Canadian World Cup roster announced

[Riggins]

The forward selections are a joke. When the first speaker talked about kids dreaming of being Simon Gagne I nearly puked. What has the guy done this year or last year for that matter?!?!?

The Richards selection doesn't make any sense. Lecavalier is the better player. I'd take Spezza and Nash over him too.

Same with me on the Gagne thing. I was like "CRAP! This means he's on the team".

Richards over Lecavalier is fine. It could go either way. Spezza over Richards?

 

[Burke's Evil Spirit]

What a horrible, horrible roster. Jesus Christ, how many ****ing no-skill grinder hacks does this team need? Morrow, Maltby, Draper...

No Kariya? No Tanguay? No Bertuzzi? No Lecavalier? (But they get Richards, which blows my ****ing mind)? Brewer AGAIN? A washed up Yzerman? What the hell is Gagne doing there?

 

[Scandale du Jour]

I don't care about STATS, I'm talking about their PLAY. And Belfour as ONE more win then Théodore with a WAY better team in front of him. Give credits where credits due, Théodore had a better regular season then Belfour. But I must say that Eddy had way better playoffs then José. But it remains a political choice. If Quinn was not the coach, no way Belfour would be on that team. It is useless to have a 38 years old guy as your third netminder. Let's give the chance to a young guy to gain experience... Turco, Théodore or even Raycroft would have been better choices.

 

[Riggins]

Gretzky sucks.

 

[Killer 93]

I don't care about STATS, I'm talking about their PLAY. And Belfour as ONE more win then Théodore with a WAY better team in front of him. Give credits where credits due, Théodore had a better regular season then Belfour. But I must say that Eddy had way better playoffs then José. But it remains a political choice. If Quinn was not the coach, no way Belfour would be on that team. It is useless to have a 38 years old guy as your third netminder. Let's give the chance to a young guy to gain experience... Turco, Théodore or even Raycroft would have been better choices.

Give it up. Belfour > Theo. Hockey Canada obviously saw it this way as well.

 

[Liquidrage*]

Robyn Regehr instead of Jay Bouwmeester. Is that a joke? I love Regehr but Bouwmeester is and will always be better than guy. Plus Jaybo is our damn future. Why don't we let him play with Scott Nieds? They played great together at the Worlds. I think that choice have been motivated by the playoffs and not by the skills or the utility that the guy could have on this team. Bad choice IMO but better than alot of forwards choices. If you wanted to have Regehr on that team then scratch Brewer not Jay Bouwmeester...

If they had put him in there, it would have been because of what he did in the juniors and not the NHL level. And I don't think that would have been fair.

Van Ryan has clearly been better then him the last two year. You would put Van Ryan on the team?

The young defenseman are just that. Young. You see it with Bouwmeester and Pitkanen and Martin and Hamius. Pitkanen's been a healthy scratch. Hamius and Martin played big minutes but got really exposed in the playoffs. Martin still has Property of John LeClair tatood on his forhead and Hamius is looking to download of video of Lang's goal so he can see what happened. Although, Hamius proved he's a touch SOB and I think he'll end up to be a real special player.

But the point is these guys just aren't ready for prime time yet.

 

[Scandale du Jour]

What a horrible, horrible roster. Jesus Christ, how many ****ing no-skill grinder hacks does this team need? Morrow, Maltby, Draper...

No Kariya? No Tanguay? No Bertuzzi? No Lecavalier? (But they get Richards, which blows my ****ing mind)? Brewer AGAIN? A washed up Yzerman? What the hell is Gagne doing there?

Gagné diserves to be there. The guy doesn't put as many points as in 2002 but he play a way better two way game. Plus, he got chemistry with Iginla and Sakic. Remember, those tournements are all about how quick the team get along togheter. Having guys that already has some kind of chemistry on the team can only be positive. But if you have Gagné who can BOTH score and play defense. Then why Draper or Maltby...

And Richards is much more diserving then Lecavalier. Less skills but a way better career so far. Lecavalier just got all the hype, but Richards is the better of the two at THIS stage of their career. Good choice by the management there. Lecavalier will be better, but right now Richards diserve it more.

 

[incawg]

I love the defense, I've got no problem with the goaltending, but some of these forward selections have me scratching my head.

 

[Scandale du Jour]

Give it up. Belfour > Theo. Hockey Canada obviously saw it this way as well.

No arguments and a stupid equation that means nothing? Yeah right. If you could argue your point correctly, ok with me. But you sound like an homer to me. I'm sure some Leaf fans can do a WAY better job then you defending Eddy.

