Team Canada

Ryan Murphy came into the OHL with very little fanfare.

He was the third overall pick; notable in this instance because he was the only high draft pick that the Kitchener Rangers had in a decade. Taken ahead of him were players who now aren't even in the conversation when talk of Murphy's NHL Draft position comes up.

Daniel Catenacci, Murphy's teammate in minor hockey, is quietly compiling a solid season with the Soo Greyhounds that will likely end with him being drafted at the top of the second round in June. He was drafted into the OHL No. 1 Overall that year. Alan Quine was taken second. His most notable OHL achievement so far has been being traded for Ryan Spooner.

Murphy's legend started last year during the playoffs. His numbers during the regular season were solid but not spectacular for a rookie defender. He racked up six goals and 33 assists in 62 games. He was regularly slotted in as the fourth defenseman on the Kitchener depth chart behind captain Dan Kelly, Columbus top prospect John Moore and either Patrik Andersson or Jonathan Jasper. In the playoffs, Murphy took over. Paired with John Moore, Murphy racked up five goals and 12 assists for 17 points in 20 games. His points-per-game percentage went from just over 0.5 to 0.85.

His playoff performances, including exhilarating end-to-end rushes and dazzling spectacles of stickhandling, led Hockey Night in Canada's Don Cherry to highlight Murphy as a contender for first overall in the NHL's 2011 Draft.

Murphy stepped up his play going into this season. Marked as Kitchener's top defender after last year's playoff, Murphy was invited to Canada's Under-18 summer camp. He was cut from a team that eventually went on to win gold. The criticism was one he'd heard before: His offence was there but his defensive coverage was lacking. Hockey Canada had sent Murphy into the season with something to prove.

In 24 games this season, Murphy has matched last year's point totals. With 13 goals and 26 assists for 39 points, his points-per-game percentage has gone up from his playoff high of 0.85 to just north of 1.6. Murphy finished last season as a minus-three and is thus far a plus-five on Kitchener's blue line, which is most certainly an answer to some of his critics who challenged his defensive abilities.

But how does Murphy stack up against the other invitees on Canada's prospective blue line?

One thing needs to be made clear: If Murphy is brought along, it will be to add a dynamic to the power play. Much the same reason that Pat Quinn brought Ryan Ellis along to the '09 Tournament in Ottawa. So, comparing Murphy to defenders selected primarily for their defense such as Spokane's Jared Cowen or Kingston's Erik Gudbranson is to miss the point.

Really, Murphy is competing with a much smaller group comprised of himself, Windsor's Ryan Ellis, Everett's Ryan Murray (whose inclusion, along with Murphy's, is Hockey Canada's attempt at an Abbot and Costello routine), Oshawa's Calvin de Haan and Kelowna's Tyson Barrie.

Ellis and de Haan have an immediate advantage over the other three because they are returnees from last year's team. The two play very different styles. Calvin de Haan is a poised passer who's more defensively useful than Ellis because of his size and skating ability but possesses a far lesser offensive arsenal. Ellis is a Brian Rafalski-type power-play quarterback who relies on his hockey sense to run the man advantage and can unleash a bomb from the point.

Both will likely be included on the team. This narrows the likely competition down to Murphy, Murray and Barrie for the last spot (assuming Canada takes seven defensemen).

Barrie is the reigning WHL Defenseman of the Year, but stylistically he's a very similar player both in terms of size and method to Ellis. The advantage that Barrie has with Dave Cameron coaching the team is that, at this moment, he's viewed as being a more mature and more polished defensive presence than either Murphy or Murray.

Murray was the captain of Canada's U-18 team at this summer's Ivan Hlinka Tournament. While his plus-minus is better than Barrie's or Murphy's, he also plays in a highly constrictive defensive system in Everett, which may be inflating that number.

Murray has struggled to produce offensive numbers this season and because the seventh spot is usually reserved for power-play help, Murray's lack of numbers may prove troubling, particularly if his struggles continue at camp.

As for Murphy, his numbers and style speak well for him. He's less of a pure passer than Ellis, Barrie or de Haan and more of a rushing offensive defenseman. Think of the difference between a Brian Rafalski and a Dan Boyle or Phil Housley. He's also outproduced every other defenseman going into camp in terms of offence.

