains unclear is whether suspended winger Todd Bertuzzi will be named, Hockey Canada possibly wanting to pass on the distraction the Vancouver Canucks winger could create at training camp, which begins Aug. 19 in Ottawa.

Here's a look at CP's selections for Canada's World Cup team, comparing them to the Olympic champion roster of February 2002 (with current age):

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Goaltenders

Salt Lake: Martin Brodeur, 32 years old; Curtis Joseph, 37; Ed Belfour, 39.

World Cup:

1. Brodeur. Performance in first-round playoff loss a minor concern but he remains the man.

2. Roberto Luongo, 25. Back-to-back gold medals at world championships cemented spot for Vezina and Lester B. Pearson nominee.

3. Jose Theodore, 27. His performance in Montreal's first-round upset of Boston further established him as a money goalie.

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Defence

Salt Lake: Adam Foote, 32; Ed Jovanovski, 27; Al MacInnis, 40; Rob Blake, 34; Scott Niedermayer, 30; Chris Pronger, 29; Eric Brewer, 25.

World Cup:

1. Niedermayer. His sensational play at the world championship reminded us how much greater he can be outside of New Jersey's suffocating system. Give him the Norris Trophy.

2. Pronger. Carried the St. Louis Blues on his back this year with MacInnis and Barrett Jackman out.

3. Blake. Could be his last kick at the can in a Team Canada jersey.

4. Foote. Smaller NHL-sized rinks fits his style perfectly. A Team Canada veteran.

5. Jovanovski. Maybe the most complete blue-liner in this country: great skater and passer, blistering shot, physical, and can play power play or penalty kill.

6. Wade Redden, 26. Long overdue promotion to Team Canada after career-high 17 goals and plus-21 rating with Ottawa.

7. Brewer. May have saved his Team Canada job with solid medal round play in Prague when the pressure was at its most intense.

8. Robyn Regehr, 24. Has moved up the Gretzky shortlist with his impressive playoff. Where would Calgary be without him?

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Forwards

Salt Lake: Theo Fleury, 35; Simon Gagne, 24; Jarome Iginla, 26; Eric Lindros, 31; Joe Nieuwendyk, 37; Michael Peca, 30; Brendan Shanahan, 35; Ryan Smyth, 28; Paul Kariya, 29; Mario Lemieux, 38; Owen Nolan, 32; Joe Sakic, 34; Steve Yzerman, 39.

The World Cup team will likely carry 15 forwards.

Centres:

1. Lemieux. Has resumed skating after season-ending hip surgery and wants to play in World Cup. Gretzky has his fingers crossed.

2. Sakic. Ho-hum, third in NHL scoring race this season with 87 points (33-54) in 81 games. Is there anyone more automatic?

3. Joe Thornton, 24. Played with torn rib cartilage in Boston's first-round loss to Montreal so you can't hold his lacklustre playoff performance against him.

4. Kris Draper, 32. Followed up last year's standup job at the world hockey championship in Helsinki with a career-high 24 goals while remaining one of the league's top defensive centres.

5. Patrick Marleau, 24. Has carried San Jose into the Western Conference final.

6. Vincent Lecavalier, 24. Remains maddingly inconsistent but Gretzky likes him.

7. Keith Primeau, 32. Team Canada assistant coach Ken Hitchcock, Philadelphia's head coach, will plead for Gretzky to include terrific defensive centre. Primeau's playoff performance a big boost to his chances.

Right wing:

1. Martin St. Louis, 28. Likely Hart Trophy winner forced his way onto Team Canada with sensational season, leading all NHL scorers with 94 points (38-56) and mind-boggling plus-35 rating. His playoff clinched his place.

2. Iginla. Olympic hero will be a mainstay for years to come on Team Canada, delivering in the clutch for the Flames in the playoffs.

3. Dany Heatley, 23. He's back. The long physical recovery from last fall's car accident is complete. Led all scorers in Prague with eight goals and 11 points in nine games.

4. Shane Doan, 27. Career-high 27 goals and 68 points on lowly Coyotes club came on the heels of his excellent showing at last year's world championship in Helsinki.

Left wing:

1. Alex Tanguay, 24. Career-high 79 points (25-54) with plus-30 rating, an all-star winger for years to come and a good fit on Sakic's line.

2. Kariya. Forgettable season won't keep him off the team. He remains a big-time game-breaker with massive international experience under his belt.

3. Brenden Morrow, 25. Solid performance in Prague on a line with Heatley may have landed him on the team. The kind of bruising winger that would fit nicely on a checking line with either Primeau or Draper.

4. Smyth. A so-so NHL season with Edmonton was enhanced by another gold medal at the world championship, playing his best game of the tournament in the gold medal final. His grinding, gritty game a good fit on fourth line.

5. Rick Nash, 19. Young goal machine tied for the NHL lead with 41. How can you keep him off the team?

[LoneStarHockeyFan]

I'd like to see Morrow make Team Canada's roster. Love the way he plays the game.

[NyQuil]

I am not a Redden fan even though I am a Sens fan

His propensity for dumb plays at critical times makes me shudder to imagine him on Team Canada.

