Product:STAR Date:12-31-2009Desk: SPT-0007-CMYK/30-12-09/22:45:52
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Veteran
Brodeur
still at top
of his game
Goalie says he’s capable
of ‘competing with guys
a lot younger than me’
DAMIEN COX
SPORTS COLUMNIST
SASKATOON—This is not to imply
that Martin Brodeur is old, or too
old.
But when Brodeur first started be-
ing part of Canada’s Olympic effort,
15 of the players who will be his
teammates in Vancouver for the
2010 squad hadn’t even been draft-
ed into the NHL.
Drew Doughty was 8 years old.
Two of his teammates on that
1998 Olympic team that lost the
bronze-medal match to Finland,
Wayne Gretzky and Steve Yzerman,
have since become executives in
charge of running the Olympic pro-
gram. Only five of his teammates
from that year — Rod Brind’Amour,
Paul Kariya, Rob Blake, Adam
Foote and Chris Pronger, who is on
the 2010 team — are still active
NHLers.
Finally, it was only 14 months ago
that a serious arm injury knocked
Brodeur out of the New Jersey Dev-
ils lineup for several months and
seemed to gift-wrap the Olympic
job for one of several youngsters,
including Roberto Luongo, Cam
Ward, Marc-Andre Fleury and
Steve Mason.
Yet here we are on the last day of
2009, with Brodeur the odds-on fa-
vourite to be in goal when it matters
most in Vancouver. He put an excla-
mation point on that status
Wednesday night by shutting out
the Stanley Cup-champion Pitts-
burgh Penguins for the second
straight game, this time 2-0.
“It feels really good,” Brodeur said
Wednesday. “When I got back from
the injury, I saw how I was and I
said, ‘I can still do this.’ Now I’m
competing with guys a lot younger
than me and it’s nice to be able to
stay with them. I always work to be
the best.”
With two major goaltending re-
cords for career wins and shutouts
now under his belt, Brodeur will al-
most certainly be in goal when Can-
ada opens the Olympics against
Norway on Feb. 16. What happens
after that, with only three round-
robin games compared to five at the
2006 Games, is unclear. Head
coach Mike Babcock could turn to
Luongo for the second game
against the Swiss, then choose ei-
ther of them for the U.S. game on
Feb. 21 and again for the quarter-
final match two days later.
Or he could put one goalie in at the
start and leave him, à la Patrick Roy
in ’98.
“I don’t have any expectations,”
Brodeur said. “Because of the setup,
we don’t play many games. It might
be a one-guy thing.”
The thinking in the Team Canada
camp is that while Luongo might
steal a game in which Canada is ter-
ribly outshot, he’s more likely to
give up a bad goal in a big game. Bro-
deur, by comparison, might not
have the capacity to absolutely
stone an opponent, but he won’t
whiff on one when it matters. Fleu-
ry appears destined to be No. 3.
The absence of the NHL “trape-
zoid” for the Olympics, which will
allow goalies to play the puck more,
also gives an advantage to the 37-
year-old Brodeur.
“It’s an element of my game that
might be useful for the team,” Bro-
deur said.
He was disappointed that pal
Marty St. Louis didn’t make the
team and admitted that he hasn’t
even met one of his youthful de-
fencemen, Brent Seabrook of the
Chicago Blackhawks.
“It’s a bit of a crapshoot and we’ll
just see how it goes,” Brodeur said.
“I like the direction of the team.
We’ll be tough to play against. We’ll
have a group of hard-working guys.
“But I liked our team in Turin. We
just couldn’t score.”
Toronto shut out
by Team Canada
No one from city named to Olympic side and Nash the lone skater from GTA
PAUL HUNTER
SPORTS REPORTER
It’s an Olympic-sized no go for To-
ronto.
This city was virtually shut out
when it came to the naming of Can-
ada’s Olympic men’s hockey team
— on two fronts.
Not only did no player from the
Maple Leafs make the squad —
which is no surprise — but no one
from this city was deemed worthy
enough to pull on a red-and-white
jersey during the upcoming Games.
Heck, tiny Aneroid, Sask., (pop-
ulation 45) will be better re-
presented on Vancouver’s ice in
February than Toronto with its na-
tive son Patrick Marleau wearing
Canada’s colours.
We will have to settle for claiming
Brampton’s Rick Nash as our own.
He did, after all, play his minor
hockey with the Toronto Marl-
boros of the Greater Toronto Hock-
ey League, the largest single youth
league in the world. But he is the
only member of the men’s hockey
team who can claim GTHL roots.
Despite the huge number of players in the GTHL, Rick Nash was the only league alumnus to make Team Canada.