 

[Egil]

Brewer, what has this guy done to make not only the Olympic team, but the world cup team as well? I hope to god he never steps on the ice, I would feel more confident with McCabe, who I don't really like.

Belfour as the third goalie, was, IMHO, a WISE selection. Luongo is the young goalie for the future, Brodeur will carry the mantle for a while. Belfour also has shown that he won't whine and pout if he is the third goalie (which is VERY important), and for serving that role with honour in Salt Lake, he gets rewarded again.

Up front, Gagne is a suprising selection, as his play has gone downhill since the Olympics. No Burtuzzi was a political decision, not a hockey one. It will be very tough to judge these selections until the lines are known, as 1/5 of these players will not see very much ice at all.

 

[Riggins]

The defense doesn't bother me.

Hopefully the top 6 can be:

Blake
Pronger
Niedermayer
Foote
Redden
Jovo

But Gretzky was talking like Brewer was in the top 6.

Some of the forward choices are just garbage.

 

[VO #23]

What a horrible, horrible roster. Jesus Christ, how many ****ing no-skill grinder hacks does this team need? Morrow, Maltby, Draper...

No Kariya? No Tanguay? No Bertuzzi? No Lecavalier? (But they get Richards, which blows my ****ing mind)? Brewer AGAIN? A washed up Yzerman? What the hell is Gagne doing there?

Some of my sentiments exactly, regarding the forwards anyways. Sure you need grinders, but how about guys that can actually play a two-way game? Give me Primeau and Peca any day of the week over friggin' Maltby and Draper.

I know Kariya hasn't been the production machine in recent years that he was when first paired with Selanne, but he's definitely one of the best left wingers Canada has. He was certainly one of Canada's best forwards in Salt Lake. Leaving him off is just asinine.

I also question the Brewer decision. The guy has clearly regressed since Nagano, and his spot in the pressbox could better be served by a guy like Bouwmeester or Stuart.

 

[Killer 93]

No arguments and a stupid equation that means nothing? Yeah right. If you could argue your point correctly, ok with me. But you sound like an homer to me. I'm sure some Leaf fans can do a WAY better job then you defending Eddy.

Here:

Belfour : 34 Wins - 19 losses - 6 ties , 10 shutouts , 122 goals against , an average of 2.13

Theodore : 33 wins - 28 losses - 5 ties, 6 shutouts 150 goals against an average of 2.27

 

[Scandale du Jour]

If they had put him in there, it would have been because of what he did in the juniors and not the NHL level. And I don't think that would have been fair.

Van Ryan has clearly been better then him the last two year. You would put Van Ryan on the team?

The young defenseman are just that. Young. You see it with Bouwmeester and Pitkanen and Martin and Hamius. Pitkanen's been a healthy scratch. Hamius and Martin played big minutes but got really exposed in the playoffs. Martin still has Property of John LeClair tatood on his forhead and Hamius is looking to download of video of Lang's goal so he can see what happened. Although, Hamius proved he's a touch SOB and I think he'll end up to be a real special player.

But the point is these guys just aren't ready for prime time yet.

Van Ryn had not been better then JayBo? Bouwmeester is the number one guy in Florida and he is playing like a number one guy. The youngster have not a good team with him so it is a lot harder for him to shine league wide. But when you watch him play, it is easy to see that this guy would already be a star with a team like Colorado, Détroit or Philadelphie. And based on his play at the World CHampionships in '03 and '04 he trully diserve to be there. But eh, Regehr diserves it too so it's not a big deal. Bouwmeester would have been a better choice IMO, but I'm still happy with our defense.

 

[Scandale du Jour]

Here:

Belfour : 34 Wins - 19 losses - 6 ties , 10 shutouts , 122 goals against , an average of 2.13

Theodore : 33 wins - 28 losses - 5 ties, 6 shutouts 150 goals against an average of 2.27

Those stats are pretty close, aren't they? Plus did you forget that Belfour played on a much better team. Oh, he's very good, I can't argue that. And he is trully one of the best in Canada, but I definitivly think that Théodore, Turco and Raycroft diserved it more. That's all. And I bet that Raycroft and Turco add better stat. But I guess that you still prefer Eddy, which is normal. I prefer Théo because I'a a Montreal fan and you prefer Eddy because you're a Leaf fans. It's just normal, because both of them are pretty even.

 

[Cole Caulifield]

I was surprised that Bertuzzi wasn't named.

Brewer making that team is a good joke. A joke from Gretzky's buddy Kevin Lowe. I can easily think of 10 better canadian dmen other than Brewer. And if you want to go with the experience card Bouwmeester would seem like a more logical choice no ?

