Changing of the Guard

[The Comish]

Nice articles by Dobber and Angus earlier this week heaping praise on Zach Parise. It made me think about the future of Team USA. Parise’s not the only young American who is starting to dominate in the NHL. There’s Paul Stastny in Colorado and Chicago’s Pat Kane is already an offensive force to be reckoned with.

Hockey is at its best when national pride is at stake. For Canadians, there’s nothing better than watching a Canada/Russia or Canada/USA game at any level.

A Canada/Russia game was a clash of styles. The Russians were perceived to have more skill and played a puck possession, perimeter game, whereas Canada would try to out-hustle, out-muscle and shoot from every angle.

The Canada/USA games were different. The Americans played the same hard-working physical style as the Canadians. I’ve always enjoyed how hard the two teams battle.

The real problem for the Americans was their lack of depth, especially between the pipes. Then along came the 1996 World Cup of Hockey. That was some of the best hockey I’ve ever watched, even if the end result wasn’t quite what the majority of Canadians were expecting.

The Canadian side was stacked with such players as Gretzky, Brodeur, Lindros, Sakic, Niedermayer, Scott Stevens, Messier, Coffey and Yzerman. Why even bother playing, right? Dead wrong. The Americans came in motivated and well-prepared to win.

The tournament MVP was Mike Richter. Canada couldn’t get much past this guy. He stood on his head in all three final games, shutting the door when he had to. Brett Hull and John Leclair were the leading point getters in the tournament. Defenders Chris Chelios and Brian Leetch were excellent as well. Adam Deadmarsh and Keith Tkachuk were physical forces and Tony Amonte provided the clutch scoring. An article afterwards called Amonte the American Paul Henderson!

That was the top of the mountain for USA Hockey. With all due respect to the 1980 Miracle on Ice squad, this version of Team USA had to face a stacked Canadian team in Canada (for the final two games). When all is said and done, there might have been nine or ten Hall of fame players on that Canadian squad, who were more or less in their prime for this series. In the round robin, the Americans beat Canada, Russia and Slovakia. In the semi-final, they beat Russia again. Then they defeated Canada in the best of three final, two games to one.

That brings me to the whole point of this diatribe. What we are witnessing in the NHL is a changing of the guard for both the American and Canadian sides. For Canada it’s a little less dramatic, there seems to be a never ending supply of top end talent from Gretzky to Lemieux to Lindros to Crosby. The only real debate for Canada is usually about whom gets left off the team.

The Americans urgently needed their young stars to step up and replace the old guard in time for the 2010 Winter Olympics, which is only a little over two years away. Hull, Leclair, Leetch and Amonte are gone. Weight (36), Tkachuk (35), Modano (37) and Guerin (36) are on their last legs. USA Hockey was desperate for a youth movement.

Today the future looks very bright indeed for the American side. Here’s a list of potential Team USA players for the 2010 Olympic Games (and their current ages):

Forwards

Zach Parise (23), Paul Stastny (21), Phil Kessel (19), Pat Kane (18), Erik Cole (28), Scott Gomez (26), Chris Drury (31), David Legwand (27), Brian Gionta (28), Tim Connolly (27), Dustin Brown (22), Christopher Higgins (24), Lee Stempniak (24), Patrick O’Sullivan (22), Peter Mueller (19), Bobby Ryan (20), James van Riemsdyk (18)

Defensemen

Erik Johnson (19), Jack Johnson (20), Ryan Whitney (24), Keith Ballard (24), Matt Carle (23), Brian Rafalski (34), Ryan Suter (22), John-Michael Liles (26), Paul Martin (26) and who could forget the U.S. version of Gordie Howe, Chris Chelios (45)

Goaltenders

Rick DiPietro (25), Ryan Miller (27)

Of course I’m kidding about Chelios going to the 2010 Olympics (or am I?). There may be others that step up in the next two years and the powers that be may choose to go with a more balanced roster (defensively responsible players). That’s quite an impressive list of young American talent. Can they challenge for hockey supremacy in 2010? I wouldn’t bet against them being in the top four. International hockey just got more exciting. It is much better when more teams have a shot at winning. Rivalries make for great hockey. Thanks America!

[Two On One]

Tremendous article and a well taken point I hadn\'t thought of. Big karma here. :cheer:

[repenttokyo]

why isn\'t this on the front page, where it should be?

[The Comish]

Thanks for the positive feedback guys. I wanted to do something when Modano broke the career points record for American born players and then I received my hockey news issues (late as usual) and realized it had already been done.

