Team Canada names Carey Price to initial World Cup roster
Huzzah! It's the Team Canada roster for the World Cup of Hockey, being held this September in ... wait for it ... CANADA!
The preliminary group of players had to be announced by March 2; the rest of the roster (seven players) gets announced on June 1.
Here's what the first group of Team Canada players looks like:
GOALIES
Corey Crawford, Chicago Blackhawks
Braden Holtby, Washington Capitals
Carey Price, Montreal Canadiens
DEFENSEMEN
Drew Doughty, Los Angeles Kings
Duncan Keith, Chicago Blackhawks
Marc-Edouard Vlasic, San Jose Sharks
Shea Weber, Nashville Predators
FORWARDS
Jamie Benn, Dallas Stars
Patrice Bergeron, Boston Bruins
Jeff Carter, Los Angeles Kings
Sidney Crosby, Pittsburgh Penguins
Ryan Getzlaf, Anaheim Ducks
Tyler Seguin, Dallas Stars
Steven Stamkos, Tampa Bay Lightning
John Tavares, New York Islanders
Jonathan Toews, Chicago Blackhawks
A few thoughts ...
* The big news here, of course, is that Canada went ahead and named Carey Price to the team despite his injury situation, and then went ahead and named two other goalies to the roster as well. (Sorry, Roberto Luongo and Marc-Andre Fleury.) At the very least, this puts Crawford and (especially) Holtby on notice in case Price can't go.
* Along with that, only four defensemen are named to the roster. Does this mean an open competition for Brent Burns, Brent Seabrook, Mark Giordano, T.J. Brodie, P.K. Subban and Alex Pietrangelo as we get to the next seven players named to the team?
* Naming Getzlaf to the team without Corey Perry? It's like naming peanut butter and not naming angry, elbow-throwing jelly!
* Assuming the Flyers miss the playoffs, will go ahead and guess that Claude Giroux will be a good boy and go to worlds. Ditto Taylor Hall.
Here's the Team Canada jersey:
Previously released 16-man rosters:
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Greg Wyshynski is a writer for Yahoo Sports. Contact him at puckdaddyblog@yahoo.com or find him on Twitter. His book, TAKE YOUR EYE OFF THE PUCK, is available on Amazon and wherever books are sold.
