Super linemate gives Bolt a jolt
By BRUCE GARRIOCH, Ottawa Sun
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Tampa Bay Lightning's Martin St. Louis will play for Team Canada in the World Cup of Hockey. (Bruce Bennett Studios) |
As Team Canada players circled the ice prior to practice at the University of Ottawa yesterday, pint-sized forward Martin St. Louis sought out new linemate Mario Lemieux to caution him about what might happen in the next hour or so. "(St. Louis) told me he was nervous about playing on the same line as me, and to give him a couple of days to relax and that everything would be fine," Lemieux said later with a smile.
"I asked him, 'What do you have to be nervous about.?' I told him he shouldn't be nervous because he won the (Hart Trophy) and he was the best player in the league last year. He has nothing to be nervous about. Both of these guys (St. Louis and Tampa Bay Lightning teammate Brad Richards) are excellent players."
On the opening day of training camp for the World Cup, coach Pat Quinn had Lemieux skating with Richards on his right side and St. Louis on the left.
"It's normal to be nervous," said St. Louis, the NHL scoring leader last season with 38 goals and 56 assists for 94 points with the Lightning. "Mario Lemieux is such a great player and everybody knows what he can do.
"I'm not used to something like this happening and I was kind of surprised when I saw (the line combinations). I remember seeing him in 1987 playing with Wayne Gretzky and I kind of had to pinch myself to make sure it was really happening."
The other lines were pretty formidable, too -- Joe Sakic with Simon Gagne and Jarome Iginla, Vincent Lecavalier with Brendan Morrow and Ryan Smyth, Joe Thornton with Patrick Marleau and Dany Heatley, and Kris Draper with Detroit Red Wings teammate Kirk Maltby and Shane Doan.
The defence pairings were Wade Redden and Adam Foote, Robyn Regehr and Scott Niedermayer, Eric Brewer and Ed Jovanovski, and Jay Bouwmeester and Scott Hannan.
MIX AND MATCH
It was only natural to keep Sakic, Iginla and Gagne together because they were the team's best line when Canada captured the gold medal at the 2002 Salt Lake City Olympics.
As for the rest, Quinn said he'll be doing plenty of mixing and matching during the three exhibition games leading to the tournament opener Aug. 31.
"We kind of look at this tournament in three phases, and right now we're in the first phase with this training camp," said Quinn. "What we're doing is we're experimenting with some things and that's what's happening with our lines. We're using this time for preparation and evaluation.
"In Salt Lake City, we didn't really settle on lines until the third game. That could be the same thing here."
