Posted by Scott Burnside and Pierre LeBrun
MONTREAL -- The one constant for the Canadian coaching staff over the past two Olympic Games has been Columbus Blue Jackets coach Ken Hitchcock.
He roomed with assistant Jacques Martin at the 2002 Salt Lake City Games when the Canadians broke a 50-year Olympic gold-medal drought with a victory over the U.S. in the gold-medal game. Two years later, Hitchcock was also part of the staff when Canada won the World Cup of Hockey championship. He was back again in 2006, rooming with assistant coach Wayne Fleming, when the Canadians never made it to the medal round after losing to the Russians, a loss that prompted a firestorm of criticism about how the team was built and how it played.
Hitchcock said Thursday he thinks having seen what it takes to get to those highest of highs and understanding what contributed to those lowest of lows will serve the rest of the coaching staff well.
"It's not the competition to have on-the-job training," Hitchcock said. "Our experiences, good and bad, can really help. I don't want to say cut corners, but accelerate the learning curves."
That experience will be even more crucial for the Canadians in Vancouver because the expectation is this lineup will be dramatically different (read: younger) than the roster that never found an offensive groove in Torino.
"We didn't come together as quick as we would have liked," Hitchcock said. "And that's the fine line you deal with."
Now, it's a clean slate.
"We're going to try and have more of a puck-possession team more than we had in '06," Edmonton Oilers president Kevin Lowe said.
Lowe, like Hitchcock, has been along for the ride with the Canadian Olympic executive team since 2002.
"I wouldn't call it loyalty, but for sure guys [on the 2006 team] had delivered for us. My recollection was the selection isn't anything like it is now," Lowe said. "I'd like to think that we were objective enough to look at a broad enough base of players, but I don't recall it being like now. I mean, we had a tough time getting down to 16 defensemen for the [orientation] camp.
"I said, 'How are we going to get down to seven for the tournament?' There weren't any young guys pushing like now, when you look at how [Duncan] Keith and [Brent] Seabrook played in the playoffs and the year that Mike Green had, just as examples."
As for roommates, one of the benefits of being the veteran on the staff is Hitchcock said he's not rooming with anyone.
Bigger camp for Canada
Interesting to see the different philosophies already on display between Team USA and Team Canada. While the Americans, according to GM Brian Burke, will ice a tidy group of 30 or so players at their mid-August camp, the Canadians are opting for around 44, GM Steve Yzerman confirmed Thursday.
"After meeting with the coaches [Wednesday night], we talked about that, whether we should go down to tighter group of 30," said Yzerman. "The '06 team ran into a lot of injuries and they got down on their depth chart, particularly on defense, and last fall [in the NHL], we had two goalies [Martin Brodeur and Roberto Luongo] that potentially could be on our team get injured. So we think the right way to go is to bring more guys. … We're looking at somewhere around 44."
Not that getting to 44 is that easy, either, when you're a country that produces about half of the 700 players in the NHL.
"We met for a few hours last night and discussed the list with the intent of shortening it, and we lengthened it," Yzerman said with a laugh. "So we've got some work to do here in the next few days. In the next week, we'd like to tighten that up and get our invite list out sometime in the next 10 days or so."
Coach Babs
It was hardly a surprising announcement, but it's worth noting Mike Babcock was absolutely the right choice as coach of Canada's 2010 Olympic hockey team. And the Red Wings coach was pumped up about the job at hand and an Olympic tournament on home soil.
"The great thing about these events, you get to hear your national anthem when you win," said Babcock, who coached Canada to gold at the 2004 IIHF men's tournament in Prague and the 1997 world juniors. "It's unbelievable. You have to earn the right to hear your anthem in your country. Is that cool?"
The pressure and hype in Canada for this tournament will be through the roof.
"It's like the Stanley Cup playoffs jammed into 13 or 14 days," said Babcock. "But you can't afford a mishap. Kevin Lowe said, 'It's the fear of losing with enough courage to get out there and win.'
"To me, that's what it is. You understand things can go wrong, but your will and your preparation and your skill level is going to make it go right."
And it won't hurt to have Sidney Crosby on his side this time after losing to the Penguins captain in the recent Cup finals.
"I'm more than OK with that, I'm ecstatic about it," said Babcock. "The thing that I really appreciated about the way he played in the finals is that he tried to be good without the puck. He played against great players. The thing I like about him is his passion for the game. He competes."
Waiting for Scott
The Anaheim Ducks aren't the only team waiting for Scott Niedermayer to make up his mind on his playing future. Team Canada will also need to figure that out.
He's an automatic invite if he's playing. Yzerman told us Thursday he intends to call Niedermayer within the next 10 days. He said he's not going to pry on Niedermayer's decision, but rather just let him know that even if he's still undecided come August, Team Canada would still love to have him at the camp.
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