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Leafs at World Championships

bustaheims said:
Bonsixx said:
Yeah, maybe Evander Kane? Maybe, maybe Giordano?
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Giordano will be 31 by the time next season starts, so, no, probably not really a consideration for future Olympics.
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Yeah, I knew how old he was. Probably not, like you said, but if there's a World Cup in the next year or two? There could be worse choices.
 
Giordano is injured. Like most of the players you'd think should have probably gone. I'm pretty sure I read Hall/Eberle/Skinner/Ladd all passed because of injury. There's probably more too.

And as far as this being a try-out for the Olympics goes, Team Canada doesn't even know who is picking the team at this point. The WC after the Olympic year is always the one with the least amount of interest. Guys who want to make the team make more of an effort in the one or two preceding the Olympics then the one after.
 
CarltonTheBear said:
Giordano is injured. Like most of the players you'd think should have probably gone. I'm pretty sure I read Hall/Eberle/Skinner/Ladd all passed because of injury. There's probably more too.
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Yeah but there's passing because of injury and passing because of "injury".
 
Nik the Trik said:
CarltonTheBear said:
Giordano is injured. Like most of the players you'd think should have probably gone. I'm pretty sure I read Hall/Eberle/Skinner/Ladd all passed because of injury. There's probably more too.
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Yeah but there's passing because of injury and passing because of "injury".
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Those Edmonton kids are getting a little too used to hockey season being done in April.
 
CarltonTheBear said:
And as far as this being a try-out for the Olympics goes, Team Canada doesn't even know who is picking the team at this point. The WC after the Olympic year is always the one with the least amount of interest. Guys who want to make the team make more of an effort in the one or two preceding the Olympics then the one after.
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Well that's the thing. The players that wind up playing for Canada at the Olympics are the best players available, regardless of whether or not they have suited up for Canada at any previous tournaments.

But I think playing for hockey Canada in the past certainly doesn't go unnoticed when those players want to play in other tournaments down the road. If the worlds comes to North America, (isn't it supposed to?) there will be more players vying for spots on that team. 
 
Bonsixx said:
Funny, James Mirtle, who I know has a bit of a fanbase on here, tweeted about how he thought Canada had a strong roster this year. Maybe its is a highly-rated possession team? Somewhat in the mould of the Olympic squad, to an obvious lesser extent.

Anyway, as for Spezza, I would imagine he won't be playing for Canada anytime soon after he didn't even rate an invite to the initial Olympic camp. I thought that was ridiculous, really, even if he was never going to make the team. Spezza played for Canada at the Spengler freakin' Cup during the lockout year. He's also played at the worlds before, and was then actually turned down when he called and offered his services to the team two or three years ago, because the team (run by a few of the Oilers brass) took Nugent-Hopkins instead.
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When it comes to Spezza and Hockey Canada, I'd definitely consider it a possibility that there's more to it than meets the eye.

I mean obviously he wasn't going to sniff this year's Olympic team regardless of anything he could have done, but it's pretty telling that he didn't even get an initial invite to the 2010 camp. And like you said, they turned him down for past World Championships in favour of (I'm guessing probably) lesser players.

Maybe it's politics or possibly there's bad blood.
 
Mt. Kushmore said:
Bonsixx said:
Funny, James Mirtle, who I know has a bit of a fanbase on here, tweeted about how he thought Canada had a strong roster this year. Maybe its is a highly-rated possession team? Somewhat in the mould of the Olympic squad, to an obvious lesser extent.

Anyway, as for Spezza, I would imagine he won't be playing for Canada anytime soon after he didn't even rate an invite to the initial Olympic camp. I thought that was ridiculous, really, even if he was never going to make the team. Spezza played for Canada at the Spengler freakin' Cup during the lockout year. He's also played at the worlds before, and was then actually turned down when he called and offered his services to the team two or three years ago, because the team (run by a few of the Oilers brass) took Nugent-Hopkins instead.
Click to expand...

When it comes to Spezza and Hockey Canada, I'd definitely consider it a possibility that there's more to it than meets the eye.

I mean obviously he wasn't going to sniff this year's Olympic team regardless of anything he could have done, but it's pretty telling that he didn't even get an initial invite to the 2010 camp. And like you said, they turned him down for past World Championships in favour of (I'm guessing probably) lesser players.

Maybe it's politics or possibly there's bad blood.
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I think there's bad blood there somehow, though I can't think of where or when it would've happened. Spezza, for his faults, certainly doesn't strike me as the "bad teammate" type.
 
Canada will play an exhibition game today against Switzerland. Kadri's playing on their 2nd line with Brouwer and Hodgson:

MacKinnon-Turris-Burrows
Hodgson-Kadri-Brouwer
Chimera-Scheifele-Ward
Huberdeau-Schenn-Read
Monahan-Reinhart

Rielly has been paired with Erik Gudbranson at practice. Reimer and Scrivens will split the game with Reimer starting.

 
CarltonTheBear said:
Canada will play an exhibition game today against Switzerland. Kadri's playing on their 2nd line with Brouwer and Hodgson:

MacKinnon-Turris-Burrows
Hodgson-Kadri-Brouwer
Chimera-Scheifele-Ward
Huberdeau-Schenn-Read
Monahan-Reinhart

Rielly has been paired with Erik Gudbranson at practice. Reimer and Scrivens will split the game with Reimer starting.
Click to expand...

If only this were the Leaf roster....**sigh**
 
Canada's first game of the tournament is about to get underway (against France). Reimer gets the start. Reilly is penciled in as the seventh defensemen.
 
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