PHOTO CREDIT: Deadspin.com | 
With the Vancouver Winter Olympics an after thought amongst many North Americans now, and team Canada the owners of the gold medal, there is little sense in complaining about who made the team and who did not.
Steve Stamkos, Jeff Carter and Jay Bouwmeester are just a few of the names who could have made team Canada but didn’t.
Had Canada lost, those final roster spots would have been scrutinized until the Sochi Olympics in 2014. However, that wasn’t the case, and the Team Canada brass can be confident that they selected the right players to get the job done.
The same could be said about the United States despite them not winning gold. They came in as underdogs and few experts picked them to even play for a medal. To come within an overtime goal of a gold medal is a tremendous accomplishment for a country that fared even worse than Canada in the 2006 Turin Olympics.
The US decided to part ways with the likes of Mike Modano, Bill Guerin and Chris Chelios for a younger, more vibrant group. Led by Patrick Kane and Ryan Miller, this new group representing the red, white and blue finished admirably by playing fast, hard hockey.
It got me thinking about how powerful a team could be created if the two teams combined to make an all star team.
Even though the United States beat Canada in the round robin and took the gold medal game to overtime, Canada had far more fire power than their neighbors to the south. Just to create a roster controversy when one is not necessary, below is the roster of what Team North America would have been comprised of – in my opinion.
Forward
Nash-Crosby-Iginla
Kane-Toews-Parise
Heatley-Thornton-Getzlaf
Kesler-Richards-Perry
Extra – Morrow
Defense
Pronger-Niedermayer
Weber-Doughty
Seabrook-Keith
Boyle
Goalies
Ryan Miller
Roberto Luongo
Martin Brodeur
As you have likely noticed, there really was not much to change from Team Canada to Team North America. The Canadians had tremendous depth and there was not much room to improve.
It was tough to remove players like Eric Staal and Patrick Marleau from the roster but as the Olympics proved, Ryan Kesler is a dynamic two way player who agitates with the best of them. And if it was not for Patrick Kane’s determined back check on Sidney Crosby’s breakaway with 5 minutes left, overtime probably would not have been needed. Not to mention Kane’s offensive flair and the obvious chemistry that he shares with Blackhawks teammate Jonathon Toews.
The US was notably weak on defense and this is especially evident by none of the US defenders being able to crack Team North America’s line up. Brian Rafalski had a great tournament but his veteran presence is not needed when you have a stud in Scott Niedermayer already back there.
Goaltending was an easy pick and if Team North America existed there never would be as much as a sniff of controversy.
Ryan Miller has been head and shoulders above everyone else in the league this past season and he would have been named the starting goalie. The only controversy would have been who sits in the press box and who sits on the end of the bench.
It is unlikely that we will ever see a competition involving Team North America but you never know. The All-Star game used to be North America vs. the World, or if there is ever another strike maybe they will start up a traveling tournament team.
Until then one can only imagine what this continents best players could accomplish if they are playing with each other instead of against.
For Open Ice Hockey, this is Mike Zelek – Please Enjoy Responsibly.
Topics: canada, North America, Olympics, Patrick Kane, Ryan Miller, United States, US
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[...] This post was mentioned on Twitter by Bruce Hollingdrake, Jesse Michael. Jesse Michael said: A look at the roster alignment if two hockey superpowers had a chance to align http://tinyurl.com/28fsgla [...]
This is good post. I think still you should add more video and pictures because it helps understanding