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When Wayne Gretzky and
friends named Team Canada 2004, there was more media
and fan attention paid towards who was not included
on the team rather than who was.
Where was Keith
Primeau? Vincent Lecavalier? Rick Nash? Jose
Theodore? Todd Bertuzzi? Alex Tanguay? Paul Kariya?
I could go on...and
on...but you get the point.
Gretzky was quick to
shrug it off, citing the incredible depth Canada
enjoys. And conventional wisdom agrees with that assessment.
If Canada could enter a second team there would be a
very real possibility of an all Canadian final in
this year's World Cup of Hockey.
Its a good thing
Canada enjoys that depth, because it looks like it
will be tested.
The list of
questionable participants is mounting. The
most recent concern is Rob Blake. A shoulder injury
has left his status come August uncertain at best.
He joins living legends Mario Lemieux (hip) and
Steve Yzerman (eye) as serious question marks due to
injury.
Speculation also has
Shane Doan and Robyn Regehr amongst the walking
wounded, but Gretzky said there is no reason to
think that they will not be 100% healthy come
August.
Another question mark
now has to Dany Heatley. He appeared to be getting
his life back on track following last September's
car accident that killed teammate Dan Snyder. Now it
appears US law officials will indict Heatley for the
accident. It remains uncertain how these legal
problems will affect Heatley's availability for the
World Cup, though that is likely the least of his
worries.
These question marks
of course create opportunities for those who missed
the initial cut. In addition those already
identified in this article, you have to think Jay
Bouwmeester, Bryan McCabe, Brendan Shanahan and Glen
Murray might be getting their hopes up.
With all due respect
to those players, Canada would be a better team with
healthy Lemieux, Yzerman, Blake and Heatley.
Canada, of course, is
not the only nation experiencing such troubles.
Pretty much every nation has their question marks,
particularly Russia and the USA in goal.
Unfortunately for them, they don't generally have
the depth to overcome significant absences. Unless
Evgeny Nabokov can recover from his injuries in
time, it looks like Russia will be naming undrafted
Russian league veteran Maxim Sokolov as their
starting goaltender. Yikes.
Despite the
significant question marks, Canada appears to be in
good shape to be appointed as tournament favorite by
opening puck drop.
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