Leafs Post-Mortem and Off Season Plans

He may have been smiling when he was announced as the new "Boss" of the Leafs but there is a lot more work to do before this team is anywhere near what the fans of this city have been patiently waiting to see: A TRUE Contender

 

Part of me still thinks it seems crazy that the Leafs, who were as high in the standings as 4th in the East at one point in the year, found a way to miss the Playoffs this season. But, upon closer inspection, the team was a house of cards waiting to be blown away by the first real sign of turmoil mostly because of a failure of leadership in the dressing room in both the coaching staff and the Captain, Dion Phaneuf.

Everything seemed to be going smoothly until the West Coast trip they went on where they lost Jonathan Bernier for the stretch drive. In his homecoming game against his former team, Bernier tore his groin and his injury tore the team apart mentally.

Coach Carlyle had banked everything on building up Bernier as the #1 goalie throughout much of the season to the point where he was blatantly alienating incumbent James Reimer, the guy who essentially got the team into the playoffs and nearly into the 2^nd round last season. It was clear Bernier was the favoured son and you really can’t blame a defensive minded coach from going with a goalie who sucked in shots as if he was wearing flypaper over his jersey; What came in to his body tended not to go out. With the porous zone coverage of the Leafs “D” men, Bernier was the natural choice.

He kept his job while his assistants were all canned. Let's see if he can turn this team around in 2014-15

 But the problem was when Reimer would go in and steal a game or 2, Carlyle seemed indifferent to him and would instead harp on the Team “D” to get better, choosing not to praise Reimer as much as his confidence clearly needed him to. We have no idea what he was saying to his goalies in the dressing room mind you but if he (Carlyle I mean) was as candid as he was with them as he was with the media, then clearly Carlyle was the cause of Reimer’s loss of confidence. This came back to haunt Carlyle in spades as the team around Reimer clearly took note and followed suit and their confidence in him took a nosedive.

Carlyle mistreated him throughout the year and I would say we have seen the last of him in Leafs Blue

 

At some point, the Captain of the team has to stand up and try to right the ship. Phaneuf has been the Captain almost from the minute he got here and has now overseen 3 staggering collapses under his watch. Clearly, he has no idea how to be a true leader. Either that or he has been surrounded by a bunch of “Yes” men who would rather follow suit to a leader pulling them over a cliff then stop and try to fix things, even if they contradict their “Leader”.

Part of me thinks that Phaneuf was only worried about playing well until he got his big fat contract extension. His 7 year, $49 million deal kicks in this summer but (hopefully), if the rumours are true, he will be joining Roberto Luongo in the Florida sun instead of collecting all that cash here with the Leafs while coasting to yet another 1^st round exit (if they make it this year that is) or 13^th place finish.

The rumour I speak of is the one where the Panthers would send the 1^st pick in the  draft this year and Ed Jovanovski to the Leafs for the 8^th pick, Dion and Kadri (another of the coach’s whipping boys, who miraculously still had a decent year in spite of Carlyle). The Leafs would rid themselves of his massive contract, get a serviceable Jovo-cop in his place and pick Aaron Ekblad with the first choice in the draft. 

Every indication is that Ekblad will be NHL ready come this Fall. If he is a Leaf, that could mean yet another young defender to drive Carlyle crazy

 

They could then re-sign David Bolland and name him Captain (because really, who else orther then Joffrey Lupol would have the balls to do the job any justice) and then possibly sign someone like Paul Stastny to be their #1 Center, slotting Tyler Bozak into the #2 role and Bolland as the perfect fit, #3 (they would also have to re-sign Jay McClement as the #4, but that’s besides the point).

They have some up and coming talent in the minors as can be seen by the Marlies playing in Game #7 of the AHL Final tonight so help would be on the way for the 3^rd and 4^th lines at the very least. Clearly, a balanced attack where you play all 4 lines is how you win in the NHL now as both the Rangers and Kings (as well as the Hawks and Habs) used 4 lines of depth to get as far as they did this year.

