It has been four years since the finest players alive from Canada showed themselves to be a single OT goal better than the finest players alive from The United States...
But who would win the game today? The two countries will be holding camps this month (I will be attending the American camp in DC) and have each country invited nearly 50 players to begin to see who will answer that question in Sochi Russia a few months from now.
Canada could put two teams of forwards in the olympics and the US could do the same on defense and in goal....About all we can say for sure is the teams will look VERY different when they hit the ice this time around. I will hold off my prediction until a little later, but looking at the rosters of the invitees below who do you think would win that game?
TEAM USA INVITEES
Forwards: Justin Abdelkader
David Backes
Beau Bennett
Nick Bjugstad
Dustin Brown
Ryan Callahan
Alex Galchenyuk
Patrick Kane
Ryan Kesler
Phil Kessel
Trevor Lewis
Kyle Okposo
T.J. Oshie
Max Pacioretty
Kyle Palmieri
Zach Parise,
Joe Pavelski
Bobby Ryan
Brandon Saad
Craig Smith
Paul Stastny
Derek Stepan
James van Riemsdyk
Blake Wheeler
Defensemen: Zach Bogosian
Dustin Byfuglien
John Carlson
Dan DeKeyser
Justin Faulk
Cam Fowler
Jake Gardiner
Erik Johnson
Jack Johnson
Seth Jones
Nick Leddy
Paul Martin
Ryan McDonagh
Brooks Orpik
Kevin Shattenkirk
Ryan Suter
acob Trouba
Keith Yandle
Goaltenders Craig Anderson
John Gibson
Jimmy Howard
Ryan Miller
Jonathan Quick
Cory Schneider
TEAM CANADA INVITEES
Forwards: Patrice Bergeron
Jeff Carter
Logan Couture
Sidney Crosby
Matt Duchene
Jordan Eberle
Ryan Getzlaf
Claude Giroux
Taylor Hall
Chris Kunitz
Andrew Ladd
Milan Lucic
Brad Marchand
Rick Nash
James Neal
Corey Perry
Mike Richards
Patrick Sharp
Eric Staal
Jordan Staal
Martin St. Louis
Steven Stamkos
John Tavares
Joe Thornton
Jonathan Toews
Defensemen: Karl Alzer
Jay Bouwmeester
Dan Boyle
Drew Doughty
Mike Green
Dan Hamhuis
Travis Hamonic
Duncan Keith
Kris Letang
Marc Methot
Dion Phaneuf
Alex Pietrangelo
Brent Seabrook
Marc Staal
P.K. Subban
Marc-Edouard Vlasic
Shea Weber
Goalies: Corey Crawford
Braden Holtby
Roberto Luongo
Carey Price
Mike Smith
Listen to the HockeyBuzzcast with me and Mike Augello at 3:30:
Check back around 5pm ET and I will give you my prediction for this game...