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From The Archive: Canada's New Defending Champions
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- From The Archive: Canada's New Defending Champions
Welcome to this edition of "From The Archive". In this recurring series, we open The Hockey News' vault and display some of the top Vancouver Canucks related articles from the past. Today's article is Olympic-themed and comes from Volume 63, Issue 20, where Ken Campbell wrote about Canada's Gold Medal victory in 2010.
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Canada's New Defending Champions, Volume 63, Issue 20, March 15, 2010
VANCOUVER – LET'S FAST-FORWARD about four months to the NHL Awards ceremony, shall we? Yeah, they're in Las Vegas again. No, we can't quite figure out what sense that makes either.
Isn't that Shea Weber playing Black Jack? Look over there, Duncan Keith is at the craps table. Hey, is Drew Doughty even old enough to be in this place?
Really, would anyone be blown away if Keith, Doughty and Weber were the three finalists for the Norris Trophy this season? Didn't think so. And if not this year, they might want to all get themselves a good tuxedo because they'll probably be wearing it, if not this June, then surely for many to come in the years ahead.
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That Keith, the oldest of the three, is just 26 is impressive enough. But blend that with the fact the three young men were lynchpins for Canada's gold medal-winning team at the 2010 Winter Olympics and you're onto something really special.
"It's a dream come true," Doughty said. "Words can't explain how good we're feeling right now. We had so much fun out there."
When have there been three defensemen who are so good so young and, more importantly, when have they all been from the same country? And that doesn't even include Mike Green of the Washington Capitals, who just happened to enter the stretch run leading all NHL defensemen in scoring. And remember Chicago's Brent Seabrook, the 24-year-old defenseman who saw limited action with the Canadian team as its seventh blueliner?
At the Olympics, Keith, Weber and Doughty weaved a remarkable tale. So much was made of the veteran presence on the team and Scott Niedermayer, Dan Boyle and Chris Pronger had their moments of greatness, but it was truly a coming out party for Keith, Doughty and Weber.
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In Canada's decisive 8-3 drubbing of Russia, Weber drew the assignment of containing Alex Ovechkin and when Canada was protecting a 3-2 lead over Slovakia in what became a wild semifinal, the defense tandem of Doughty and Keith was called upon to hold down the fort.
All right, maybe they didn't make out so well on that one. They failed to clear the puck several times and only a miraculous glove stop by Roberto Luongo on Pavol Demitra – and the fact they were saved by the bell–prevented something awful from transpiring. However, that they were the ones out there and survived the experience says a lot for their maturity.
'I ALWAYS THOUGHT I COULD BE ON THE TEAM, BUT I WAS PRETTY SURPRISED TO MAKE IT.'
"I thought that when they were stuck out there for about a minute and 40 seconds, they showed how young they were," said Canadian coach Mike Babcock. "But, you know, that's just part of getting whiskers in the league. You have to go through some situations like that, you've got to be chasing your tail a few times to figure out exactly how to stop and play with some poise. But those kids were great for us."
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Poise and whiskers. Despite a few gaffes in the tournament, Doughty showed an incredible amount of the former even if he doesn't have much of the latter. Nothing he has done since he entered the league last season would suggest he won't be a top-caliber defenseman; it's that he has become so good so quickly that is so surprising.
"I guess I always thought maybe I could be on the team, but I was pretty surprised to make the team," Doughty said after the gold medal final in Vancouver. "I really didn't think I was going to make it. Now that I did and now that I'm a gold medalist, I wouldn't trade anything for that."
Nobody would have seen it as travesty if Doughty hadn't made the Olympic squad, but then we wouldn't have seen him spin off forwards and go to the net. We wouldn't have seen him start with the puck in his own end and hit his stride in the neutral zone before carrying it past the opposition's blueline. We wouldn't have seen a 20-year-old play with a veteran's poise.
Forget about Doughty being a candidate for the Norris Trophy in a few years. He's in the mix right now.
