World Cup: Four Nations Tournament-Team Canada

[JackSlater]

I think everyone knows Stamkos doesn’t offer much at 5v5 anymore so I can’t see him making it. But someone like Stone is a much better player than Bedard at this point so I wouldn’t even chalk it up to being conservative.

Thing with Bedard is, what if he turns the corner in January but they’ve left him off due to his play now?

This is a worthwhile point. People still complain about Crosby not being selected to the 2006 Olympic team - by the time the team was picked, Crosby had 33 points in 33 games and only 5 points in the previous 10 games. There were higher scoring Canadians at that time who were not picked as well. Bedard is not Crosby, but you are better on talent. Canada is not loaded with 13 forwards so good that you cannot keep them off the team to select Bedard. It's also.... just the four nations cup.

Why wouldn’t Josh Morrissey be up on the top pair? He might be our best two way defender

It wouldn't make sense to put Canada's best two defencemen on the same pairing and leave the other pairings far weaker.

 

[Nucks2001]

Revised Lines:

Crosby-McDavid-MacKinnon
Marchand-Point-Reinhart
O’Reilly-Scheifele-Marner
Lafreniere-Suzuki-Stone
Bedard-Verhaege

Good, but skilled sized in the bottom size with guys like O’Reilly, Scheifele, Lafreniere and Stone. Rather have those big guys than Wilson, Bennett or Lowry. Ideally, you ride your biggest strengths on the first line and your 2nd lline is your match-up line. Bedard and Verhaege as your scoring support.

Robert Thomas, IF YOU’RE HEALTHY, I’d take you over Scheifele in a HEARTBEAT.