This is an excerpt from The Buzzer, which is CBC Sports’ daily email newsletter. Stay up to speed on what’s happening in sports by subscribing here.
Every day this month, the NHL has been rolling out a “quarter-century team” for each of its 32 franchises. The main idea is to select a starting lineup of the best three forwards, two defencemen and one goalie who played for that team since the year 2000.
So, with the 4 Nations Face-Off coming up in a couple weeks and NHL players returning to the Olympics next year, I thought it might be fun to pick an all-century lineup from Canada’s Olympic men’s hockey teams.
Even though our scope here is technically 25 years, we really only need to look at three Olympic tournaments — 2002, 2010 and 2014. The 2006 Games were a disaster for Canada, which got shut out by both Switzerland (!) and Finland in the group stage before losing to Russia in the quarterfinals by the same 2-0 score. And of course NHL players did not participate in 2018 and 2022.
I also should be clear that I’m making these picks based on how players performed in the Olympics, not in the NHL. If that were the case, we’d all just pencil Wayne Gretzky and Mario Lemieux into two of the forward spots. Too easy. Also, I’m putting extra weight on peak performance and big moments while also considering players’ overall Olympic body of work.
Alright, enough with the preamble. Here are my picks.
Forwards: Sidney Crosby, Jarome Iginla, Joe Sakic
A rule of thumb for me is that if you score the goal of the century, you get a spot on my all-century team. But Crosby’s accomplishments go beyond the Golden Goal. He had four goals and three assists in seven games in Vancouver, then captained the 2014 gold-winning team that some consider the best Canadian squad ever assembled. Crosby’s omission from the punchless 2006 team, in the midst of a 99-point rookie season, was a mistake by GM Wayne Gretzky.
Iginla’s 10 Olympic goals are the most by a Canadian man in the modern era. He scored three in 2002 in Salt Lake City, including a pair in the final to beat the rival United States on its own ice and deliver Canada its first Olympic men’s hockey gold medal in 50 years. Iginla added two more goals in 2006 before potting a team-high five in Vancouver and setting up Crosby’s Golden Goal (“IGGYYYYYY!”)
Two of Sakic’s three Olympic appearances were in 1998 (not in this century) and 2006 (let’s just move on). But his incredible clutch performance in 2002 puts him on this list. After scoring in a 2-1 quarterfinal win over Finland, Sakic netted two goals and assisted on two others in Canada’s cathartic 5-2 win over the U.S. in the gold-medal game, culminating with his breakaway goal on Mike Richter with 1:20 left to put the dagger in the Americans and generate one of Bob Cole’s best calls. Sakic was named MVP of the tournament after leading all Canadian scorers with four goals and seven points in six games.
Honourable mention: Mario Lemieux. My head says Sakic for that third forward spot, but my heart says Super Mario. Lemieux’s famous phantom pass to Paul Kariya for Canada’s first goal is the play I think about most from that monumental 2002 gold-medal win. Plus, Lemieux was the team captain and had six points, trailing only Sakic for the Canadian points lead despite sitting out a game due to the agonizing hip injury that ended his NHL season just one game after his only Olympics. Mario wanted that gold medal as bad as we did, and I’ll always be grateful for that.
Defencemen: Scott Niedermayer, Chris Pronger
The great Fordham University football teams of the 1930s had the Seven Blocks of Granite along the line of scrimmage. Canada’s Olympic men’s hockey championship teams of 2002 and 2010 had these two pillars on the blue-line.
The smooth-skating Niedermayer was arguably Canada’s best player in Salt Lake City, his modest two points in six games belying his ability to control the game from anywhere on the ice. After missing the 2006 Games due to injury, Niedermayer remained so respected by his peers that he was named captain of the 2010 team during his final NHL season. He also continued to log big minutes, including more than 21 in the gold-medal game.
The bone-crunching Pronger was probably the most feared defenceman in Olympic hockey, and he too would dominate vast swaths of the ice with his intimidating size, octopus-like reach and booming shot. Canada’s all-time leader in Olympic games played (25) ate up a team-high 23:35 of ice time in the 2010 final.
Honourable mention: Shea Weber. Canada’s modern leader in Olympic points by a defenceman racked up 12 in 13 games (including five goals) to help Canada win gold in 2010 and 2014 and tie fellow defenceman Drew Doughty for the team lead in points in Sochi. In the quarterfinals there, Weber blasted in one of his trademark slapshots with seven minutes left to send Canada to a nervy 2-1 win over Latvia, whose minor-league goalie Kristers Gudlevskis made 55 saves to nearly pull off one of the biggest upsets in hockey history. Also, a quick shout-out to Doughty, who won two golds with Weber and led all Canadians with four goals in Sochi.
Goalie: Carey Price
Martin Brodeur (2002) and Roberto Luongo (2010) each won gold as Canada’s No. 1 goalie and added another as the backup. But no one dominated the way Price did in 2014.
While it’s true that coach Mike Babcock’s (over?)insistence on lockdown defensive play helped Price a great deal, he finished the tournament with almost comical numbers — 5-0 with two shutouts, a 0.60 goals-against average and .972 save percentage. He also really delivered when the chips were down: those two shutouts came in the semifinals against the U.S. (1-0) and the gold-medal game vs. Sweden (3-0).
What do you think?
Agree or disagree with these picks? Drop me a line at thebuzzer@cbc.ca.
I also want to thank my friend Rob Pizzo, a walking encyclopedia of hockey knowledge, for his insight. If I picked an all-century team of CBC Sports colleagues, he’d be on it.