No medal guarantees for Canadian Olympians
Competition will be tough in Sochi
TORON TO — For all the roster wrangling and chatter over who got left behind, Team Canada hopes its 25man roster announced Wednesday will be enough to win a gold medal in Sochi.
Canada’s management staff woke up after nine hours of meetings happy with the group selected, but the Olympic tournament doesn’t happen in a vacuum. That’s why when executive director Steve Yzerman was asked which country he was most worried about, he replied: “Every one.”
“International hockey is getting more difficult for Canadians every day,” Yzerman said Tuesday. “These countries are all improving. It’s becoming very tough. … You can’t overlook anyone anymore.”
When it comes to medal contention, it would be easy to overlook Latvia, Norway, Austria, Slovenia and perhaps even Switzerland. But beyond that it’s anyone’s game among Canada, the United States, Sweden, Russia, Finland, the Czech Republic and Slovakia.
From a pure talent standpoint, Canada has the edge, especially at forward because of the availability of so many high-end centres, from Sidney Crosby and Jonathan Toews to John Tavares, Ryan Getzlaf and Patrice Bergeron.
Sweden has strong centres with Henrik Sedin, Nicklas Backstrom and Alexander Steen, but no country can touch Canada’s depth there. The United States has big wingers, but among Joe Pavelski, Ryan Kesler, David Backes, Paul Stastny and Derek Stepan there’s no clear-cut No. 1 down the middle, while Canada could have three top-line centres.
With wingers like Loui Eriksson, Daniel Sedin and Daniel Alfredsson, Sweden may be best built for the international-sized ice where physical play isn’t nearly as important as playmaking.
Russia’s high-end talent up front is impossibly to deny: centres Pavel Datsyuk and Evgeni Malkin and wingers Alex Ovechkin and Ilya Kovalchuk should play major minutes.
The Czech Republic’s deep group of forwards shouldn’t be overlooked, either, especially if Jaromir Jagr shines in the Olympic spotlight. There’s plenty of unheralded offensive talent there in Milan Michalek, Tomas Plekanec, Jakub Voracek and others.