Redden available, but likely won't play
By STEVE BUFFERY, TORONTO SUN
You might say that tonight's World Cup semi-final features the Czech Republic against the Check Republic, which is an apt name for the Team Canada defence corps. Everyone and his brother has been lauding the play of Canadian goaltender Martin Brodeur, who has allowed only three goals in four World Cup games.
Equally as impressive, but not nearly as celebrated during the tournament, has been the work of the defence.
Even with injuries to Ed Jovanovski and Wade Redden, the defence has been solid for Canada, and that makes for an interesting dilemma.
Redden, who missed the quarter-final game against Slovakia because of a sore left shoulder, said yesterday he may be ready to play tonight. But Scott Hannan and Jay Bouwmeester -- who replaced Redden and, earlier in the tournament, Jovanovski -- have been outstanding.
Hence the dilemma.
"Hannan and Bouwmeester have been really strong and played very well for us and quite frankly, how do you take them out?" Team Canada executive director Wayne Gretzky said yesterday.
Gretzky suggested that unless Redden is absolutely 100%, and that's not likely, he won't be inserted into the lineup.
"We're in a case where we don't have to rely on a guy who's 75%, we've got capable guys and extremely strong depth and it wouldn't be fair to Wade to put him in if he's not 100%," the Great One said. "So we're not even monitoring that situation.
"But it shows depth that we have as a country. We've had no real glaring weaknesses. It's amazing how great you can look as individuals when you play well as a team, and this is a classic case here. The lines are competitive with each other and they push each other to have better shifts than the previous shift and yet do it in an extremely unselfish manner."
Redden practised yesterday but acknowledged he was still in some discomfort.
"I think you can't look too far ahead, either I'm going to be ready or I'm not," Redden said. "There are a lot of variables, obviously the guys who are in there have been doing the job and playing great, so I guess from that point it's up to the management to see what they want to do."
Despite the star players involved in the World Cup, the games largely have been defence-first contests, and Team Canada coach Pat Quinn expects that to continue, especially when the Czechs are playing.
"That's how they beat Canada in '98," Quinn said of the Nagano Olympic semi-finals, which the Czechs won in a shootout.
"We watched the (quarter-final) game against the Swedes (on Tuesday), they pushed when they could, but they played a real fall-back game and we'll expect to see the same (tonight)."