Brad Ross, Jerry D’Amigo, Trevor Smith, Spencer Abbott all warrant extended looks up front this fall as do TJ Brennan, Stuart Pearcy and Granberg on Defence. When Reimer gets dealt (To Vancouver, you heard it here first), McIntyre should inherit the back up role as he has been outstanding for the Marlies during this run.

Despite all the problems of the year, a few moves here and there are all it will take to turn this franchise around and wipe away the dreadful ends to the last 3 seasons from out memories….until the next horrific/catastrophic/insanely painful end comes our way again. This is what we signed up for as Leafs fans.

Hey, it could be worse. We could be Cubs fans!

Stanley Cup Final Preview – Sports in Review

Dustin Brown wouldn't touch this one, he has his sights set on a bigger one...

 

Sorry to everyone but I have had quite a few things on my plate in the last few weeks and despite my best intentions to write several blogs, I haven’t. Totally my fault but I have a few I will be banging out in the next few days so let’s begin.

After one of the best playoffs we have ever seen, the Stanley Cup Finals are set. The Kings (who knocked off the Defending Champion Blackhawks in possibly the best 7 game series in recent memory) will play (or should I say DESTROY) the New York Rangers starting tomorrow night. Both teams played just about the maximum number of games possible in getting to the Finals with the Kings staving off elimination 7 times in playing and winning three 7 game series, while the Rangers had to do it 4 times in winning two of their own and then squeaking by the Habs in 6 (they would have lost that series is Carey Price didn’t have his knee hyper-extended accidentally on purpose by Chris Kreider).

The two teams have played a combined total of 41 out of a possible 42 games so neither team is healthier or better rested then the other. This series comes down to style of play and it should be obvious after the first 10 minutes tomorrow night just how over-matched the Rangers are in this series. The Kings are a team that just knows how to win and has everything in place to be battling for the Cup year in and year out for the next 3 years after this run ends with their 2^nd Championship. The Rangers don’t belong in the finals and that will be made very clear very “Quick”-ly. I say the Kings will win in 5 games with King Henrik stealing 1 game.

4th straight Finals Appearance, this will be his 3rd straight win

The NBA Final is also set now with a rematch between the Spurs and the Heat. I admit I lost track of the NBA playoffs after the embarrassing display by NBA officials in the first round match up between the Raptors and the Nets but it always just seemed to be destined that these 2 teams would be there in the end. Tony Parker is banged up which makes this a little easier to pick the Heat to three-peat. The big news will come in the off-season when LeBron decides to jump ship once again, terminating his deal at the perfect time to make himself even richer.

The possible landing spots for him are pretty obvious: LA (not with the Lakers though), the Knicks, Cleveland and (maybe I am the only one who thinks this but….wait for it) The Raptors! Yes, I would not rule out the possibility of Tim Leiweike pulling this one out of nowhere and landing LeBron in TO. I agree, total 100000 to 1 long shot here but why not? MLSE has the cash, they have the ‘cred with Drake, the All-Star Game is coming, the team itself is on the verge of becoming a contender….why not?

I may have come late to the party as this image was already available on Google....

On to Baseball as the calendar has flipped to June and the Blue Jays need to be discussed for the first time in nearly 20 years. Why? Because as I write this, they sit in the top perch in the AL East for the first time this late in a year since the 2000 season. Shocking really and their lead should grow from the 4 games it currently sits at as the Yankees are aging fast during the “Derek Jeter Tribute Tour” they call a season (injuries piling up), the Orioles don’t have enough pitching and may have lost Nelson Cruz for a few games after he was hit on the hand by a pitch on the weekend, the Red Sox have more injuries then you can count and seem intent on trying to manufacture a reason to clear their bench in the hopes that it would turn their season around (What was THAT Jonny Gomes? TOTAL BS on your part for going after Escobar in a 5 run game for stealing 3^rd. It wasn’t a blowout dude. That was uncalled for!), and the Rays are just not able to score enough runs to be a real threat, sitting last in the entire American League.

The team we thought they were last year, showed up a year later it would appear...

