Pietrangelo highlights Canada’s young defence

P.K. Subban joined Tim & Sid to discuss his joy at representing his country at the Olympics, while also sending his blessings to the guys that weren't as lucky.

EDMONTON — The Team Canada defence is everything that Marcel Aubut was not on Tuesday. Big, fast, and willing to move the puck.

And in the end, the most controversial decision of them all turned out to be a lot less trouble than we thought, as P.K. Subban joined a defence corps full of names that, frankly, surprise no one.

“He’s got great patience, great vision. He gets pucks through that other people don’t get through,” said Ken Hitchcock, the St. Louis Blues head coach who will serve as one of Mike Babcock’s Team Canada assistants in Sochi. “Special teams in international play really get magnified, so you need people who can do that stuff. Speed and skill is important, and he’s a very, very fast player.”

This is a mobile, big group with elite powerplay quarterbacks in Subban, Drew Doughty and Duncan Keith, with ample puck-moving ability for the big ice in Russia. “Just remember,” Hitchcock said. “Size, skating, compete. You’ve got to have that.”

Instead of the ready-made pairing of Chicago Blackhawks Keith and Brent Seabrook that helped Team Canada win gold in 2010, this time the St. Louis tandem of Alex Pietrangelo and Jay Bouwmeester will travel together to Sochi.

Seabrook, San Jose’s Dan Boyle and Calgary’s Mark Giordano are really the only three Canadian defencemen whose omission left anyone surprised on Monday, when the eight-man blue-line was unveiled. Those three will be the first call-ups should a defenceman go down between now and the Olympic break, a distinct possibility with teams having around 15 games left before the stoppage.

And if Seabrook doesn’t get the call?

“I’m looking forward to watching, maybe having a few beers and relaxing over the break,” he said to Chicago reporters.

For the eight D-men who did make the roster, what were the defining factors?

“Mobility is one thing, but it’s the transition mobility that’s more important,” Hitchcock said. “It’s the ability to make a good first play. Every guy here can make a good first pass. Moving the puck and exiting (the zone) is important. Having mobility to cover a lot of ground is going to be important also.”

Vancouver’s Dan Hamhuis is probably the one defenceman whose presence surprises most people, though personally I’ve had him on my team since the August orientation camp. The Canuck defenceman makes this team based on his body of work from two World Junior tournaments, and five World Championships, where Hitchcock said Hamhuis, “always ends up being our best defenceman.”

And if you are surprised by Marc-Edouard Vlasic’s name, here’s some advice: Stay up later and watch more San Jose Sharks games. The 26-year-old Montreal native is one of the best all-around defencemen in the game today, a fact that took even Hitchcock a while to catch on to.

“He’s a guy, once you start to watch him you go, ‘Wow. That guy does a lot of things right.’”

Shea Weber, whose 10 goals are tops among Canadian defenceman this season, rounds out the group of eight. Weber, Doughty and Keith make up the only three returnees from 2010. Bouwmeester played in the 2006 Turin Winter Games, but did not get selected four years ago.

The eldest member of this corps is Hamhuis (31), one of only three 30-year-olds. Doughty and Subban are 24, while Pietrangelo is the baby here, at 23. The average age, then, is 27, or the early prime years of an NHL player’s career.

“It’s good to see the young players getting the opportunities,” said Pietrangelo. “I don’t consider myself a young player, but to be part of the mix at 23… I’ve grown up playing with some of these guys, P.K. and Drew. It makes it even better.”

In Vancouver, Canada went with elder statesmen like Boyle, Chris Pronger and Scott Niedermayer. The big ice, and retirement, caused those decisions to be made differently this time around.

“This is the first group that are pretty much around (the same) age,” Hitchcock said. “We don’t have any 34, 35, 36-year-old guys anymore.”

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