Seabrook's Olympic push (glad to have you back)

First, thanks to warrenjm2006 for suggesting this topic as a post based loosely on Allan Muir's SI article. The decision on whether or not Seabrook makes Team Canada will depend on an awful lot of variables as the February Olympics draw nearer, but I find it an interesting study as he is worthy and Vancouver is his hometown and, well, who the hell wouldn't in their wildest dreams be up for playing with your NHL blueline partner... for your country... in the Olympics... in your home freakin' town?!!!

via 3.bp.blogspot.com

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I attended the Red vs. White Team Canada scrimmage back on Aug. 27th in Calgary and as I mentioned in a previous Fanpost, it was a frightening display of talent. Let's just focus on the D for the purposes of this discussion. Management have no doubt already made a few notes and changes as this was now 2 months ago and stats are starting to roll in. On a side note, someone must have slipped a bundle of Jagermeister into Rene Fasel's suitcase, or mentioned the additional 350-800 seats that will be freed up per game, because 2010 represents the first time the Olympics have been played on the smaller North American ice surface. Apparently 53% of Olympic hockey players in Turin were consistently playing on this ice size at the time of the 2006 Olympics and I'll assume we're all rooting for N.A. teams here, so good & good.

In attendance at Calgary playing defence were:

Duncan Keith

Jay Bouwmeester

Shea Weber

Brent Burns

Marc Staal

Francois Beauchemin

Scott Neidermayer

Mike Green

Dan Hamhuis

Dion Phaneuf

Brent Seabrook

Drew Doughty

Dan Boyle

Chris Pronger

Robyn Regehr

Stephane Robidas

These 16 defencemen represent a shitload of talent to whittle down, but I have to agree with Muir that Beauchemin, Burns, Green, and Robidas are quickly removing themselves from the list of candidates with their lackluster performances so far. I'll just tack Hamhuis on there too for obvious reasons. Sticking with the format of the past two Olympic rosters with 7 skaters on D, this still leaves 5 names to drop from the list.

Muir feels Neidermayer, Pronger, Keith, Bouwmeester and Weber are already done deals. Obviously those first three are a go, despite my personal feelings about the evil triad of Pronger, stupid penalties, and international refereeing. I’m not entirely sold on Bouwmeester or Weber even though I like and respect them both and they consistently rack up big points for defencemen in the NHL. Yes, they have the talent, but it’s a tight field they have to stand out in.

Okay - now let’s look at the guys Muir says are building a strong case for themselves; Biscuit, Boyle, Doughty, Phaneuf, & Regehr. For fun, let’s add Weber and Bouwmeester to this list. If we go on points alone, this is how it looked on Oct. 23rd when Muir’s article ran:

Boyle         12

Doughty    11

Phaneuf    9

Seabrook  7 (tied with Neidermayer)

B’meester 6

Weber        6

Regehr      5

If we run the +/- it looks like this:

Seabrook    +5

B’meester   +5

Doughty       +2

Boyle            +1

Weber          0

Phaneuf       0

Regehr         0

Since it is Olympic hockey, and we can expect inconsistent ref’ing and questionable infractions to result in whistles, I think it’s worthy to note that out of ALL the names on Muir’s list, Seabrook is in a four-way tie for the least penalized names in the bunch (4 min.). Pronger on the other hand, at 20 min’s already, has exactly twice as many as the second place Doughty.

Note too that at the time of the article, Seab’s and Pronger had played the least number of games at nine apiece. Boyle and Doughty each had 12 under their belts and Phaneuf & Regehr, like Weber and Bouwmeester, had 10.

Our boy isn’t a 40 or 50 point defenceman (yet) unlike say, Weber, Boyle, Phaneuf or even Bouwmeester. However, I do think he’s capable of it, showing improvement every year and he has more experience than someone like Doughty. He’s big, but pretty much all of these guys except Boyle are large. 

There is an additional piece of voodoo at play here and that is the Keith/Seab’s linemates factor. If coaching staff and managers are down to splitting hairs to make the final decision, this could be a very real determining factor. We’ve all seen how fantastic these two can be together. If it’s more of a shut-down, no stupid penalties type pairing than a high-scoring, risk-reward couplet that comes into management’s pre-Olympic strategy, then I think Seab’s has as good a chance or better than some on the other names on the list.

Obviously, things can and will still change; weaklings can show bursts of talent at the appropriate moment before the final decision, injuries can create openings (S. Neidermayer & Jovanovski didn’t see ice at Turin), and shoe-ins can slump at the worst possible moments.

Myself, and a lot of other Canadians, would absolutely love to see this guy in a Team Canada jersey in front of his hometown crowd & the rest of the world in 2010. Who the hell else even gets the chance?? He’s got some stellar international experience with two World Junior teams, winning Gold in 2005 (yep, Phaneuf and Weber were there as well). While there’s too many variables to pin it down at this time of year, I feel he stands a very good shot at making an amazing dream come true. Go Seabs!!