Pittsburgh Penguins captain Sidney Crosby headlined the short-list of Canada players who will be handed the task of winning gold at the 2010 Vancouver Olympics.
With the Winter Games just over seven months away, the Canadian men’s hockey team began to take shape on Thursday with the announcement of 46 players invited to an orientation camp from August 24 to August 27 in Calgary.
A mix of battle hardened veterans and newcomers to the Olympic pressure cooker, the group includes five goaltenders, 16 defensemen and 25 forwards. Steve Yzerman, the executive director of Canada’s Olympic team, and head coach Mike Babcock left the door open for players not on the list to sneak into the mix with their play during the upcoming NHL season. The squad must be whittled down to 23 players by the end of December when Olympic rosters must be finalized.
For Crosby, who captained the Penguins to a Stanley Cup title last month, it will be his first chance to play in an Olympics after not being among Wayne Gretzky’s picks for the 2006 Turin Winter Games.
In the four years since being passed over, Crosby has blossomed into one of the NHL’s very best players and respected leaders and is almost certain to wear the captain’s C on his jersey in Vancouver.
At the other end of the experience spectrum is New Jersey Devils netminder Martin Brodeur, who backstopped Canada to gold at the 2002 Salt Lake City Winter Games and will be bidding for a spot on his fourth Olympic team along with Colorado Avalanche forward Joe Sakic and Philadelphia Flyers defenseman Chris Pronger.
Just five of the 16 defensemen invited to camp have Olympic experience, while the forwards include 11 holdovers from the 2006 Olympic team that finished an embarrassing seventh place.
Canada will not lack firepower and grit up front with Rick Nash, Jeff Carter and Eric Staal, who all scored 40 or more goals last season.
The three Staal brothers, forwards Jordan, Eric and defenseman Marc will attend. the camp
Canada has hosted two Olympic Games and never won a gold medal but has set an ambitious target of topping the medal table in Vancouver and ending that drought.
No medal, however, will matter more among hockey-mad Canadians than the men’s hockey gold.
“Pressure is something you learn to embrace when you do what we do for a living,” Babcock said. “Every time I have coached for Canada it’s the exact same way, the expectations are high because the quality of athletes you have gives you a chance at success.”
Shohei Ohtani and Clayton Kershaw on Friday joined their Los Angeles Dodgers teammates in sticking their fists out to show off their glittering World Series rings at a ceremony. “There’s just a lot of excitement, probably more than I can ever recall with the Dodger fan base and our players,” manager Dave Roberts said before Los Angeles rallied to beat the Detroit Tigers 8-5 in 10 innings. “What a way to cap off the first two days of celebrations,” Roberts said afterward. “By far the best opening week I’ve ever experienced. I just couldn’t have scripted it any better.” A choir in the
The famously raucous Hong Kong Sevens are to start today in a big test for a shiny new stadium at the heart of a major US$3.85 billion sports park in the territory. Officials are keeping their fingers crossed that the premier event in Hong Kong’s sporting and social calendar goes off without a hitch at the 50,000-seat Kai Tak Stadium. They hope to entice major European soccer teams to visit in the next few months, with reports in December last year saying that Liverpool were in talks about a pre-season tour. Coldplay are to perform there next month, all part of Hong Kong’s
Shohei Ohtani, Teoscar Hernandez and Tommy Edman on Thursday smashed home runs to give the reigning World Series champions the Los Angeles Dodgers a 5-4 victory over Detroit on the MLB’s opening day in the US. The Dodgers, who won two season-opening games in Tokyo last week, raised their championship banner on a day when 28 clubs launched the season in the US. Dodgers manager Dave Roberts shuffled his batting lineup with all four leadoff hitters finally healthy as Ohtani was followed by Mookie Betts, then Hernandez and Freddie Freeman in the cleanup spot, switching places with Hernandez. “There’s a Teoscar tax to
Marcus Rashford’s first goals for Aston Villa on Sunday inspired a 3-0 win against Preston North End that sent his side into the FA Cup semi-finals for the first time in 10 years. Rashford struck twice in the second half at Deepdale to end Preston’s stubborn resistance before Jacob Ramsey wrapped up Villa’s long-awaited return to the last four. Villa are to face Crystal Palace — 3-0 winners at Fulham on Saturday — in the semi-finals at Wembley Stadium in London. Revitalized since joining Villa on loan from Manchester United during the January transfer window, Rashford is beginning to show the form that
RSS