CROWDED GALAXY
‘ Tough choices’ for lineup of stars as Canada goes to 2- 0
It’s not that this isn’t fair, precisely, but it’s not easy. As Austria’s Michael Grabner put it after losing 6- 0 to Canada on Friday, “they could probably make five teams,” and he’s right. Canada’s hockey depth is oceanic, and that means that before the Olympics, and at the Olympics, tough choices have to be made. In Vancouver, everybody dressed. Here there are spares, and decisions.
“Oh, it’s way harder,” said Team Canada head coach Mike Babcock. “It’s ridiculous, actually. I mean, you tell an athlete who competed hard, who did things right, that he’s not playing? It’s no fun, no fun.
“If you’re ( Patrick Sharp), for example, you’re a high, high- end player. I grabbed him when he’s walking in today to tell him he’s not playing, and he doesn’t ask me why. It’s good he doesn’t ask me why. I got no reason he’s not playing. No, that’s not something I look forward to at all. These are good men and good people who have given their time to represent Canada. It’s got to be hard on them.”
And that brings us to Chris Kunitz, whose inclusion on this team was among its most polarizing points. He made the team because he plays really well with Sidney Crosby in Pittsburgh, even though Steve Yzerman tried to say he made the team on his own merits. This tournament is so short, the thinking must have gone, chemistry is the key. So, pairs. So, Kunitz.
The Olympics are a six- game tournament if everything goes as planned, and Canada is now two games into that tournament, and you can’t waste time. And if you can tell anything from playing Norway and Austria, it is that Kunitz doesn’t need to be on this team. He stands out on this collection of great players, because he’s a notch or two below. Kunitz is not as talented as Sharp, or Martin St. Louis, or Matt Duchene. It’s not his fault; he works hard. But the Crosby line hasn’t clicked, with Jeff Carter or with St. Louis. And these things matter, even if you’re as good as this team could very well be.
“All we are trying to do is details, and do things right,” said Babcock. “And so when you’re watching as a fan or as a media person, I’m watching as a coach, I’m just looking for details. Who can I trust, and who can you not, and how are we going to win the games as they get harder? And this tournament gets harder and harder, as you know. It’s a detail tournament, it’s a onegoal game, every single time, so it’s going to be about playing well without the puck.”
Kunitz didn’t ask for this; he just happens to be very successful in the NHL while playing with the best player in the world, and the best player in the world is the guy who scored the golden goal four years ago on an instinctive hockey play, and Canada wants instinctive hockey plays.
And yes, Canada tried winger after winger with Crosby in Vancouver; Patrice Bergeron and Rick Nash, Jarome Iginla and Nash,
‘ Oh, it’s way harder. It’s ridiculous, actually. I mean, you tell an athlete who competed hard, who did things right, that he’s not playing? It’s not fun, not fun.’ MIKE BABCOCK Team Canada head coach
Mike Richards and Nash, Eric Staal and Iginla, even Nash and Jonathan Toews. It ended with Jarome Iginla and Staal, and it worked when it had to.
But the point might be that it worked eventually. The notion that Crosby is a difficult player to work with has been echoed by some who have tried, even if the numbers don’t always bear it out. For instance, from 2011- 2013, the Penguins scored 1.86 goals per 20 minutes with Crosby and Kunitz on the ice, 1.85 with Crosby and without Kunitz, and 1.08 with Kunitz and no Sid.
The trick with bringing Kunitz was always that you were choosing a guy who was either a topline winger, or a scratch. Saying you can stick him back with Ryan Getzlaf and Corey Perry ignores the fact he was never Team Canada-good with them, and so far, he appears to be a notch below his teammates. His most notable piece of work against Norway was to take a boarding penalty while on a power play that was, for some reason, called slashing. He hits; he tries. There are better guys. Crosby, for his part, says he thinks his line is getting chances, and he’s not worried.
“To be honest, it’s not that difficult ( learning to mesh with other players),” said Crosby.
“When you’re playing a shortterm event like this, I think you’re learning every game, regardless of whether you’re switching linemates, or you have the same. You have to constantly adjust. I don’t change anything. If anything, you just try to make sure that you’re in the right spot, and worry about your own job.”
We obsess over every detail on this team, because the coaches do, too, and every detail could be the one that makes the difference. Look at the so- called fourth line of John Tavares between Bergeron and Jamie Benn; they have created good things with regularity, partly because they are out there against fourth lines, and partly because their talents fit. They, like St. Louis, should not be hanging on the edge.
( While we’re at it, P. K. Subban should be in the lineup. That’s for another day, though.)
Canada has a better chance here than it did when the tournament began. Sweden has lost Henrik Zetterberg to a back injury, along with Henrik Sedin and Johan Franzen; the 2006 gold medallists are now without two of their top three centres. Russia’s Pavel Datsyuk is struggling with what is believed to be a knee injury. Finland’s centres have been decimated, as well. Canada and the United States are the two deepest, healthiest powers left. It will be hard; as Babcock says, “You’ve got to line up the moon and the stars to win it. It doesn’t just happen.”
Kunitz is a moon, orbiting a planet. Stars might be better.