Countin' on those kids
Youth key to Canada's Cup success
By TERRY JONES -- Edmonton Sun
MONTREAL -- When the XXVIII Olympic Games ended Sunday in Athens, Jacques Rogge asked the youth of the world to reassemble in four years. Yesterday Wayne Gretzky asked the youth of Team Canada to assemble in 48 hours.
As the World Cup of Hockey II begins, every single nation involved has at least one serious concern. Canada's is youth. But it may turn out to be a strength.
"We have a lot of young guys. How they perform will determine how we will do in this," coach Pat Quinn said point-blank in the press conference prior to the North American pool lid lifter tonight between Canada and the U.S. here yesterday.
GM Gretzky said it's obvious. "What we lack is experience."
Only 10 members of Gretzky's gang played in the Salt Lake 2002 Olympics. Only Mario Lemieux played in a Canada Cup and that was back, making magic with Gretzky in 1987. No one played in the last Canada Cup back in 1991.
But there is a different way to look at this. For the last two world championships, a significant number of these young players won gold for Canada. And three of them - Brad Richards, Martin St. Louis and Vinnie Lecavalier, won a Stanley Cup two and a half months ago with Tampa Bay.
"The greatest thing about playing is winning," said Gretzky. "You can't replace that.
TREMENDOUS VICTORY
"In the past few years Canadian players have made it more important to play in world championships. And the guys from Tampa Bay won a Stanley Cup in tremendous fashion, coming from down three games to two. We have a young team, but we love our players."
Youth will be tested from the get-go as the tournament opens with a rematch of the first World Cup against the defending champion Americans who have the oldest team in the tournament with 17 players over the age of 30. There are 11 American players who played in the first World Cup in 1996 to Canada's four - Joe Sakic, Scott Niedermayer, Adam Foote and Ed Jovanovski.
Nine of Canada's 15 forward have zero Olympic and World Cup experience. But international hockey isn't a great mystery to most of them. Do the math. In addition to Lemieux's Canada Cup, there are a total of 10 Olympic golds, 18 world championship golds and 11 world junior golds.
FEELING GOOD
"We feel really good where our team is at this point," said Gretzky on the eve of the opener. "But this is a very important game because we're young and need to get some confidence."
Gretzky has no problem with people picking his team as favourites.
"We won the Olympic gold. We'll take the pressure of being favourites."
Lemieux is the old guy and certainly brings the greatest body of work to the World Cup.
"We have a lot of great young players chasing me to be the best in the world," he said of youth being served in this one.
"Every tournament is different. In 1987, I was fortunate to play with Wayne Gretzky, Mark Messier, Glenn Anderson and Paul Coffey," he said. This year there are a lot of young guys, a lot more than in '87. It's a different makeup, but there is a lot of talent."
The game has changed since Lemieux played in that Canada Cup. And there's every indication that the defensive game which has choked the NHL in recent years will rear its ugly head here.
Without D-men Rob Blake and Chris Pronger on the blue-line, team defence is going to be a Team Canada concept, too. And, again, how the young stars do at adapting to that game will go a long way to deciding the fate of this team.
"Buying into it - that's what Canadian kids do," said Quinn.
"We're asking our players to play a solid two-way game. Defence will put us in a position to win.
"We're starting out expecting to win."
The Americans have a huge question mark in goal with Ty Conklin, Robert Esche and Rick DiPietro. The U.S. has lost Derian Hatcher, Jordan Leopold and Hal Gill on the blue-line. The Russians are without Sergei Fedorov, Alexei Zhitnik and Alexander Mogilny, not to mention Nikolai Khabibulin in goal, where they will go with unknowns Ilya Bryzgalov and Maxim Sokolov. The Slovaks lost Ziggy Palffy and Mike Handzus and have no depth on defence past Zdeno Chara.
"Our top two defencemen are out," said Quinn of Blake and Pronger. "I'm not shedding any tears for the other guys."
With Martin Brodeur in goal, and a defence which is still as good as any in the tournament, if the youth of Team Canada assembles, Canada should be golden again.