Yzerman shouldn't be there either but eh...

Like others have said Maltby shouldn't be there either.

No surprise on the goaltenders.

 

[Sting]

Tanguay over a guy like Gagne is laughable. What WERE they thinking? I can understand to a point why Kariya wasn't there, or Primeau for that matter. Draper is a better shut-down guy like Primeau, and we only need one line of those. But Tanguay was Colorado's best player overall this year and to not include him is just mind-boggling.

Also, I'm sure they chose Richards over LeCavalier for more than just skill level. I'm sure attitude had a lot to do with it as well.

 

[Egil]

The defense doesn't bother me.

Hopefully the top 6 can be:

Blake
Pronger
Niedermayer
Foote
Redden
Jovo

But Gretzky was talking like Brewer was in the top 6.

I HOPE that Quinn, Martin and Hitchcock dole out the ice time, and that Brewer gets a big fat 0 shifts for every game. Stuart, McCabe, Hannan, Bouwmeister, Phillips, Aucoin, Souray, Boynton etc. all would have made my team ahead of Brewer.

 

[Boomhower]

What a horrible, horrible roster. Jesus Christ, how many ****ing no-skill grinder hacks does this team need? Morrow, Maltby, Draper...

No Kariya? No Tanguay? No Bertuzzi? No Lecavalier? (But they get Richards, which blows my ****ing mind)? Brewer AGAIN? A washed up Yzerman? What the hell is Gagne doing there?

Someones got to be responsible defensively and kill penalties.... most of Canada's star forwards are useless defensively. I'm thinking Yzerman was taken for leadership, but won't dress unless there is some sort of brawl and a few Canadians get suspensions. Gotta agree on some though, I would've taken Bert over Gagne and probably Kariya or Lecalvalier over Richards.

 

[John Flyers Fan]

I love the selection of Maltby. Canada can't just have a team full of scorers. Maltby brings a different dimension to Canada, and will give the rest of the World's hockey fans another reason to hate the team.

The Maltby selection a joke.

 

[incawg]

But Gretzky was talking like Brewer was in the top 6.

Seriously? Gah. Lowe really is in his head. They had Brewer starting at the olympics and he played his way out of the starting lineup. I'd have brewer as the #8 defenseman and suit him up for a couple of exhibition games, but that's it.

 

[Liquidrage*]

Van Ryn had not been better then JayBo? Bouwmeester is the number one guy in Florida and he is playing like a number one guy. The youngster have not a good team with him so it is a lot harder for him to shine league wide. But when you watch him play, it is easy to see that this guy would already be a star with a team like Colorado, Détroit or Philadelphie. And based on his play at the World CHampionships in '03 and '04 he trully diserve to be there. But eh, Regehr diserves it too so it's not a big deal. Bouwmeester would have been a better choice IMO, but I'm still happy with our defense.

Van Ryan clearly outplayed Bouwmeester in Florida this year. He got more minutes, put up more points. He was playing as the #1.

And no, it's not easy to see he'd be a star already with a team like Philly. He'd be getting scratched. If Florida he can make mistakes and play through them. If he makes a mistake with a team like Philly and a coach like Hitch he will sit.

Think of all the great young players playing on crap teams. Nash, Heatley, Ilya, etc.. It's not hard to be seen as a star on a crap team. Often it's easier because of what I said, you can play your game and the coach will play you through the growing pains. On a good team that won't happen and the young guys are forced to play in the system.

This isn't a blanket rule or anything, but to say he'd be a star with other teams is bunk. He's going to be great but it takes time. Lidstrom wasn't even in the NHL yet at his age. Pronger was getting boo'd off the ice at his age. It will happen most likely, but he's not there yet.

 

[Verbal Kint*]

I'm somewhat disapointed McCabe didn'y make it, but thats not my main question about this roster.

Gagne
Maltby
Morrow

over

Tanguay
Lecavalier
Primeau
Kariya

Brewer
Regher

over

McCabe
Aucoin
Stuart

C'mon Wayne, pass some of that stuff over here.

 

[Russian_fanatic]

Roster for Team Canada :

Gagne - Sakic - Iginla
Mario - Thornton - Heatly
Morrow - Draper - Yzerman
Smyth - Marleau - St.Louis
Maltby - Richards - Doan

Blake - Jovanovski

Foote - Pronger

McCabe - Redden

EX for D : Regehr

 

[Jussi]

The Maltby selection a joke.

Let's see you make that same statement when he shuts down Forsberg again like at last years World's.