He has great potential, but was -5 against the Leafs, and it was quite clear that Phillips and Chara were superior defensively.

The rest of the team looks pretty good.

[Amar]

If I was choosing Team Canada I would select the following 26 players.

In goal:

1. Brodeur 2. Luongo 3. Theodore

On D: ;D

Jovanoski-Niedermayer
McCabe-Pronger
Regehr-Redden
Bouwmeester-Stuart

Forwards:

Kariya-Sakic-Bertuzzi
Iginla-Richards-St. Louis
Heatley-Marleau-Thornton
Cooke-Primeau-Peca
Smyth-Lemieux-Nash

[sammy]

Took this out of the Edmonton Sun newspaper this morning. I'm glad I don't have to pick the team.

CALGARY -- The Olympics was a no-brainer compared to this. "It's tougher to load this team than the Olympic team,'' said Wayne Gretzky as he took a late-afternoon time out from meetings on decision day here yesterday to select Team Canada for the World Cup of Hockey.

"There are more guys who deserve to be on this team,'' added Gretzky of the final hours to make the toughest decisions on the roster for the September series prior to a 9 a.m. press conference here today.

"The great thing is that there are so many young guys to pick from for this team.''

It says something, he suggests, about Canadian hockey being on the up escalator.

Gretzky said the list had been boiled down to 32 for the 26-member team going into the late-afternoon session with Kevin Lowe, Steve Tambellini, Jim Nill and the Hockey Canada brass, with coach Pat Quinn and assistants Ken Hitchcock and Jacques Martin on a conference call.

"One of the problems is deciding whether we'll go with 14 forwards and nine defencemen or 15 forwards and eight defencemen,'' he said.

MORE GRIT AND GRIND

Gretzky, who insisted on taking the best players to Salt Lake, said there will be more grit and grind on this team than the Olympic tournament, but that it'll still be tilted toward skill.

"It'll be a combination,'' he said.

"You always love talent, especially talent which works hard like Steve Yzerman, Joe Sakic, Jarome Iginla and Mario Lemieux did at the Olympics.

"Picking this team is a little different because of the NHL-sized ice. I remember what Paul Henderson, Ron Ellis and Bobby Clarke meant in the 1972 series and Brian Propp, Brent Sutter and Rick Tocchet in the 1987 Canada Cup. Those kind of players are very important. You have to have some grit. It's a big part of our game. And other countries are playing a much more gritty game now. Look at the way Finland played against Canada in Prague.''

Another factor complicating matters is picking the right six guys who won't be playing that first game.

"You look at a guy like Ed Jovanovski,'' said Gretzky of the Vancouver Canucks defenceman. "He really came into his own in Salt Lake. I look at how well Rob Niedermayer played in Prague, how well Brenden Morrow played and how hard and how well Shawn Horcoff played. The six guys who aren't playing have to accept their roles and be ready if they get in.''

If any of those players make it, however, it'll be a story. But the story today, suggests another member of the Team Canada brain trust, will not be who made the team but who didn't.

"It'll be who isn't on the team from the Olympic team,'' he said of the group which won gold for Canada for the first time in 50 years at the 2002 Salt Lake Olympic Winter Games.

Paul Kariya and Brendan Shanahan are two who apparently weren't written in ink on the roster as it went down to the final few decisions here yesterday.

Al MacInnis, Eric Lindros, Joe Nieuwendyk, Michael Peca, Owen Nolan and Curtis Joseph and, of course, Theo Fleury will all be Olympic gold medallists making room for the young guns like Dany Heatley, Joe Thornton, Vincent Lecavalier, Martin St. Louis, Shane Doan and maybe Calgary Flames defenceman Robyn Regehr.

Lemieux and Yzerman, on the other hand, were on the list subject to medical clearance.

While there was speculation Eddie Belfour would be left off the goaltending trio to eliminate Quinn of having to make a decision on his starting goaltender, with his Maple Leafs' 39-year-old netminder in the mix, word out of the meetings yesterday was that it looked like Martin Brodeur, Belfour and Roberto Luongo are in and Jose Theodore is out.

BREWER, SMYTH ARE THERE

Oilers Ryan Smyth and Eric Brewer, the two players who won Olympic gold and back-to-back world championships, are, according to the source, back on to the team as a result of good second-half performances in the regular season and with their play in the medal-round games at the World Hockey Championships.

Heatley easily clinched a spot on the squad with his performance in Prague. Scott Niedermayer was a lock before he took the trip.

There are five slam dunks on defence in addition to Niedermayer - Chris Pronger, Rob Blake, Adam Foote, Jovanovski and, apparently, Brewer.

Word is they were down to four for the final two or three spots, depending on whether they go with eight or nine defencemen - Wade Redden, Bryan McCabe, Edmontonian Jay Bouwmeester and Regehr, the Flames' 24-year-old who has played his way onto the shortlist with his play in the playoffs.

"All I can say at this stage is everybody we're talking about now deserves to be there,'' said Gretzky.