If Canada elects to go with eight defensemen—as it did two years ago when it first brought Ellis along—Murphy will be the reason why. He adds a dynamic to the power play that the others do not but his style also lends to an easy conversion to wing if a forward were to go down with injury. That fact isn't necessarily true of either Barrie or Murray.

According to Andrew Gross of The Bergin Record , the season is not quite over for a few Rangers. Brandon Dubinsky, Matt Gilroy, Artem Anisimov, and possibly Marc Staal are all expected to play in next month’s World Championships in Germany.

Dubinsky and Gilroy are going to play for Team USA, Anisimov is on the preliminary roster for Team Russia, and Staal is expected, but has yet to be, named on the Team Canada roster.

Other players who might be added to roster later on include Henrik Lundqvist , Marian Gaborik , and Dan Girardi . Ryan Callahan and Vinny Prospal probably would be going, but both are unlikely because of knee injuries.

This doesn’t really do much for the Rangers besides give fans someone to cheer for during the World Championships. Although this can definitely be beneficial to Gilroy who was often scratched down the stretch for the Rangers.

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• April 8, 2010 -- Marc Staal NHL’s Top Defensive Defenseman? (0)
• April 7, 2010 -- Rangers Should Not Use Returning Boyle (0)

Somebody must have forgotten to tell Canadian athletes that the Olympics are over. 

After spending two weeks watching our athletes deliver the performance of a lifetime and a glorious overtime hockey final, it's easy for fans to forget that the athletes don't go into hibernation at Olympics end.

Proving the record medal count was not a one time deal, Canada's finest have been producing medals almost daily since the end of the games.

Here is a sampling of what our athlete's have achieved in a few short weeks:

Mercedes Nicoll of Whistler, B.C., ended a podium drought of nearly five years Sunday by winnning the bronze medal in halfpipe at a World Cup snowboard stop in Italy

In the men's halfpipe contest, Justin Lamoureux of Squamish, B.C., took fourth place, enough to keep him atop the World Cup standings. With just one more contest to go, Lamoureux could secure another Crystal Globe for Canada in 2010

Chris Del Bosco picked up the bronze medal Sunday at the second-to-last Skicross World Cup race of the season

Jenn Heil of Spruce Grove, Alta., is on top of the moguls world after capturing a bronze medal in Freestyle World Cup action Saturday, that gave Heil, 26, her fifth Crystal Globe, to tie the record set by American Donna Weinbrecht

Maxime Gingras of St-Hippolyte, Que., collected a silver in men's moguls for his second medal in as many days

Maelle Ricker's dream season keeps getting better.The Olympic champion from West Vancouver locked up the snowboard cross World Cup title by finishing second in the women's event Friday

Canadian women made history Friday as the first country to sweep the podium in a women's World Cup ski cross event

Kelsey Serwa of Kelowna, B.C., beat Olympic champion Ashleigh McIvor of Whistler, B.C., with Winnipeg's Danielle Poleschuk completing the Canadian sweep. Anna Holmlund of Sweden was fourth.

McIvor made her fifth trip to the podium this season. The result put her within 27 points of series leader Ophelie David of France for the overall World Cup title

**Did you think it was over yet??  Not even close, that tingly feeling you may have at this point is called pride and the list is only halfway done...**

Kristina Groves Her latest win came Saturday in the 1,500 metres at a long-track speedskating World Cup. With the victory, she locked up the overall title at the distance for the third straight year

The Canadian women's team pursuit grabbed the gold medal at a long-track speedskating World Cup event on Sunday, clinching the overall season title

The Canadian men grabbed silver with a time of 3:44.30, just 1.53 seconds behind Norway. Canada is third in the overall rankings with 306 points. Norway is first (380) followed by the Netherlands (350)

Canadian Denny Morrison shook off his Olympic struggles to finish second in the men's 1,500 metres Friday at the long-track speedskating World Cup final

Erik Guay, of Mont-Tremblant, Que., produced a daring run on the Kandahar course Thursday to pick up his second super-G title in less than a week.The victory also gave him the World Cup title in the discipline, the first time a Canadian has won a crystal globe since Toronto's Steve Podborski in 1982 (Amazing Achievement)

There are more but you get the point.  If this list tells us anything, it's that putting a little money into our programs can yield BIG results.  Hopefully this is noted by the powers that be so that we can produce even more medals come 2014 in Sochi.

I would love to see this type of initiative put into our summer sports as well.  It's time to show the world that we are not just about Hockey all the time. 

