Gold medal means more than a Gold medal

. The reaction from fans was excellent..........

here is a clip of the four corners in Whitby, near the end you might notice my friends and I playing a little road hockey on the sidewalk. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4USThWknAI8
The win is more important for Canadian hockey than it seemed.The general age range of people at the street celebration was probably from 16-50. I only saw two or three kids under the age of 15. Many of the people there had a chance to see the Toronto Maple Leafs win (a series or two.....I know it's not the cup), aswell as the Gold medal in 2002.

When Canada won gold in Salt Lake I was 13 years old, still young enough to have my love for the sport developed further. I was one of the kids at the four corners celebrating, the horn in our car never honked properly afterwards, it just made a lame fart like sound. I remember it like it was yesterday, I am certian that win is one of the reasons I still play and follow hockey as much as I do.

When teams win people become inspired to win. With the losing ways of the Toronto Maple Leafs I was fearing that young athletes would chose to take up different sports. Registration levels for minor hockey have been declining in recent years. There is no denying the current economic situation correlates with the decline. Combining an economic downturn with a losing local team, why would a kid want to play hockey and more importantly why would a parent want to pay?

The recent gold medal was the shot in the arm that will rebuild the interest in the younger generation here in Southern Ontario along with the rest of Canada. Now kids have heroes, they might not be Maple Leafs but I'd bet you will not find a road hockey game in the next four years where a kid doesn't scream "CROSBY SCORES!!!!"

And just incase you forgot what it sounded like... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WSfl8vFNZdE&feature=related

Sea of Skillitude

It happened, the Canadian men’s hockey team took home gold.

The game was fun to watch in a painful unbearable kind of way, but when it came down to it Canada’s depth won the game. Luck did play a major role, but the tipping point was the flow of Canadian talent taking the ice.

The United States have a talent pool of hockey players capable of competing with any country in the world.

Unfortunately for America, their neighbours to the north have an ocean of talent to chose from.

Putting aside the roster that won gold in Vancouver I picked three more Canadian teams.

Team B, Team C, and Team D……..yep team D. I stopped at team ‘D’ because the options for team ‘E’ did not seem likely to produce a medal and Ifeel confident that any of these teams could have chalenged for one.

TEAM B..........(or should I call them A1?)

LW ...........................................................C ....................................................RW

1.Steven Stamkos .........................1.Jeff Carter................................. 1.Martin St. Louis (A)
2.Mike Cammalleri....................... 2.Vinny Lecalvilier(A) .................2.Shane Doan
3.James Neal .................................3.Brad Richards............................ 3.Dustin Penner
4.Milan Lucic .................................4.Mike Fisher ................................4.Scottie Upshall
5.Jordan Stall

D

Mike Green -Jay Bouwmeester
Tyler Myers- Dion Phanuef
Brian Campbell -Jeff Schultz
Rob Blake(C)

G
Cam Ward
Steve Mason
Marty Turco


-Cam Ward........Conn Smythe
-Marty Turco is a third defenceman
-Mason will be Canada's #1 goalie in time.
-Every player on the first line is in the top 15 in scoring by a Canadian.
-second line has two proven scorers and a defensive concience with Shane Doan
-third line harnesses youth (neal), size (Penner), and experience/speed (Richards)
-the bottom 4 forwards just don't seem like much fun to play against do they?
-Jeff Schultz leads the NHL in plus/minus rating.
-Rob Blake has a gold medal and Stanley Cup experience.
-Phanuef scares people, Brian Campbell is this teams Scott Niedermayer.
-Mike Green is a PPG defenceman.
-Myers and Bouwmeester are towers of power.


TEAM C

LW C RW

Patrick Sharp.......................................... Nathan Horton........................................... Brad Boyes
Rene Bourque ............................................Stephen Weiss .....................................J.P. Dumont
Andrew Brunette.................................... Derek Roy ..............................................Chris Stewart
Alexandre Burrows ...............................Brooks Laich .....................................Wayne Simmonds
Ryan Smyth (C)

D

Mark Giordano- Robyn Regehr (A)
Brian McCabe -Marc Stall
Derek Morris -Stephane Robidas
Ed jovanoski (A)

G
Chris Mason
J.S. Giguere
Dwayne Roloson


-A little more grit and size on team 'C'
-Smyth and Jovo-cop have enough international experience for the whole team.
-Horton has two dangerous snipers to create space for.
-a toss up between the three goalies for the start, thats a good thing.
-The bottom two forward lines are an ideal bunch of shuft disturbers.
-good mix between offensive and defensive players on the back end.
-Defence would feed off Regehr & Giordano chemistry.
-Brian McCabe can still fire a puck.

TEAM D

LW C RW

Ray Whitney (A).................................... Antoine Vermette................................... Danny Briere
John Tavares......................................... Jason Arnott (C) ......................................Claude Giroux
Mason Raymond..................................... Sam Gagner......................................... Mark Recchi
Scott Hartnell ...........................................Gilbert Brule .......................................Todd Bertuzzi
Ryan Clowe

D

Ian White --Francois Beauchemin (A)
Cam Barker-- Cory Sarich
Braydon Coburn --Kyle Quincey
Kris letang

G
Mike Smith
Dan Ellis
Carey Price



-not a very big group of forwards, but if they were having a hard time creating space Bertuzzi, hartnell or Clowe would fit nicely on any line.
-Jason Arnott is a very under-rated leader and player.
-Beauchemin and Sarich would be leaned of heavily in PK situations.
-you never know when Carey price will get hot, Dan Ellis will be a started somewhere arefter the trade deadline and Mike Smith has performed well in Tampa.
-Tavares doesn't have the speed to compete at Centre in the olypmics, the wing made more sense.
-If a shoot-out occured there are few players I would rather have than Sam Gagner.




Each one of these teams could have challenged for a medal, they might have given the gold medalists trouble.