I want to see the best play each other every two years. The Canada/World Cup were great series. The World Championships suck, as the best of the NHL\'s non-playoff guys have a chance to shine? Hit and miss for talent, although it\'s the same for every country.

[Dobber]

repenttokyo wrote:

why isn\'t this on the front page, where it should be?

It\'s not a fantasy article so it\'s more of a blog that belongs here, but it is a good one. I plugged it in the ramblings and if I do that for two days he should get a good 1000 reads.
B)

[typo88]

Is stastny ONLY eligible to play for the STATES? i thought that he was born in Quebec City?

[enfuego]

great article, comish!

personally, i think chelios WILL be there, but not as a member of the hockey team, but a member of the bobsled team. and as you were, i\'m only half-joking cause i could see it happening.

[The Comish]

typo88 wrote:

Is stastny ONLY eligible to play for the STATES? i thought that he was born in Quebec City?

I had to search through the IIHF Statutues and Bylaws to find it, but here\'s the answer:

\"When once a player has represented a country in any IIHF championship, or in the Olympic competition or in the qualification to these competitions he will not be eligible to represent another country...\"

It does go on about representing another country, but the paperwork must be done at least four years in advance during which the player can\'t represent his \"old\" country.

Since Paul Stastny represented USA at the last World Championships, there is no way he is going to play for anyone else.

I think it\'s great that he can play for the Americans, he\'d have trouble cracking the Canadian squad anyway and it makes the US team stronger - which I\'m all for.

[rattus rattus]

Did you overlook Mike Komisarek, or deliberately not mention him?
Here\'s a guy I\'d pick over at least 6 of the D listed.

[The Comish]

rattus wrote:

Did you overlook Mike Komisarek, or deliberately not mention him?
Here\'s a guy I\'d pick over at least 6 of the D listed.

Truth be told, I overlooked him. I was only looking for the \"name\" guys and that tends to be the offensive types.

I don\'t know if he makes it in the top 8. He\'s one of those guys that could be there for his defensive play. For that to happen, he would have to continue improving over the next couple of years and the guys who pick the team would have to appreciate what he brings to the table.

[fantasyjunkie08]

It is a good article. But I don\'t think that the US squad will come anywhere close to compare to what the Canadians will be able to ice. IMO

[The Comish]

fantasyjunkie08, I agree with you 100%. Canada could probably field two teams that would both be medal contenders.

I wouldn\'t be so quick to write off the US team, less talented teams have won major events. Anything can happen if you have a hot goalie and you\'re playing one game elimination matches.

A determined group of players who gel quickly and play as a team (hot goalie is essential) can knock off a more talented team. Look at the last winter Olympics for Team Canada, ouch!

Canada is definitely going to be the favourite in 2010, especially playing at home, but in reality, Russia, Sweden, Czech Republic, USA and Finland have a chance to win it all.

[doulos]

Coaching seems to be a bigger part of the WJHC then in other tournaments. I think because a team has such a small amount of time to come together, work on their systems and become a team that a great coach becomes all the more important in a situation like this.

Along these lines, I\'m a Canadian but one of my favorite movies of all time is Miracle. Not sure how entirely accurate it is, but as someone who coaches sport and loves the game of hockey I think it\'s one of those movies that just really motivates me. But there\'s an example of how huge a difference a great coach and team unity and freaking hard work can make such a monumental difference.

[The Comish]

Don\'t be ashamed to say Miracle is a great motivational movie - it is! It\'s also one of my favourite movies, what a great story. I believe that it is almost 100% accurate, but I don\'t know for sure.

I would agree that coaching is a big part of any short tournament where you bring players in from different teams and only have a short period to pull it all together.

By that I mean, the coaches need to be instrumental in team building and doing the things necessary to help the players form a bond in a very short period of time. Of course having the players buy into the system the coach is selling is pretty important as well.

I still think that choosing the players with the right attitudes instead of only based on talent is the way to win these type of tournaments.

Every team needs players who sacrifice their bodies in order to get possession or take a hit to make a play. You can\'t have a team of prima donnas (I didn\'t say anything about the Russian teams!), someone\'s got to do the dirty work.

Canada has many talented players, but over and above the talent, it\'s the passion and willingness to sacrifice themselves for the good of the team that set them apart.

[doulos]

Yeah I fully agree. I actually love watching teams like Switzerland and Germany because they have competely undermatched teams at international tournaments but often they will completely outwork other teams and play a perfect defensive system and make games interesting.