Although it doesn't hurt to have that crown back either...

This article is not going to be popular among my Canadian friends. And I have—or had—many of them.

I work for a Canadian company, I have dozens of Canadian fans on this site and several who are friends of mine on Facebook, and (with all due respect to my favourite team, the Green Bay Packers!) my favourite sport is the Canadian national pastime. Heck, you can see that I even use Canadian spellings (okay, originally they were the English ones).

But even my attempts to broach this idea in the last week since the gold medal game have been met with accusations that I am bitter, a sore loser, making excuses, or diminishing Canada's accomplishment. Nothing could be further from the truth, and I will address them one-by-one.

There is nothing bitter about me regarding Olympic hockey, unless you are referring to my prognostication skills: I picked Canada to win, but had every other medalist wrong.

The tournament was extraordinary, and did wonders for marketing the world's best game. Team USA made me proud and exceeded my expectations, and more games than I predicted (back to my lack of prognostication skill!) were close and competitive.

More to the point, because this is the thing that my Northern neighbours have misjudged me on, I fully acknowledge that the best team won. They were better than us in the final, and we were not robbed.

That should take care of the "sore loser" and excuse-making accusations. Let's move on to the diminishing Canada's accomplishment, because this one has some merit.

Let me make this clear: Canada was expected to win, and especially playing at home, that is an intense amount of pressure. There may be nothing harder than winning when everyone expects you to.

Unless it is winning with far less talent. Like every other team in the tournament.

Canada had 14 players who had participated in last season's NHL All Star Game, and all but one of their players (Patrice Bergeron) is on the ice when the puck first drops for his team's contests. In fact, if Canada fielded two hockey teams, their next 23 players would be medal favourites.

Do not misunderstand me, Team USA was no slouch: 12 of their 19 players participating in the gold medal game are on the ice to start games for their teams, and the rest still play significant roles on their teams. However, there is no comparison to the talent of Canada—only four participated in last year's NHL All Star Game.

For this team to win a medal at all was a bigger accomplishment than Canada winning gold. But that alone would not be enough for me to be more proud of my team than Canada should be of theirs.

The reason I believe Team USA was the most impressive in the Olympics was they played hard on every shift. They came up with an upset win over arguably the most talented team ever assembled, beat a team on their own level 6-1, and never trailed until the gold medal game, when they still managed to come back from a two-goal deficit to force overtime.

Canada lost to a less talented Team USA, then blew a two-goal lead as their intensity noticeably diminished once they attained that lead (a trait my San Jose Sharks are known for—albeit less-so this season—that drives me nuts) before needing overtime to beat their little brothers.

They needed a shootout to beat Switzerland, who had only two current NHL players. They almost blew a three-goal, third period lead to Slovakia, who had fewer NHL players than Canada had All Stars.

Did they rise up when it counted? Yes. (My fear is this will teach the four San Jose Sharks on the team—more than any other NHL team—that they can do this, as they have tried in the past, during this year's NHL playoffs, leading to another premature defeat.)

Is this the spirit of the Olympics? No.

Originally an amateur competition, it has always been about national pride spurring on amazing performances, much like the early rounds of March Madness. Players are supposed to show constant work ethic and "leave it all on the ice."

This is what Team USA did. This is what the Slovakians did. This does not describe Team Canada, who was outworked in three of their six games and relied on their ability to take over when they turned the switch back on.

I am certainly not alone in this assessment. Team USA Coach Ron Wilson echoed my sentiments a week ago:

"I couldn't have asked anything more of our players. They did us proud. They played hard for 60-some minutes, right to the end in regulation and (Canada) made a great play and found a way to finish us off. But, we are very proud of every one of our players—their character, how hard they tried, their comportment here has been excellent.'
 
"It's just a shame that both teams couldn't have received a gold medal today. Sometimes, the best team in the tournament doesn't win a gold medal. I thought our team played as well as any team I have ever coached."

That's what the Olympics are supposed to be about, and that's why to me USA hockey's silver medals shine brighter than Canada's gold ones do.

Hopefully, my Canadian friends can be objective and acknowledge we accomplished more even though they reached the ultimate goal. If not, I do not blame them for being defensive about their nation's performance in their nation's game, especially given they did win gold.

I originally wrote this article for Shark-Infested Blogger .

