Unless you live under a rock or hate your own country, you were probably watching or listening to Canada's announcement of the roster for this year Olympics in Sochi. As predicted, Twitter absolutely blew up during this announcement, especially during the speeches before Steve Yzerman actually announced the team, which seemed to take an eternity. When the roster was announced, many fans took to the Internet to express their happiness or displeasure with the players selected. Here is a look at the 25 players that hope to lead Canada to gold in February:
The Forwards
Once you get past the obvious selections (Crosby, Toews, Stamkos, etc.) there were obviously some selections and snubs that were surprising and/or disappointing to some people. One of the most talked about snubs was winger Martin St. Louis, who many people think will have retired by the time the next Olympics roll around. St. Louis, 38, has 38 points in 42 games so far this season and has impressed people mainly due to the fact that he has continued to produce at the same pace even with Steven Stamkos sidelined for the past few months. Many people were also surprised that St. Louis was cut because of his relationship with Steve Yzerman, who is the GM of his Tampa Bay Lightning. Of course, St. Louis could still be named to the team if another player can't play due to injury (Stamkos comes to mind), but it still comes as a huge surprise that he was not selected.
One player who did make the team is currently in the middle of what appears to be unfolding as a national debate. That would be Penguins winger Chris Kunitz. When Kunitz was invited to Canada's Olympic camp back in the summer, people laughed and dismissed the invitation as nothing due to the fact that his production relies on the play of linemate Sidney Crosby. However, as the season progressed, the rumours and whisperings that Kunitz actually had a good chance of making the team started to show up more and more often. This enraged many Canadian hockey fans who wanted to see other players such as Logan Couture or Tyler Seguin at the Olympics and kept reminding everyone that "Kunitz is only good because he plays with Crosby." While this may be true, others (including notorious tweeter Paul Bissonnette) pointed out that Crosby and Kunitz still did have an established chemistry, while it was not necessarily possible to form that kind of chemistry between Crosby and another player during the short time they had at the Olympics (two weeks). The days leading up to the selection, it became clear that Kunitz was probably going to make the team, and when it was confirmed, the skeptics were silenced... sort of. It's likely they'll keep complaining that Kunitz is only on the team because of Crosby right up until the Olympics start.
Other forwards that were left off the team that stirred up some controversy were Sharks centres Logan Couture and Joe Thornton. Thornton is in the top 5 in the NHL in points, and leads the league in assists with 43 while Couture has consistently proved to be a clutch player who can score big goals. Patrick Marleau surprisingly made the team over his two Sharks teammates. Other surprises in the forward category include Rick Nash, who has had decent numbers so far this season, but not necessarily Olympic caliber, and Jeff Carter, whose production has also been decent, but there are many forwards that could have been put on the team instead of him. One of those forwards who was another surprise snub is Claude Giroux. Giroux, who was dubbed "the best player in the world" by former Flyers coach Peter Laviolette after his monster playoff series against the Penguins in 2012, had a somewhat rough 2013 season. Although he was a point-per-game player, he seemed not to be able to handle the role of captain of the Flyers, who in turn had a rough year and missed the playoffs for just the second time since the 2005 lockout. This season, Giroux also had a rough start, and took 16 games to score his first goal of the season. However, he rebounded from the slump and had a very strong December, which is why it came as a surprise to many that he was cut.
The Defensemen/Goalies
Not much a surprise as to which goalies who made the team-- it had practically been established by hockey experts across the country at the start of the season that Roberto Luongo and Carey Price would battle for the position of starting goalie. Mike Smith was selected as the third goalie and will likely not see any playing time. Since Canada's first two games of the tournament are against Norway and Austria, Luongo and Price will most likely start one game each and the better goalie will start against Finland in the third game of the preliminary round.
There was a little more of a debate over which defensemen made the team. The biggest snub was Blackhawks defenseman Brent Seabrook, who was at the Olympics in 2010 and is partnered with Duncan Keith, who is the midseason favourite to win the Norris Trophy as the league's best defenseman. The main reason why Seabrook was left off the team was because Hockey Canada wanted to take an equal amount of defensemen who shot left and right. This puts Seabrook after P.K. Subban, Drew Doughty, Shea Weber and Alex Pietrangelo, which makes some sense if you look at it like that, although there were fans who would rather see Seabrook than Dan Hamhuis or Marc-Edouard Vlasic.
A defenseman who did made the team, ending the discussion that had been going on for months on whether he would make the team or not was the reigning Norris Trophy winner P.K. Subban. This didn't really surprise anyone, but the discussion started because of comments made by Mike Babcock that suggested he was not a lock for the team. Overall, the team looks very strong on paper, even with all the talented players that were not chosen to represent the country. Canada's first game is against Norway on February 13.
A full list of the roster can be found here.
A full list of the roster can be found here.
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