With ALL of that said, the Jays still need to add Jeff Samardzija from the Cubs in order to be considered a real World Series contender. At the same time, they need to do it without mortgaging the future because if what I am hearing is accurate, the Cubs first demands of Aaron Sanchez and Marcus Stroman should have resulted in a dial tone from Double A. Sanchez should be considered an untouchable. There is no way the Jays can let their future Ace (Sanchez) go in any deal. Stroman, although impressive in his first start Saturday (I was there, he was lights out), should be included in a deal.

I would try to offer a package to the Cubs which would consist of Stroman, Colby Rasmus (Anthony Gose IS your centerfielder of the present AND future starting now!), and Adam Lind (you can then turnaround and sign Kendrys Morales who is a switch hitter and a better defender then Lind who dropped an easy out Saturday at first on a throw that was right on the mark by Juan Fransico) to try and pry away Samardzija. Sanchez may even be the answer to the #5 spot late in the year if JA Happ falters.

Samardzija is the last piece missing in turning this team into a true contender

But that’s just my 2 cents. Even if they do nothing, which they might, the Jays still will probably win the division. There are just too many injuries mounting on the teams in their division for any of them to be a real threat at the moment. If they build up a big enough lead by the All-Star Game, you might even start to see a team like the Rays go through a fire sale (David Price will be available) if their injuries continue to mount (Now last year’s Rookie of the Year winner, Will Myers is on the shelf with an injured wrist for at least 2 months).

The team that was going to win it all last year, looks better suited to do it this year. Crazy how that works.

Up next, a postmortem on the Leafs Season and what I think they need to do for next season. 

An Open Letter To NHL Officials

When NHL Refs didn't see an obvious penalty call, they confer with each other like this, as if we don't know they missed the play entirely

Having watched more NHL hockey games on TV in the last 5 years than a lot of people and several a year in person, I feel the need to write a letter like this to both the league and it's officials as the way the game is being officiated over the last few months has been appalling and something needs to be done about it during this Olympic break. To put it bluntly; NHL Refs need a wake up call.

Coming out of the lockout in 2005-2006, the NHL adopted rules changes that immediately brought back the speed and skill of the league and made slow, plodding players a thing of the past. No longer were these "Pluggers" allowed to grab on, hook, hold, use the "can-opener" move (where a defenders put his stick between the offensive players legs and either slowed him down entirely or tripped him up without a penalty a la Bryan McCabe throughout most of his time with the Leafs). The new emphasis on having the officials calling the rules more stringently led to an increase in scoring and players with skill being able to use their skill more then any time since the 1980's.

The fact that every fan base in the league has issues with the officials speaks volumes about the current crop of Refs

The removal of the red line and the inclusion of the shoot out after overtime were great and really brought back the fans in droves as well but the biggest changes was having the refs calling things much more by the book. Over the last 8 or 9 years, we have seen 2 things occur that have started to drag the sport back down to where they were before 2005 directly as a result of the officiating; The refs themselves slacking off on calls during the game and players purposefully turning their backs to the ice near the boards trying to draw boarding penalties. It's time to change things and you have 17 days to do it.

In the last week alone, we have seen Brendan Gallagher get mugged by 2 Jets defenders in the last minute of a game and get no call (should have been at least coincidental minors on that play), Nazem Kadri hit Codi Ceci from behind (mostly because he put himself into a prone position, but still) without a penalty leading to a key Lupol goal, and then last night when it appeared as though the officials in the Blues - Sens showed a severe amount of favoritism and were unprofessional in the way they officiated the game (Blues had 7 power plays to 1 for Ottawa). Even in the Leafs game, there were numerous plays that went uncalled against the Panthers and, if you go back over the last few weeks, there have been more and more missed calls (or plays where the refs "let the boys play") that call into question the integrity of officiating in the league as a whole.

....And the jokes keep on coming....

With that said, there is one kind of penalty which has been increasingly called over the last few years that needs to have an added wrinkle added to it since more and more players continue to put themselves into the same vulnerable position over and over again. I am talking about the increasing amount of players who turn their back to the ice when they are within 3-5 feet of the boards hoping to be hit by a player hard enough to then embellish their dive into the boards to draw a penalty. Look back on games played all the way up until US college hockey started becoming a bigger source of NHL players in the mid 1990's and you will see that players knew better then to EVER turn their back on the ice when they were anywhere near the boards.