THEY’VE ALL MADE THE CUT FOR TEAM CANADA
NHL players began participation in the Olympics at the 1998 Winter Games. Here are the Canadian rosters:
1998 Nagano
Goaltenders Martin Brodeur
Curtis Joseph
Patrick Roy
Defencemen Rob Blake
Ray Bourque
Eric Desjardins
Adam Foote
Al MacInnis
Chris Pronger
Scott Stevens
Forwards Rod Brind’Amour
Shayne Corson
Theo Fleury
Wayne Gretzky
Paul Kariya
Trevor Linden
Eric Lindros
Joe Nieuwendyk
Keith Primeau
Mark Recchi
Joe Sakic
Brendan Shanahan
Steve Yzerman
Rob Zamuner
Coach Marc Crawford
Babcock has the right ingredients for gold-medal run
COX from S1
coming out of an NHL lockout and
most of them hadn’t played at all
during the 2004-05 season. The
most proven — or so it was
thought — weapon he had was the
duo of Joe Thornton and Rick
Nash, who had together won a club
championship in Switzerland dur-
ing that lockout.
This time, Yzerman has given
Babcock a number of active set
pieces to work with, including an
entire forward line from San Jose
(Patrick Marleau-Thornton-Dany
Heatley) an intact Chicago defen-
sive pairing (Duncan Keith-Brent
!TH0 311209ON S 007Q!
THURSDAY, DECEMBER 31, 2009
“It’s shocking! Just one player Canada 2010, the most of any prov-
(Nash) was named?” said an in- ince. British Columbia has four
credulous Hugh Ross, who is on the players on the team, all defence-
GTHL’s board of directors and has men, while Quebec also has four, in-
been part of Toronto’s minor hock- cluding the three goaltenders.
ey league scene for about 40 years. The last Leaf to play for Canada at
“With the largest registration of the Olympics was Bryan McCabe in
40,000 (players in the league), it is 2006. Toronto isn’t the only Cana-
shocking.” dian-based NHL team to be ig-
At past Olympics, the GTHL and
the Greater Toronto Area has been
nored by Team Canada. Montreal,
Ottawa and Edmonton also failed
better represented, with four or five to place any players on the team.
players each time the Games were Calgary’s Jarome Iginla was
open to NHLers. named to the team but the Flames
At the 2006 Turin Games, Adam got a slap in the face when its three
Foote, Kris Draper, Jason Spezza top defencemen — Jay Bouwmees-
and Nash are all from the area and ter, Dion Phaneuf and Robyn Re-
spent time in the GTHL as boys. gehr — were all considered for ros-
The local development league ter spots but were overlooked.
could boast five players on the 2002 San Jose led all teams with four
team that won gold at Salt Lake players (the line of Joe Thornton,
City. Eric Lindros, Brendan Shana- Dany Heatley and Marleau along
han, Mike Peca, Curtis Joseph and with defenceman Dan Boyle) on
Foote were all part of that history- the squad. Next are Anaheim (Ryan
making squad. All of them, apart Getzlaf, Corey Perry and Scott Nie-
from Peca, were returning after re- dermayer) and Chicago (the defen-
presenting Canada at Nagano in sive pair of Duncan Keith and Brent
1998. Seabrook along with forward Jona-
Ontario has eight players on Team than Toews) with three each.
NAM Y HUH/AP
2002 Salt Lake 2006 Turin 2010 Vancouver
Martin Brodeur Martin Brodeur Martin Brodeur
Curtis Joseph Roberto Luongo Roberto Luongo
Ed Belfour Marty Turco Marc-Andre Fleury
Rob Blake Rob Blake Shea Weber
Eric Brewer Dan Boyle Dan Boyle
Adam Foote Adam Foote Brent Seabrook
Ed Jovanovski Bryan McCabe Duncan Keith
Al MacInnis Wade Redden Drew Doughty
Chris Pronger Chris Pronger Chris Pronger
Scott Niedermayer Robyn Regehr Scott Niedermayer
Jay Bouwmeester
Theo Fleury Todd Bertuzzi Sidney Crosby
Simon Gagne Simon Gagne Patrice Bergeron
Jarome Iginla Jarome Iginla Jarome Iginla
Paul Kariya Shane Doan Ryan Getzlaf
Mario Lemieux Kris Draper Patrick Marleau
Ryan Smyth Ryan Smyth Brenden Morrow
Eric Lindros Dany Heatley Dany Heatley
Joe Nieuwendyk Vincent Lecavalier Corey Perry
Owen Nolan Rick Nash Rick Nash
Michael Peca Brad Richards Mike Richards
Joe Sakic Joe Sakic Jonathan Toews
Brendan Shanahan Eric Staal Eric Staal
Steve Yzerman Joe Thornton Joe Thornton
Jason Spezza
Martin St. Louis
Pat Quinn Pat Quinn Mike Babcock
Seabrook) and Anaheim’s 1-2 scor- penalty killers and faceoff men,
ing punch of Ryan Getzlaf and Co- while Sidney Crosby, Mike Rich-
rey Perry. ards and Morrow should provide
Those club team combos may the youthful drive the ’06 team
help Canada get off to a quicker lacked.
