SASKATOON – There was no puff of white smoke emerging from the Worldfest site when it was over.
But when 13 TV networks left the air after an hour-long production to announce Canada's hockey team to the Vancouver 2010, there was hope that Steve Yzerman, Canada's new Olympic Pope of Puck, had picked a pack of perfect players.
Gold medal winners for the first time in 50 years in Salt Lake 2002 and seventh in Turin four years later under Wayne Gretzky, Yzerman and his brain trust revealed their team here for our home Olympics yesterday.
If the problem four years ago was that they picked players who were too old and too slow on defence, they took care of that.
This is a team which many will see as having more surprises than expected.
It'll be shocking stuff in Calgary.
With people projecting three Flames defencemen – Jay Bouwmeester, Dion Phaneuf and Robin Regehr – back at the Team Canada Olympic camp back in the fall, not one of them will be playing in Vancouver.
And for those who figured Jarome Iginla was the likely captain, the choice was instead Scott Niedermayer.
If Canada made a mistake leaving out Sidney Crosby four years ago, they didn't go that way this time, selecting the Los Angeles Kings 20-year-old defenceman, Drew Doughty. Brent Seabrook in and Mike Green not in had to raise some eyebrows, too.
Up front, the inclusion of Patrice Bergeron and Mike Richards while Brad Richards, Martin St. Louis, Shane Doan, Mike Fisher, Vincent Lecavalier, Patrick Sharp and Jeff Carter were left off will be debated across the nation.
It was a strange scene in the big curling Brier Patch style bar – indeed other than a multi-story Team Canada (original not IOC-compromise Olympic) sweater hanging from behind a dais. it was virtually the same set-up as the last Brier here.
Fans from the IIHF -- the venue was less than a kilometre away from the Credit Union Centre, site of the IIHF world junior hockey championships -- filled long foldout tables in the massive room for the event where Yzerman, executive director of Canada's men's Olympic hockey team; coach Mike Babcock; Ken Holland; Doug Armstrong; and Kevin Lowe would sit for an hour-long press conference to follow the production.
When the Olympic consortium went on the air with the big show, there was no sound on site. Nice start.
“This is the day every Canadian has been waiting for,” said Hockey Canada president and CEO Bob Nicholson.
Yzerman received huge cheers when he was introduced.
“Like all Canadians we are very excited to be here. For all hockey fans this is a very exciting day.
“One thing we're convinced of is that Canada is producing great hockey players. Without a doubt, we knew there would be very good hockey players left off this team.”
With that, he asked Doug Armstrong to be at the podium to announce the goaltenders.
Martin Brodeur. Roberto Luongo. Marc-Andre Fleury.
Was there one citizen in Canada surprised by that?
Kevin Lowe, in his third term as part of the management team, announced the defence.
And that's where the surprises started to come.
Dan Boyle. Drew Doughty. Duncan Keith. Scott Niedermayer. Chris Pronger. Brent Seabrook. Shea Weber.
Ken Holland joined Yzerman to announce the forwards.
Patrice Bergeron. Sidney Crosby. Ryan Getzlaf. Dany Heatley. Jarome Iginla. Patrick Marleau. Brenden Morrow. Rick Nash. Corey Perry. Mike Richards. Eric Staal. Joe Thornton. Jonathan Toews.
Is it possible for Canada to pick a bad team?
They obviously did four years ago. But other than four San Jose Sharks who have a history of not getting it done when it matters most, it's hard to find too many flaws with this one.
terry.jones@sunmedia.ca