Hitting someone who has his back to the ice, resulting in this unnatural physical reaction has become an all too common occurance that will end up with someone getting seriously hurt one day

It might have been the combination of no fighting in US College hockey along with the full cage every player is mandated to wear but the back to the ice tactic to protect the puck along the boards is used so much so now that the best way to stop players from embellishing when they are hit (as it appeared Codi Ceci was when he unnaturally seemed to dive into the boards when he was hit on the hip by Kadri Saturday night), 2 penalties need to be called on the play. The hit is in the books already as boarding, so to is the 2nd penalty: Unsportsmanslike Diving. If this starts getting called enough times, players will stop using this puck protection tactic near the boards and we will all be better off for it.

Of course, there will be times when players are not diving when hit from behind and only one call is justified. While nothing is perfect, unless the players start to realize that they should not be putting themselves in such a dangerous position, this issue won't go away.

...Because getting hit hip to hip should NOT result in someone diving head first into the boards

The tougher problem is getting the officiating back up to snuff. The challenge systems needs to be instituted similar to how it works in the NFL, but that wouldn't take effect until next year at the earliest. For right now, Mr. Bettman and Mr. Daly, you need to place a call to the head of the officials union and give them some new marching orders to revert back to calling games like the way they were called right after the 2005-2006 lockout. You need to weed out these refs who seem to allow personal feelings to cloud their decisions (as it appears was the case yesterday when the officials in that Ottawa - St. Louis game seemed to not appreciate the Senators anger due to their lack of consistency with their calls).

The only reason there isn't more of a fuss being made about that game was the fact that Ottawa found a way to somehow win the game in a shootout. Had that not happened, you might have the entire city of Ottawa itself up in arms over the way their last 2 games had gone with penalties (both called and not called). Its gotten to the point where you start to wonder if the NHL is on the verge of possibly having an officiating crisis on their hands like the one the NBA went through (and still seems to be going through given the way the Raptors game ended last night in Sacramento).

In the NFL and MLB, both Leagues have taken sufficient steps to help out their officials while the NBA and NHL are (surprisingly) lagging way, WAY behind

It is time to get the officials to all adhere to one version of the rules, not allowing them to pick and choose what rules they can and can't over look. A small hook on the hands that doesn't cause a turnover isn't a penalty but a hook on the shoulder of a player (Lupol a couple of games ago) that happens right in front of an official, makes him turn entirely around and lose the puck IS a penalty and SHOULD ALWAYS be called.

Its time to call NHL refs on the carpet and make them accountable for their errors, in fact ALL refs should be forced to answer media questions about why they called things the way they did. When they screw up in a game, they are essentially allowed to "skate" by without anyone being allowed to confront them about their game performance. Multi-million dollar athletes are forced to face the media after each and every game and the officials who earn less then 10% of what the players earn, can walk away Scott free.

When soccer refs are starting to look more competent then NHL refs, then you have issues.....

So to conclude, the NHL needs to tighten the way games are being called so that the true skill of the game is once again at the forefront. At the same time, their needs to be a better distinction made with regards to true "boarding" calls by trying to eliminate the "fake" hits from behind and the officials need to have to face the music after each and every game as well by having their own post-game press conferences.

Justin Bieber, Rob Ford, Super Bowl Pick and More

A couple of quick notes on 2 Canadians that seem to be the butt of every joke on US TV this past week.

Justin, you are 19, we all get it, you have money and all that, now wake the hell up and focus on your music before you blow it all

Justin Bieber is 19. He grew up in a single parent home and, for the most part, was brought up incredibly well adjusted. It has taken all of 4 years for him to go from unknown to superstar and, it would appear, half that time to turn into an idiot.He is clearly out of control and the person to blame is Usher and the management team that essentially pulled him away from his mother and left him living alone in a mansion in the Hollywood Hills (when he wasn't in studio).

