What was Lemieux/Bourque thinking about when they watched the '96 World Cup?

[jigglysquishy]

And 91.

(Not 16 or 25.)

I struggle with 1991.

The Soviets basically sent a B team because of the political turmoil. Injuries and declines are life. But intentionally leaving off many great players because of a political situation is a weird spot.

No Fetisov. No Makarov. No Bure. No Konstantinov. No Mogilny. No Krutov. No Fedotov. It's not a Crosby 2006 situation. It's a political interference to prevent defection.

 

[reckoning]

What about the 2005 World Championships? With no NHL, every country had their best available

 

[GMR]

Great bump.

Whatever happened to Big Phil? He used to be a regular here.

 

[Michael Farkas]

What about the 2005 World Championships? With no NHL, every country had their best available

The U.S. defense was...
Brett Hauer (not an NHLer)
Aaron Miller (low talent support d-man)
Jordan Leopold (depending on the old guys, he might have made it...?)
Andy Roach (not an NHLer, was playing in DEL)
John-Michael Liles (rookie NHLer, but fine)
Paul Martin (rookie NHLer, but fine)
Ryan Suter (0 NHL games at this point)
Hal Gill (low pairing defensive d-man)

Countries might have had their best available, but they certainly didn't utilize it.

Russia only brought 3 NHL d-men I believe (Kalinin, Karpovtsev, and Markov). No Gonchar, Zubov, Zhitnik, Tverdovsky, Yushkevich, etc.

With all due respect, Canada had Maltby, Draper, Mike Fisher at forward...