Welcome to the Hotstove! As always, I'm your host, Travis Yost.
After the Toronto Maple Leafs victory at the Winter Classic on Wednesday night, Team USA announced the full roster that would be headed over to Sochi to compete in the 2014 Winter Olympics. As expected, there were a handful of surprises.
The team, via TSN's Bob McKenzie:
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FORWARDS: Parise, Callahan, Brown, JVR, Kesler, Backes, Pavelski, Stastny, Stepan, Kane, Kessel,Pacioretty, Wheeler, Oshie.
DEFENSEMEN: Suter, Martin, McDonagh, Faulk, Fowler, Shattenkirk, Orpik, Carlson.
GOALIES: Miller, Quick, Howard.
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Your list of notable snubs would include the following: Ryan, Yandle, Byfuglien, E. Johnson, J. Johnson, Okposo.
Perhaps the most interesting name in that list is perennial thirty-goal man Bobby Ryan. Team USA fought back and forth with the decision with him, but inevitably decided to guy with one or two forwards who may (a) prove to be better skaters; and (b) are capable of killing penalties. At least that's what
ESPN's Scott Burnside was told from their ops department:
Brian Burke would add:
"He is not intense. That word is not in his vocabulary," Burke says. "It's never going to be in his vocabulary. He can't spell intense."
I think Dustin Byfuglien, pretty quietly, is probably the team's biggest miss -- especially when you look at what they're dressing on the back-end. I'm guessing they were concerned about Byfuglien's skating on the bigger ice, but he's very clearly a first-pairing defenseman at the NHL-level. I don't see anything remotely resembling that from the likes of Cam Fowler, for example.
Another important note from Burnside: one of Zach Parise, David Backes, Dustin Brown, Patrick Kane or Ryan Callahan will be awarded with the team's captaincy.
So, what say you guys? Good looking roster? Too many bad decisions? Can this team compete for the gold?
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