Sports

Canada’s Olympic hockey team, as chosen by Sun readers

Sidney Crosby celebrates his golden goal with Team Canada teammates Scott Niedermayer and Drew Doughty. (REUTERS)
Sidney Crosby celebrates his golden goal with Team Canada teammates Scott Niedermayer and Drew Doughty. (REUTERS)

Hang on to your nesting dolls, Russia.

Our readers have chosen the next Team Canada they hope will capture gold at the 2014 Olympics in Sochi.

Readers seem to want a younger, faster, more offensively aware team on Olympic-sized ice when things get going next February.

Voters were allowed to choose three goalies, eight defencemen and 13 forwards to round out the roster – and the results are in.

In between the pipes, and picking up the most votes, was Carey Price (26%).

At the request of our readers, backing up Price, and returning for a second-straight Games, was Roberto Luongo (17%). Marc-Andre Fleury (16%) received enough votes to be our readers’ goalie-in-waiting in 2014.

Next closest to breaking into the squad was Carolina Hurricanes’ Cam Ward.

Canadian hockey fans want to see three-time all-star Shea Weber quarterbacking the team’s blueline in 2014. Weber grabbed (12%), followed closely by Drew Doughty (11.8%) and Duncan Keith (10.63%). The Penguins’ Kris Letang grabbed just under 10% of the vote to earn a spot on the second line.

Our readers’ bottom four defencemen narrowly cracked the roster. Marc Staal, Brent Seabrook, Alex Pietrangelo and P.K. Subban rounded out Canada’s defensive unit, collecting just 5-7% of the vote.

Defencemen Justin Schultz, Brian Campbell and Dan Boyle just missed the cut.

That brings us to the four lines our readers hope to see provide most of the scoring next winter.

Rather unsurprisingly, the top three forwards picked by QMI readers were Sidney Crosby (7.73%), Steve Stamkos (7.62%) and Jonathan Toews (7.48%).

Second line votes went to Claude Giroux (6.48%), John Tavares (5.72%) and Jordan Eberle (5.6%).

From there, the lines became a little more muddled. Rick Nash (5.52%) earned enough votes to be named to our readers’ third line, alongside Eric Staal (5.39%) and Corey Perry (4.83%).

Based on last week’s online poll, the fourth line for the red and white will see Ryan Getzlaf (3.97%) skate with Tyler Seguin (3.83%) and Patrice Bergeron (3.23%).

The 13th warrior selected was Mike Richards, who earned just 2.87% of the more than 20,000 votes cast to complete the squad.

When Hockey Canada’s suits finally do name the 2014 team, we’ll revisit the results to see how in line QMI readers are with management.

TEAM CANADA (as picked by QMI readers)

Goalies
Carey Price, 25, Montreal Canadiens
Roberto Luongo, 33, Vancouver Canucks
Marc-Andre Fleury, 28, Pittsburgh Penguins

Defencemen
Shea Weber, 27, Nashville Predators
Drew Doughty, 23, Los Angeles Kings
Duncan Keith, 29, Chicago Blackhawks
Kris Letang, 25, Pittsburgh Penguins
Marc Staal, 26, New York Rangers
Brent Seabrook, 27, Chicago Blackhawks
Alex Pietrangelo, 23, St. Louis Blues
P.K. Subban, 23, Montreal Canadiens

Forwards
Sidney Crosby, 25, Pittsburgh Penguins
Steve Stamkos, 23, Tampa Bay Lightning
Jonathan Toews, 24, Chicago Blackhawks
Claude Giroux, 25, Philadelphia Flyers
John Tavares, 22, New York Islanders
Jordan Eberle, 22, Edmonton Oilers
Rick Nash, 28, New York Rangers
Eric Staal, 28, Carolina Hurricanes
Corey Perry, 27, Anaheim Ducks
Ryan Getzlaf, 27, Anaheim Ducks
Tyler Seguin, 21, Boston Bruins
Patrice Bergeron, 27, Boston Bruins
Mike Richards, 28, Los Angeles Kings

Originally published Feb. 15 on all Sun Media sites

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