When you take a kid who grew up barely scrapping by with his mom at his side and suddenly throw him into a completely different lifestyle, 3000 miles away from her and with more money then he will ever know what to do with, he was bound to start screwing up. Throw into that mix the fact that he has millions of adoring fans that think he can do no wrong and you suddenly have a teen with raging hormones and a suddenly huge ego as well who is being told by everyone around him that he is awesome and "egging" him on to do whatever he wants and you get what we have seen lately. Let's not forget the suddenly back in the picture dad, who seems to be more immature then his own son and helping him spiral even more (allegedly blocking off streets in Miami to help him in his Fast & Furious inspired drag race) and you have a receipe for arrests in 3 different cities (2 actual arrests and 1 police raid and house search in LA).

Pattie needs to kick Justin's father to the curb and get Justin straightened out, fast

The person who needs to take control of this situation is his mother. She needs to walk into Usher's offices or whomever it is who is supposed to be managing his affairs and fire all of them and take her son back to Stratford for a few months. Get him out of the limelight and let him try to figure things out without all the media and music industry constantly in his ear. It would certainly appear that even his own management company doesn't seem to have his best interest at heart as only 2 days after his Miami arrest, he was in Panama shooting a music video instead of being pushed into resting and trying to fix the issues that are pushing him out of control.

One last thing about Bieber, this bullshit petition that was started on the White House website to try and have him deported is really pathetic. You have the music industry and American record labels milking the cow that is Bieber for all he and his fans are worth, he gets snubbed by the Grammy's despite selling millions and millions of records and you have someone (or 100,000 people for that matter) who have the audacity to think he is "bad" for America and should be deported? You, America, turned him into what he is and now you want to give him back broken? Just like Americans to break something and blame someone else for it and try to give it back after you took it forcibly from us in the first place.

Given the options, Mayor Quimby from the Simpsons would be a better choice right now then Ford

Rob Ford, you are a mess. Another incident from Vancouver recently unearthed that he was ticketed for public drunkenness and J-walking when he was there. This after a video was posted on You Tube of him using a mock-Jamaican accent, blubbering on incoherently at a local steak house. It's time for an intervention here. He needs to go to rehab as he has no clue how to control his drinking and, despite his cries to the contrary, he needs to get out of public life for the time being and take a month off. Let his brother fight the good fight for now and go get yourself healthy already. He is ruining the image of Toronto around the world and it's time he was forced to get help.

I was disgusted with the fact the Broncos beat my Patriots. Despite the questionable hit of Wes Welker on Aquib Talib (and who truly knows how much of an effect that hit had on the game as a whole), the Broncos won and are now about to get their asses handed to them by the toughest team in the NFL, just ask Richard Sherman, please. In case you missed it, throughout the Seattle - San Francisco game, the 49ers stayed away from Sherman, the top corner back in the Seattle secondary and their plan seemed to be working as they were marching down the field in the final minute seemingly about to score the game winning touchdown. On first down from the Seattle 20 yard line, they inexplicably changed tactics and decided to go for a questionable fade pattern to Crabtree, one of their best wide receivers, as he was being defended by Sherman. The result was a tipped ball by Sherman to his teammate. Game over.

He is cocky, arrogant, brash and a loud mouth but calling him a "thug" is a clear attempt to denigrate him

But that wasn't the end of the drama as Sherman went racing up to Crabtree, slapped him on the ass and seemed to be mockingly offer to shake his hand, resulting in Crabtree punching Sherman in the head. Undaunted, Sherman then proceeded to run up to Colin Kaepernick, the 49ers QB, with both hands firmly around his own throat calling him a "choker". His interview with Erin Andrews moments later was epic in that it was so non-nonsensical for him to go off like that on TV (at the same time, pulling an athlete right off the field after a huge game like that, full of emotion and testosterone, is bound to result in an interview like that much more often than it does).

