On Monday, Hockey Canada’s preliminary roster for the 2014 Winter Olympics was announced creating question marks about its goaltenders.
This will be the first Olympics since NHL players began participating in 1998 that Team Canada will not invite future Hall-Of-Famer Martin Brodeur to its camp and that has left a void that will create heated debate leading up to the games next February.
Fueling that debate are invitees Roberto Luongo, Carey Price, Corey Crawford, Mike Smith, and Braden Holtby. Questions, however, surround each of these goalies and Canadians are not used to so much introspection when it comes to this position.
The country has produced some of the best and brightest netminders in the sport, particularly from the province of Quebec which has seen the likes of Brodeur, Patrick Roy, and Luongo, to name a few.
One or more of those players have been members of the Olympic team since 1998 and often the only question during tryout camps was, “Which budding goaltender might benefit from being an understudy to these icons?”
The self-diagnosed issue will not merely surround the selections made by returning Executive Director Steve Yzerman. It had already begun to trickle down to the Canadian Hockey League, the premier junior league in the country.
The league announced this year that starting in 2014, it will not include goaltenders in its annual import draft. The CHL is responding to a perceived notion that European goaltenders have begun to supplant Canadians at the top of the class.
While this may not be untrue with the recent success of Tuukka Rask, Pekka Rinne, and Antii Niemi, it is a reactionary move by a nation insecure with being second-best in the world of hockey.
Canada may not have a world-beater playing goal, but Luongo’s gold medal in 2010 and Crawford’s Cup victory this year should stand for something.
Goaltending Candidates
Mike Smith has put together two solid performances the last two seasons, but his ascendance from obscurity has largely been attributed to his coach in Phoenix, Dave Tippett. Like Ilya Bryzgalov before him, Smith has performed best under the stifling defensive system employed by Tippett.
That he could both supplant one of the other Canadians while adjusting quickly to a new coach and team that will not play conservatively is questionable.
Braden Holtby is a surprise to see on the list if only because of his limited NHL experience. Stanley Cup winners Marc-Andre Fleury and Cam Ward did not make the cut while the young Holtby has only seen action as far as the first round of the playoffs.
Meanwhile, Fleury, a member of the 2010 team as the third-string goaltender, has seen his stock fall tremendously due to his playoff collapses in the last two seasons. His inability to perform in pressure situations likely influenced Yzerman and his staff.
No, Brodeur was not a part of Hockey Canada’s plans this time around, but it should not be perceived as a snub. The elder statesman has been a part of the last four Olympics, taking home gold in 2002 and 2010. He would have been a sentimental pick, reminding Canadians of its glorious past.
The attention though should be on those who are currently performing and playing in their prime. As mentioned above, the team typically reserves the third-string spot for a young netminder looking to absorb the experience and prepare for the next Olympics.
As well, the NHL’s agreement with the International Olympic Committee (IOC) does not include insurance for tryout camps. Each federation will be responsible for their own insurance and many believe Canada will do away with the camps, opting for interviews instead.
The U.S. has already announced it will not skate prior to the preliminary round. Brodeur, therefore, would only have had the first three months on the NHL schedule to earn a spot and he may not even be playing most of New Jersey’s games with the recent acquisition of Cory Schneider.
Corey Crawford may not be getting the attention he deserves after a convincing Stanley Cup performance, but he could end up being the surprise pick to play in the number two spot. He was integral to the Chicago Blackhawks Cup victory, especially against Detroit and Boston where he garnered support for playoff MVP.
While he seems ideal to play the understudy role, playing third behind the starters, he is going in to the next NHL season the undisputed No. 1 goalie in Chicago after Ray Emery left for Philadelphia. He was the only player invited by Hockey Canada that has not already represented his country internationally.
Carey Price is known for his calm, cool, and collected demeanour and has largely excelled in his six seasons in the NHL. Many saw the starting role in 2014 as Price’s to lose with the fall in stock of both Fleury and Luongo.
And though he led the Montreal Canadiens to a second-place finish in the Eastern Conference this year, he might have played himself out of that conversation.
He began to slump in the latter stages of the 2013 season and missed his team’s last game due to injury. A report stating that he had begun playing with new equipment prior to the playoffs seemed like a cause for his performance dip, but a strange decision, no less.
The Canadiens have not employed a goaltending coach in previous years and only recently hired Stephane Waite, previously with the champion Blackhawks, to mentor Price. He will have the first few months of the next season to regain his form.
Price won gold at the World Junior Championships in 2007 and was named tournament MVP and top goaltender.
Luongo is both the obvious pick for the starting role and the most controversial. His gold medal in 2010 should speak to his experience and pedigree, but the disappointment of losing the Stanley Cup in 2011 coupled with the musical chairs routine with Schneider in Vancouver has soured many Canadians on him.
General manager Mike Gillis spoke recently at the Vancouver Canucks Summer Summit about his No. 1 goaltender as reported by TSN. “He felt that after that [2011 Stanley Cup final] series happened he was blamed more than others or that he was held accountable more than others,” said Gillis.
With Price sputtering and Crawford perhaps too green to hold the torch, Luongo is also both Canada’s best option in goal and for a reclamation project. A great performance in the 2014 Olympics would be the positive catharsis needed to bring about the turnaround in Luongo’s career and the identity crisis in Canadian goaltending.
When the country’s best goalie is under the most scrutiny, it’s no wonder Hockey Canada and the CHL begin searching for answers. Sifting through Canada for goaltending is like looking for gymnasts in China—an embarrassment of riches. Why not make the tough decision this time and allow a player to re-prove himself on the world stage and redeem himself to Canadians?
Canada is not usually the best at anything and nor does it purport to be. Hockey, though, is the exception. It invites the world to play the best game on Earth and then becomes indignant when it’s no longer, like Americans and basketball, utterly dominant.
But Canada does not need to have the tournament’s best goaltending in order to win, nor should it feel it must. Falling behind other countries has inspired change in Hockey Canada.
Though they have banned European imports in to the CHL, according to InGoalMag.com they have begun formulating a new goaltending development program, not unlike those already in Europe.
Yet, if Canadians feel as though their goaltending has more to prove, they might want the player most fit to fight his way off of the ropes.
Joe Pack has written for TheHockeyWriters.com, is a member of the Society for International Hockey Research and has his own blog at www.upperbodyinquiry.com. Follow him on Twitter @JoePack.
Friends Read Free