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Let's consider that for a moment. Since the NHL began handing out the Norris in 1953-54, the average age of a first-time winner is 27. Among the past six first-time winners, Chris Pronger was the youngest to do it at 25. Nicklas Lidstrom didn't win his first Norris Trophy until he was 31. Scott Niedermayer was 30, Al MacInnis 35 and Zdeno Chara 32. In fact, even if Doughty didn't win the award until after the 2011-12 season, he'd still be the second-youngest player to win the Norris after Bobby Orr, who first won the Norris months after turning 20 in 1968.
Usually coaches tell kids Doughty's age to chip the puck off the glass and stay out of trouble or risk being nailed to the bench by their hockey pants. But here he was in the biggest tournament on the biggest stage in the world, rushing the puck, moving it up the middle of the ice and having the green light to actually do something with the puck.
It was to Babcock's credit that he allowed Doughty to continue doing so even after an ill-advised pinch led to the tying goal against Switzerland earlier in the tournament. After having his aforementioned hockey pants nailed to the bench for a short period, Doughty was put right back out and it's probably no coincidence that he got better from that point.
"The coaches certainly didn't hold us back," Doughty said. "They told us right from the start that they wanted us to move the puck and skate and jump up into the play. For them to have that confidence in me helped so much."
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With Doughty, it's the Doug Harvey-like poise he shows when he's carrying the puck that makes you sit up and take notice.
"He has ice in his veins," Babcock said.
That might be true, but if his arteries do indeed contain frozen water, he has undoubtedly managed to keep his hands and feet warm. Not even Doughty can fully explain where he gets his low panic threshold.
"I guess I get it from my dad (Paul)," Doughty said. "He was a pretty good soccer player and he's the kind of guy who's pretty laid back and just goes with the flow. When I was younger, my mother (Connie) was always on me to move the puck faster."
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Moving the puck with speed from his stick to the net has never been a problem for the 24-year-old Weber, who has a scary-hard shot, with the emphasis on scary. Last March, he broke teammate Martin Erat's leg with one of his blasts and earlier this year, broke bones in Jordan Too-too's foot. But nothing was more impressive than during the qualifying game against Germany when Weber shot the puck through the net.
"I did that once when I was playing ball hockey when I was a little kid," Weber said. "I've always worked on my shot ever since I was a little kid. I had a piece of plywood in the backyard and I would just shoot and shoot and shoot."
Yes, being a mountain of a man helps. Vital statistics: 6-foot-4, 229 pounds, tied for second (ironically, with Olympic teammates Doughty, Keith and Dan Boyle) for second among NHL defensemen in goals with 11 entering the Olympic break. But like Al MacInnis did in Calgary, Weber is going to have to learn to tame that shot of his or his teammates are going to start retreating to the corners every time he winds up.
"Sometimes, they get a little scared," Weber said. "It's a tough place for them, but for the most part, I think a lot of our guys are willing to go to the front of the net because that's where you get rewarded. Pucks will bounce your way. I've broken a couple of bones, so I guess that's not great, though."
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If you haven't followed Keith's career closely, you'd probably be surprised to learn he's as old as he is. The Chicago Blackhawks knew that when they signed him to a (frickin') 13-year contract extension worth almost $72 million that kicks in next season. But it's not as though he has just entered our consciousness. He was a very good defenseman, for the past couple seasons, but this year he arguably has been Chicago's best all-round player.
"I'm not a wily veteran by any stretch of the imagination, but I feel like I've learned a lot in my six or seven years pro," Keith said. "I feel like I still have a lot to learn and a lot to keep improving on, but having said that, I don't feel like I'm surprised where I'm at right now."
Hawks captain Jonathan Toews, who might have been Canada's best forward from the start of the tournament to the end, has had an all-access pass to Keith's exploits for almost three seasons now and said he wasn't surprised his teammate played such a prominent role for Canada at the Olympics, since he does so with one of the best teams in the NHL.
"He plays the game the right way and he just enjoys the game," Toews said. "He's an old-school guy. He takes care of himself and he works hard and there are definitely no shortcuts in his game.
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"He's one of those guys who might not have gotten the hype as guys who were high draft picks, but he's worked for every inch and he's showing his true colors as a player and a guy. I think he was one of the best defensemen on our team."
He might even be the best defenseman in the game this season and for many to come. So might Doughty and Weber.
The envelope please...
The Hockey News, Volume 63, Issue 20 (Photo Credit: The Hockey News Archive)
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