Calling Sherman a "thug" for what he said is racist. He wasn't a thug. He was an arrogant prick which is one of the reasons he is one of the best at his position in the game of football. His extreme confidence. Justin Bieber is acting like a thug. Rob Ford IS a thug (and apparently, another revelation about him was that he allegedly hired 2 "thugs" to beat up his sister's ex-boyfriend) but calling Sherman a thug is, as I have heard others state. another way to call him the "N" word without actually saying it. Funny how the most common place he was called a "Thug" was Fox news.

Back to the game for a moment. I can't believe that there are people out there who would put money on Denver to win this game. Seattle will win by double digits. They have the top "D" in the NFL, their running attack will be unstoppable and Russell Wilson will finally be let loose to use his feet as well as his arm. Final score: 31-17 Seattle.

Well, well, well. It turns out the Leafs are back in the hunt to be among the top teams in the East again after their recent 8-1-1 surge. They head into tonight's game against the Ottawa Senators 5 points back of 2nd place Tampa in the Atlantic Division and in a position to start chasing down the top teams in the East. They have David Clarkson and Bolland both due back in the coming weeks if not right after Olympic break which will mean that they will only get better with more depth throughout the line up.

Kadri seems to be silencing the critics with his play of late. Even Coach Carlyle has been giving him props lately

Despite the fact the team has been playing much better of late, their is a looming goaltending controversy brewing as it seems as if despite how he plays, James Reimer does not appear to have the confidence of the team or the coach. It would not surprise me if during the Olympic break, Reimer and his agent ask the team to quietly start looking for a trade for him so that he can have a real chance at being a #1 goalie again.

Congratulations to Paul Maurice and the way he has turned the Jets around. After their win last night against the sinking Vancouver Canucks, the Jets are now 6 points back of the Canucks for the final playoff spot in the West with 1 game in hand. Funny how for previous coach Claude Noel, they couldn't get key saves and now suddenly, Andrej Pavelich is on fire.

Look for this scene to be replicated in Sochi

With the Olympics about to start, the only important event that matters is Men's Hockey and it will be an amazing tournament. Here are my predictions. 1st, Steven Stamkos will NOT play as he will not be ready to go clearing the way for Steve Yzerman to make amends with his captain and include Martin St. Louis on the team. my next prediction is that the final 4 will be Canada, USA, Sweden and Russia with the final being Canada vs Russia. Last prediction, Russia will find a way to loose it in the last minutes paving the way for the mass exodus of Russian hockey players this summer from Russia back to the NHL as they will be ostracized in the Russian media over and over again about this "crushing" loss.

That's it for me. Until next time...

Team Canada Snubs & Team Canada 2

I am sure Ovechkin would love to play with St. Louis, if he were Russian that is

Tuesday, we saw to what lengths this country is willing to go to when it comes to making Hockey announcements. A full on spectacle complete with boring speeches (thank you Marcel Aubut for that) and all the pomp and circumstance that went along with the announcement of the 25 man roster for the Canadian Men’s Olympic team was nothing short of overkill to some people. Nevertheless, for “puckheads” like me, it was not the end of the debate, but rather the start of another as I, like many others around the hockey world, will now try to figure out why these 25 guys (or more like 4 or 5 specific players) were chosen and other notable players were left off the team. Let the official 2^nd guessing season begin!

I have no idea how you can justify Jeff Carter and Ric Nash over Claude Giroux and Martin St. Louis. Actually, to be fair, I CAN see what they were thinking and why but that doesn’t mean I have to agree with it.

His inclusion on the 2010 version of Team Canada made sense, not this time around

Nash has done absolutely nothing this year to warrant being on the team. He has been injured which is part of the reason for that but even when he has played, his level of play is severely below what we have come to expect from someone who has all the tools to be one of the most dominant power forwards in the game, yet he isn’t. If you put St. Louis’ passion for the game in the body of Ric Nash, you might just have the greatest hockey player alive today but since we can’t pull a “Freaky Friday” or “!8 Again” on the two of them we are stuck with each player as they are.