start in Vancouver and avoid hav- The wild card for the team and
ing to face a strong quarter-final Babcock is talented Los Angeles
opponent, as was the case in Turin defenceman Drew Doughty, who
when Canada lost to Russia. outdistanced Calgary’s Jay Bouw-
“We look at the Europeans and meester and Washington’s Mike
they use combinations all the time Green for a roster spot. Doughty
and always seem to have more co- was seen as more creative than
hesion from the beginning of tour- Bouwmeester and less of a risk
naments,” associate executive di- than Green.
rector Kevin Lowe said. “So we fig- “We feel (Doughty) can be a dif-
ured, if it’s there, let’s use it.” ference-maker,” Babcock said.
Patrice Bergeron and Jonathan Lowe compared Doughty to all-
Toews give Babcock two talented time greats like Ray Bourque and
BLACK
YELLOW
MAGENTA
CYAN CMYK
H TORONTO STAR H S7
SPORTS
Kaberle
can’t wait
for Games
to begin
‘It’s going to be an
unbelievable feeling to
play against the best’
KEVIN MCGRAN
SPORTS REPORTER
EDMONTON—Tomas Kaberle likes
the Czech Republic’s chances. Ron
Wilson likes Team USA’s chances.
So it went in the Maple Leafs’
dressing room, home to six Olym-
pic hockey players.
Kaberle was named to the Czech
team Wednesday and Niklas Hag-
man to the Finns. They will be com-
peting against Jonas Gustavsson
(Sweden) and Mikhail Grabovski
(Belarus). Mike Komisarek and
Phil Kessel have to wait until Friday
to be officially announced to the
American team.
“There’s been a lot of talk about it
the last little while in the dressing
room,” Kaberle said. “All the play-
ers are excited about it. It’s going to
come fast. It’s going to be an unbe-
lievable feeling to play against the
best players in the world.”
This will be Kaberle’s third Olym-
pics. The Czechs won bronze in
2006. “You want a gold, but it’s
great to touch a medal. We beat the
Russians for bronze.”
Wilson, the U.S. coach, lit up with
excitement while talking about the
Olympics.
“It’s the second time I get to do
this; that’s pretty rare for a coach,”
Wilson said. “Working with Brian
(Burke, the American GM) and the
fact it’s in Vancouver, where I got
my start, that makes it pretty spe-
cial.”
Wilson lamented that coaches
aren’t really part of the Olympics
because they don’t get medals. Only
players get them. “I’ll go all Viktor
Tikhonov,” Wilson said, referring to
the legendary Russian coach. “I’ll
grab the medal from the third goal-
ie.”
Wilson said the champion will be
the team with the hottest goalie.
“The most talented team possibly
will be the Russians,” he said. “They
dominate our scoring lists now.
We’ll try to put together a team that
matches up and can play any style
you’ll see in the tournament. The
Swiss are hard to play against. I’m
not sure about the Norwegians.
“There are so many good teams
that you can’t put your team to-
gether just to play Canada. I’m sure
Canada didn’t make up their team
worrying about the United States
or Russia. There’s going to be other
teams that you have to be prepared
to play against.
“At the end of the day, it comes
down to goaltending anyway.
Who’s kidding who? Every Olym-
pics, the gold-medal winners have
the best goaltender. Jim Craig won
the gold medal in 1980.”
He was told that that bodes well
for the U.S., with Buffalo’s hot-
handed Ryan Miller.
“Right now, yeah, but we haven’t
got there. There’s still 40-some-
thing days to go. Ryan Miller got
pulled (Tuesday) night. Maybe we
shouldn’t name him,” Wilson said,
laughing.
Viacheslav Fetisov in his readiness
for such a competition just past his
20th birthday. “He’s got the game,”
Lowe said. “And he seems to have
the head to manage that game.”
Yzerman eschewed some safe
choices to pick players such as
Doughty, Seabrook and Bergeron.
Now Babcock has to be ready to
make similar in-game gambles,
which might include playing
Doughty ahead of established vet-
erans such as captain Scott Nieder-
mayer or Dan Boyle, or sending
Bergeron out for a critical faceoff
instead of Crosby.
He won’t be able to do that lying in
bed.