{"id":243367,"date":"2025-10-27T04:13:09","date_gmt":"2025-10-27T04:13:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/243367\/"},"modified":"2025-10-27T04:13:09","modified_gmt":"2025-10-27T04:13:09","slug":"zizing-em-up-gms-for-canada-u-s-discuss-upcoming-olympics","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/243367\/","title":{"rendered":"Zizing \u2018Em Up: GMs for Canada, U.S. discuss upcoming Olympics"},"content":{"rendered":"

One group of guys who have shone as candidates for the United States are the goalies. Connor Hellebuyck<\/a> of the Winnipeg Jets, Jake Oettinger<\/a> of the Dallas Stars and Jeremy Swayman<\/a> of the Boston Bruins were your goalies at 4 Nations, and Anthony Stolarz<\/a> (Toronto Maple Leafs) and Joey Daccord<\/a> of the Seattle Kraken have gotten off to good starts this season. How much of a positional battle, if any, is this going to be?<\/p>\n

Guerin: \u201cDon\u2019t forget Thatcher Demko<\/a> of the (Vancouver) Canucks either. Yeah, I mean, if you have hard decisions to make, then that means guys are playing well and you have a lot of choices, you have a lot of flexibility. So, it’s a good problem to have.\u201d<\/p>\n

On the subject of goalies, Canada brought only three to its Olympic orientation camp in Calgary in late August — Hill, Jordan Binnington<\/a> of the St. Louis Blues and Sam Montembeault<\/a> of the Montreal Canadiens. Those were the three at 4 Nations. Does that mean you\u2019ve already narrowed your list of candidates?<\/p>\n

Armstrong: \u201cIt\u2019s probably the opposite. There’s so many [candidates] on the radar, it would have been like a goalie camp. So, what we did is we called the other goaltenders [who weren\u2019t invited] and told them that it’s an orientation camp, but your participation in the Olympics is going to be based on play. Right now it\u2019s early in the season, especially for that position. As I said, it\u2019s a body of work. The stats are going to mean a lot more on January 1, as we narrow this down, than they do in late October.\u201d<\/p>\n

One of the keys in this tournament is that it will be played on NHL-sized rinks. How much does that alter roster construction as opposed to past Olympics when the event was held on the larger Olympic-sized rinks?<\/p>\n

Guerin: \u201cThe big ice is a different game. It\u2019s hockey, but it\u2019s not hockey as we know it. You probably have to look at different things, but it is being played on NHL-sized rinks, so I’m happy about that. I remember when I played on the big ice, I\u2019m a big guy. And it’s a lot more skating. There’s more patience involved. Like I said, it’s a different game. Putting the puck in and chasing it is a lot more difficult. There’s a lot more area out there, so you’re hunting down pucks that normally would be 20 feet away, is now 35 feet away. So, it’s just different.\u201d<\/p>\n

Armstrong: \u201cI personally think the game is still won in the trenches. If you win the offensive and defensive paint area, you’re probably going to win. And so, everyone has to get there at some point. So, I think it’s easier to scout this, because you’re scouting what you’re going to see over there. But my belief is the best players are going to be the best players, regardless of the size of the ice, because hockey sense is the No. 1 quality, and they always find a way to adapt. But it’s certainly easier. Certainly there’s no layer of, \u2018Well, how will this transfer?\u2019 Because there’s nothing to transfer — it’s the same game.\u201d<\/p>\n

Finally, you both have relationships with Sidney Crosby<\/a>. Bill, you worked with him while you were with the Pittsburgh Penguins\u2019 front office. Doug, he was your captain at 4 Nations, one of his many triumphs while the two of you were in events for Hockey Canada. At 38 years old, Crosby is averaging more than a point per game with 11 (six goals, five assists) in nine games. Does anything this guy does surprise you any more?<\/p>\n

Guerin: \u201cNot surprised, no. Nothing surprises me. I’ve known him long enough. I’ve seen it before. This guy, he’s always been dialed in and soldiers on. I don’t care if he’s 22 or 38 or whatever he is now. Not surprised.\u201d<\/p>\n

Armstrong: \u201cHe’s one of the top players ever to play the game. I do believe the most dangerous animal is a wounded animal. People weren’t picking the Penguins to do much this year, and you put that type of challenge to someone like Sidney Crosby at your own peril. So, I’m not surprised he’s playing at the level he’s playing at because he’s such a leader and a great competitor. That’s part of his unbelievable leadership and his ability as a competitor. So, he’s as advertised and will be as advertised in February. If you had to have a list of concerns for Hockey Canada, that would be at the bottom of the list.\u201d<\/p>\n

Does that mean the obvious? He\u2019ll be Canada\u2019s captain again?<\/p>\n

Armstrong: \u201cI don\u2019t think we\u2019ve officially announced it yet, so I\u2019m not going to do it here. But I think you know the answer.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"One group of guys who have shone as candidates for the United States are the goalies. Connor Hellebuyck…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":243368,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[556],"tags":[64,63,575,85],"class_list":{"0":"post-243367","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nhl","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-nhl","11":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/243367","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=243367"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/243367\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/243368"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=243367"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=243367"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=243367"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}