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NHL Going For Gold
Southern Six well represented in Turin as 26 players set to join national teams
By Jeff Berlinicke
As the power structure of the NHL moves farther and farther south, it is well reflected in the makeup of the Olympic hockey teams who will take the ice in Turin, Italy starting Feb.10.
If the regular season ended on Jan. 21, four of the six southern teams in the league – Nashville, Carolina, Tampa Bay, and Atlanta – would have qualified for a playoff berth. Washington rookie sensation Alexander Ovechkin seemed a lock for the Calder Trophy, and Hurricanes coach Peter Laviolette would seem the obvious choice for the Jack Adams Award.
Every team from the south, including Washington and Florida, will have players who will be inserted into key roles in the Olympics. Of the 12 countries playing Olympic hockey, nine will feature players from southern NHL teams. Team Czech Republic leads with seven players, followed by Team Canada with four.
Team Canada is the most intriguing team in the competition, at least among the southern teams. The defending Gold Medal winners feature Florida goalie Roberto Luongo who will battle for starting time with Dallas’ Martin Brodeur, but it is the forwards that are intriguing. With some of the best players in the NHL, Team Canada can feature a line of Martin St. Louis, Vincent Lecavalier, and Brad Richards, all members of the defending Stanley Cup Champion Tampa Bay Lightning.
For the possible Lightning line, the pairing makes plenty of sense. Richards and Lecavalier have played together since they were children, and St. Louis and Richards have a chemistry unsurpassed in the NHL.
The Lightning line isn’t the only intriguing intangible in the tournament. Here’s a quick summary of how the southern teams will represent in Turin. |
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TEAM USA
John Grahame G, Tampa Bay
Erik Cole RW, Carolina
The South shouldn’t make much of an impact in Turin. Grahame has had his ups and downs all season and has never appeared totally confident in his play. With the Lightning, coach John Tortorella has been riding him hard all year. Neither Robert Esche (Philadelphia), nor Rich DiPietro (New York Islanders) are dominating goaltenders, but look for Esche to get the majority of the minutes.
Cole is likely to get some time among a weak group of left wingers, but Keith Tkachuk (St. Louis) is the only standout among the bunch. |
TEAM CANADA
Roberto Luongo G, Florida
Vincent Lecavalier C, Tampa Bay
Brad Richards C, Tampa Bay
Martin St. Louis RW, Tampa Bay
Canada is simply loaded and should skate away with more gold unless Team Czech Republic can bounce them in the finals.
Luongo will get some starts, but Brodeur is money at crunch time. As for the Lightning line, look for them to play together often, but Team Canada is so loaded with
forwards, they can shuffle any way they want and still |
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have the best forwards in the tournament. It would be fun to see Lecavalier paired with Joe Sakic (Colorado) and Jarome Iginla (Colorado).
The team is four deep at every position and much more stacked than at Salt Lake City four years ago. |
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TEAM CZECH REPUBLIC
Tomas Vokoun G, Nashville
Frantisek Kaberle D, Carolina
Pavel Kubina D, Tampa Bay
Marek Zidlicky D, Nashville
Martin Erat LW, Nashville
Rastislav Olesz RW, Florida
Vinnie Prospal LW, Tampa Bay
There aren’t a lot of interesting potential line combinations among teammates, but the team should win with defense and goaltending. Vokoun may not see much ice time with Dominik Hasek (Ottawa) getting the majority of the time.
Zidlicky, Kubina, and Kaberle assist a solid defense that can stay at home (Zidlicky, Kaberle), and also go end to end (Kubina).
Prospal is off to a fine start in his return to Tampa after a year’s sabbatical in Anaheim, and he can get the puck to a host of scorers including Milan Hejduk (Colorado), and Jaromir Jagr (New York Rangers). |
TEAM FINLAND
Kari Lehtonen G, Atlanta
Kimmo Timonen D, Nashville
Olli Jokinen C, Florida
Lehtonen is the best goalie among an undistinguished corps for the Fins, and while he’s playing the best as any goalie in Thrashers history, he’s never played in a playoff game and is relatively young.
Jokinen might be the best scorer on the team, but may have to be versatile since the team has only two right wings. |
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TEAM GERMANY
Olaf Kolzig G, Washington
Kolzig is the only NHL goalie on a German team that features only seven NHL players. He has the playoff experience and is a veteran who should be able to handle the pressure, but team chemistry could be lacking.
TEAM RUSSIA
Danny Markov D, Nashville
Ilya Kovalchuk LW, Atlanta
Alexander Ovechkin LW, Russia
Kovalchuk might be the most exciting player in the NHL and should excel on the world stage. He can do it all, and is used to the international rules. Ovechkin is having a slightly better season than Pittsburgh’s heralded Sidney Crosby and is single-handedly keeping the Capitals from being hopeless.
It’s doubtful that the two will be paired on the same line, but all eyes will be watching to see if Kovalchuk and Ovechkin are as good as their hype.
Markov has been a sparkplug for the Predators defense that has been one of the surprises of the league. Markov is new to the Preds, but he is never afraid to mix it up and will provide some muscle to the Russians who could be a surprise in Turin if one of their goalies steps up. Evgeny Nabokov (San Jose), Nikolai Khabibulin (Chicago), and Ilya Bryzgalov (Anaheim) have all had disappointing seasons.
TEAM SLOVAKIA
Ivan Majesky D, Washington
Peter Bondra RW Atlanta
Josef Stumpel C, Florida
Marian Hossa RW, Atlanta
Bondra is a consistent scorer, but he’s one of six right wingers including high scoring Marian Gaborik (Minnesota), and Hossa. Slovakia will have no problem scoring goals but is very underexperienced in goal with only one NHL goaltender, Peter Budaj (Colorado).
TEAM SWEDEN
Fredrik Modin LW, Tampa Bay
It wasn’t long ago that Modin was the leading scorer of an underachieving Lightning team until he broke his leg in the 2002-2003 season and missed several months, opening the way for Lecavalier, Richards, and St. Louis. Modin is still a solid second-liner, and he may have to be versatile since Sweden has only one right winger.
Team Sweden has probably the most diverse groups of players in the games with an almost 50/50 mix of NHL and European players.
TEAM SWITZERLAND
Martin Gerber G, Carolina
Gerber is likely this team’s goalie by default. He’s had a great first half to the season, leading the Hurricanes from mediocrity to a team with the chance to go deep into the playoffs. He’ll split time in goal with David Aebischer (Colorado).
NOTE: Team Italy, Team Kazakhstan, and Team Latvia are without any players from the NHL Southeast Conference or Nashville. |
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