I remember the torch coming through Bradford, the small town where I live. I remember those emotions, though that’s all I had thought towards the Olympics. I wasn’t going to watch the games, could really care less at first. I didn’t even watch the opening ceremonies, as it didn’t seem as to something that would appeal to me.

Though that all changed in one moment as I was flipping through channels and peered into the Snowboard cross race, which turned into Gold for Canada. But it wasn’t due to the fact that the Gold medal hooked me—it was due to the sport of Snowboard racing. The spirit of the type of competition, how it went down.

So with that said, I peered into the girl’s bobsled competition, in which as the action picked up, as it got down to the wire, I found myself cheering. I was hooked into the excitement and of course that turned out well as it was Kaillie Humphries and Heather Moyse winning the Gold medal.

Through these Olympics and being brought into the action, I have some final thoughts towards these Olympics.

Everybody has talked about pride in their country and that is something I felt. The Olympic Medal ceremonies for the girl’s bobsledders—when they raised the Canadian flag to symbolize the Gold and Silver medals, I felt tears coming to my eyes, pride in my country.

I also felt proud of Humphries and Moyse for winning that Gold medal, for showcasing how good they were in bobsledding because for anyone whose a fan or has read their biography, this should actually be a surprise that it’s their first and first ever medal for Canada in Bobsledding. These girls have proven around the world that they’re the best, Moyse pointless times, yet never won Olympic medals till now.

I also felt pride in my country for being the host of the games and how well that went off. Everybody has had positive things to say about the culture and surroundings that it rubbed off on me, making me feel proud to be a Canadian.

However, the most significant piece of the puzzle that showed me country pride was that of how the people came together in Canada to celebrate the Gold medals and the fact that 26.6 million people of a country with a population of 35 million watched the men’s Gold medal hockey game against the United States. If you add in those who were in Vancouver or out at other venues in groups, you’re probably up towards maybe even 28 million.

To see a country full of differences come together to celebrate showed that country unity is possible, that despite our diverse society we can come together.

In all this discussion, emotions have been discussed, yet the biggest showing of emotions had to be for figure skater Joannie Rochette. Just before the Olympics, Rochette’s mother died, yet she still said that she’d go on to skate in the Olympics. In both of Rochette’s performances, emotions were high as tears entered the eyes of many Canadians, yet also others from around the world, due to the courage and the fact she went on to perform.

Rochette is the inspiration, in my opinion, for this year’s Winter games for the inspiration that she brought to many. Her courage and aspirations to go on were beyond any level that anybody would’ve expected. Normally an athlete just touches people in their own country with their story, however she took it to another level and that is why she’ll be remembered for this beyond 2010.

In the competition, she won the Bronze Medal, which to many is like Gold for her due to this story. For her to be honored with the Terry Fox Award and the final flag bearer for Canada seemed fitting. Way to go, Joannie! We’re all proud of you.

Though, to close the article, I have to go back to why the Olympics were first created. Greece brought forth the Olympics as an offer of peace. They figured that getting the world’s athletes together and letting them unite would help the rest of the world unite. This proved to be true once again as rivalries were certainly brought forth with countries facing off against each other, yet it was in good sported competition by everybody.

It was good spirited competition all around with nothing really bad being said from one country to another. The wars, the arguments were all put aside for these 17 days as the world meant in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.

In taking something away from the Olympics, as a world we should all look at that fact and how multi-cultural Canada is and see that we can all live in peace together. World Peace is possible, whether you believe it on the surface or not.

Sid the Kid scored one for the ages Sunday.  In overtime of the gold medal game between Teams USA and Canada, Crosby's little wrist shot through Ryan Miller's legs wrote a page in hockey history not soon to be forgotten.

According to several reports, ratings for the Olympic finale were through the proverbial roof.  In the U.S., the game drew an average of 27.6 million viewers with a ratings share of 15.2.

For hockey, these numbers are astronomical. It makes Sunday's game the third most watched hockey game in U.S. history, trailing only 1980s USA-Russia "Miracle on Ice" game and the resultant gold medal game between USA and Finland.

To put that into some perspective, the NHL's most recent ratings coup—Game Seven of last season's Stanley Cup Finals between the Detroit Red Wings and the Pittsburgh Penguins—drew eight million viewers and pulled in a 4.3 ratings share. Yet that was the most watched NHL game in 36 years.

