Canada is blessed with more high-end centre options than any other country and must therefore shift players to the wing. Horvat can do that, too, and is one of the top faceoff men in the league. There are roles to be filled, which helped earn Cirelli, O’Reilly and Hyman their spots as potential penalty-killers (alongside Bergeron, Marchand and maybe even Marner). Skinny: The most important thing to keep in mind is that this isn’t an all-star team. Sidney Crosby-Connor McDavid-Mitch Marnerīrad Marchand-Nathan MacKinnon-Steven StamkosĪnthony Cirelli-Ryan O’Reilly-Patrice Bergeron
It’s been more than five years since the last best-on-best event and a wave of new players would be getting their first crack at the game on this kind of stage.Īnd Team Canada could be named in six weeks or less. Given the broader concerns at play, the Olympic tournament could serve as a bright light during another pandemic winter should it go ahead. There is particular focus around the bottom ends of the roster, where Canada must identify and define roles for players from a group of available talent that includes superstars and perennial all-stars. The player selection process is approaching a critical stage, and some names included on the 56-man long list have already been struck off.
Still, behind the scenes, the preparations continue.Īn event like this one requires a massive logistical undertaking to pull off, with the Canadian management and coaching staff having met for a couple of days together in September but the full group, including players and trainers, unlikely to assemble in a room until they get to China.
This NHL season is all about finding a way to have every team play an 82-game season in front of as many paying customers as possible, and rising COVID caseloads plus the new Omicron variant threaten that objective. Then there was this instruction, underlined and written in bold type: “Players and Staff are reminded to limit the amount of exposure they have to large groups over the holidays, including large family gatherings, in order to reduce the risk of introducing infection into their team.” It required all holiday parties to be cancelled and instructed players to refrain from participating in public charity events or autograph sessions.
29 memo circulated by the NHL to teams spoke to the anticipated challenges ahead. There’s probably a discussion to be had about whether it should, even with the collective will of the players wanting to be there and the league’s commitment in the July 2020 memorandum of understanding to finding a way to make it happen. There is a healthy amount of skepticism within the hockey industry about whether the Beijing Games will even go ahead with the NHL’s participation. The threat of an outbreak that could derail a team’s season and interrupt the schedule is ever-present. Players, coaches and team staff are being added to COVID-19 protocol with regularity.
These are strange times in which we live.įor Doug Armstrong, it is a time of increased focus on the players still under serious consideration for an invitation to Team Canada as he and his management team work toward building consensus on an Olympic roster by early January.įor the NHL, meanwhile, it is a time of great uncertainty.