By Mark Janzen /
While Team Canada may only be six returning players this year (which realistically is a decent number), those who are returning will be serious impact players.
Up front, the veterans are Jordan Eberle, Stefan Della Rovere and Patrice Cormier. Defensively, Canada will have Colten Teubert, Ryan Ellis and Alex Pietrangelo making their second appearance.
If you don’t think that’s a quality sextuplet, you’ve been watching the wrong sport.
In terms of forwards, the obvious big name is Eberle. He was already a leader offensively last year, not to mention he garnered a pretty important goal. He’ll need to continue his torrid pace of late (29 goals and 31 points in 28 games with Regina this year) for Canada to succeed.
“There’s pressure added being a veteran and especially because we’re going for six (gold medals) in a row,” Eberle said Wednesday after the team was officially named. “I will obviously be in more of a leadership role this year, especially offensively.”
Much like last year, the roles of Della Rovere and Cormier will be similar, just ratcheted up several notches.
Cormier plays a solid two-way role but will be need to contribute more than the three points he collected last year while Della Rovere will need to play his hard-hitting, fan garnering style, just a little better.
“It’s always hard playing on the edge,” said Della Rovere in an interview before camp. “You want to make an impact on the first shift of the game but sometimes it’s so hard to control yourself, [but] if I want to play for Team Canada this year, I have to control my emotions.”
As for the back end, when three of a team’s seven defenceman are veterans, optimism and excitement should be on the horizon.
Especially when they’re of this ilk.
Ellis, who was largely limited to powerplay quarterback duty last year, has an extra season of hockey under his belt and could well be in the top four.
“I hope to play a little more five-on-five and provide consistent offence from the back-end,” Ellis said. “That’s what I’m known for and I also want to get to the dirty areas some more.”
As for Teubert, it has been long speculated that he and Marco Scandella will be the shutdown pair on the blueline.
Teubert has that nasty edge and can flourish in that role and, as long as he keeps himself under control, he’s the type of physical leader other players will feed off. Expect Pietrangelo to also be in that top four and playing a key role in slowing the vaunted Russian and Swedish attacks.
But while Ellis clearly understands how much bigger of a role he’ll play this year, he’s also frank about the team playing as on unit.
“Sure, some big names are gone but we’re solid. We have lots of guys who can play both ways. We have scorers and we have shutdown players.”
“We heard that stuff (about lacking veterans) last year too and we heard about the Americans and the Russians and the Swedes but we weren’t worried about that stuff.”
And for those still siding with the know-it-all critic, Ellis is ready to make point.
“I think, this year, the naysayers will be pleasantly surprised.” |