Even so, hockey is beginning to gain a bit of momentum in the United States. Ratings have been ticking upwards, albeit slowly, with each successive season since the lockout cancelled the 2004-05 season. Adding to the league's success is its newest tradition, the Winter Classic, which has been a New Year's Day winner.

The NHL is crossing its fingers in hopes that the ratings explosion from the Olympics carries over into the remainder of the 2010 season and beyond. 

This comes as no surprise.  The fact of the matter is that modern Olympic hockey is merely an advertisement for the NHL. 

The league could care less about national pride or who wins the gold. Since 1998, the league has been willing to shut itself down for three weeks each season in hopes of exactly what occurred Sunday: its star players playing at the highest level on a worldwide stage attracting a multitude of viewers—fans and non-fans alike.  

No promotion the league could dream up equalled the hype and even the reality of what took place on the Olympic ice Sunday. The numbers proved this out.

Was this all just a lucky turn of events for the NHL and its broadcast partner NBC? 

The two entities are linked in a rather unusual television deal.  The NHL and NBC equally split all revenue generated from NBC's broadcast of the league's games.  No other professional sports league has this sort of television deal.

The two had to be smiling ear to ear grins while shaking hands over the numbers generated by the hockey games during these past Olympics.  While NHL all-stars filled the top contending teams' rosters, NBC saw even its ratings on MSNBC soar.  In fact, MSNBC drew its second-highest ratings ever (with the 2008 presidential election being number one) with the first USA-Canada matchup.

Luckily for NBC, despite USA knocking Canada into the losers bracket for the remainder of the Olympic tournament, Canada fought its way back into the gold medal final.

The final didn't disappoint NBC or the NHL.  Not only was the game a tight, hard-fought contest, it was remarkably pushed into overtime thanks to a nail-biting, last second goal by Team USA's Zach Parise.

Then in OT, as if written by a Hollywood screenwriter, the NHL's "next Wayne Gretzky" Sidney Crosby flicked the game winner into the net and became Canada's newest national hero, perhaps even surpassing the Great One in that moment.

It all seemed almost too good to be true. 

Was it?

Rarely do honest-to-goodness "Hollywood endings" actually occur in this world. Yet that is exactly what transpired in these past Olympic hockey games with both NBC and the NHL getting the maximum return on its investment into the tournament. 

Granted, it seems next to impossible to believe the fix was in for the Olympics. Yet in remembering that the hockey games—in the NHL's eyes—are mere advertising and that every contending team was stocked with NHL players, then perhaps "impossible" is the wrong word to use.

Still, the players are there to represent their respective country, and to think that the NHL could convince a team (or a player) to tank a game is highly unlikely. Perhaps it would be even unnecessary as both USA and especially Canada were expected to reach the medal round.  Both teams had met head-to-head in the gold medal game in the Salt Lake City games of 2002.

Then again, there was what occurred in 2006 in Torino, when both USA and Canada managed to end the Olympics in seventh and eighth place respectively.  Those teams, like the 2002 and 2010 teams, were stocked with NHL All-Stars.  So nothing was a true given.

Then there was the gold medal game itself.  With that many NHL stars on the ice, nothing less than spectacular should have been expected.  The game, surprisingly, lived up to the hype. 

But there were oddities. Perhaps the most glaring being Roberto Luongo's inability to hold on to the puck. This sudden lack of coordination gave USA the ability to comeback from the 2-0 hole it had dug for itself and send the game into overtime.

Again, thinking Luongo could've been "on the take" when the entire country of Canada was behind him seems ridiculous. Mere nerves given the stakes of the game likely explains how pucks were bouncing off of him like he was a wooden cut-out.

Then there was the game-winner—Sid the Kid's shot through Ryan Miller's weakly guarded five-hole. Could someone, besides Jerome Iginla, have set that up? 

Yet, what would be the odds that Crosby would in fact be the player to score one of the biggest goals in Canadian hockey history?  How likely was it that the new face of the NHL would further entrench himself into both Canadian and American hockey fans' collective consciousness with such a dramatic goal?

On paper, it appears too fanciful to believe. If you told someone, before the Olympics, that USA would beat Canada early in the tournament, yet it would still come down to a rematch with Canada playing the USA in the gold medal game, and that the contest would go into overtime with none other than Sidney Crosby scoring the game winner, no one would believe you.

Yet that's exactly what happened. 

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