St. Louis is short, yes, we have all heard the nay-sayers for years about him pointing out his defects. Well, why don’t they shut up for a minute and look at his positive attributes; Stanley Cup champ, World Hockey Champ for Canada, Art Ross Trophy winner, Hart Trophy winner, top 5 in scoring for the last 7 years, top 10 for the last 10 years. He has had to work for every single thing he has ever gotten in the game and yet somehow, simply because he isn’t 6 foot 2, he continues to get overlooked and underrated.

I am shocked that Steve Yzerman, the guy who looks at the standings everyday and should thank his lucky stars he has St. Louis playing as well as he is or HIS team, the Lightning, would be floundering badly with Steven Stamkos out with a broken leg, did not select St. Louis for this team. He now has a crushed superstar on his own club team which is never a good thing. If I were St. Louis, I might consider actually asking for a trade because of his omission from the team again (he was overlooked in 2010 as well). I don’t think I could look my own team’s GM in the eye again after being essentially told by him twice that I wasn’t good enough for Team Canada despite everything I do.

Another shocking omission to me is the fact that Flyers captain Claude Giroux was left off this team. He has only been absolutely on fire since his team dumped former coach Peter Laviolette after losing the first 3 games of the year, and he has seen his point totals skyrocket up the scoring leaders in the process. Again, one can point to the fact that he isn’t 6 feet tall (5 foot 11 last I checked). But that should not matter, especially on big, Olympic sized ice where speed and quickness are more important than brute strength (Nash) and height (Jeff Carter). 

Just like Nash, he would have made more sense 4 years ago, not this time around

Yes, Carter may have speed but he is a one dimensional player (with his goals to assists ratios throughout his career, he looks like he is a starting pitcher in MLB) who only scores goals, which is not a bad thing but Giroux scores goals AND has great vision on the ice to help out his teammates. Clearly he is the more well rounded player and could fill a void on any of the top 3 lines if there were an injury in game to one of the top players. Carter got in because of how he handled himself in 2010 as he was willing to be on standby while Team Canada waited on Ryan Getzlaf and his wonky ankle. Politics should not be playing any part of picking this team but it obviously did.

There were several other players that one could make a case for being part of the team. In fact, there are SO many great Canadian players out there, I thought it would be fun to create a 2^nd Team Canada roster out of the cast offs and blatant omissions of players who were/are having great seasons. Here is a taste of a team I honestly think would win a medal as it is constructed here;

Yes, he is older and not "speedy" but leaving off the top assist man in the league may come back to haunt Yzerman

Tyler Seguin – Joe Thornton – Martin St. Louis

Claude Giroux - Eric Staal – Taylor Hall

Jeff Skinner – Logan Couture – James Neal

Jordan Eberle - Mike Richards – Milan Lucic

I know I could have used another pic of Phaneuf but given our recent Arctic cold snap, and the fact Alisha is in that pic, your welcome

Brent Seabrook – Mark Staal

Kris Letang – Mark Giordano

Dan Boyle – Dion Phaneuf (in a role that suits his current standing, 6^th Defenseman)

Mike Green as your 7th

He may be aging, he may be playing in his final season but it never hurts to have the greatest goalie ever to play the game at least as your #3 on your depth chart

Cory Crawford Starts

Mark Andre Fleury is the back up

Martin Brodeur as the veteran presence and 3^rd stringer.

When you look at this team, there is depth, experience, speed and youth. I'm not saying my Team Canada 2 is equal on talent as he current 25 men going to Sochi but it may be time to consider being allowed to send 2 teams like we do in Bobsled, instead of letting teams like Norway, Italy and Slovenia into the tournament just to see them get obliterated by everyone of the powerhouses in the  world. Some would say that when the minnows play the bigger teams, they get to see exactly how far away they are from becoming powerhouses themselves. All I am asking is wouldn't it be a better tournament if you were to have 2 Team USA's, 2 Russia's and 2 Canadian teams then those 3 teams in it? I think so.

Regardless of the fact,this team Canada selected by Yzerman has a very good chance to win a medal. Gold is within their reach and hell, if one of his starters from his 25 man roster gets hurt between now and the start of February, he has an opportunity to correct one of his glaring errors and ideally, his first choice should be St. Louis. The question is would he say yes...