Written by Joe Tetreault | 06 January 2010

Greg Ezzell Ezell from Something's Bruin is one of several excellent hockey bloggers I follow through the Bloguin network.  The network powers that be have smartly created a big ole group blog to cover the Olympic Hockey competition.  And Greg was first on the ice with the opening piece, answering whether Patrice Bergeron deserved the spot on Canada's squad. Greg concludes:

Does Bergeron deserve a spot on the Canadian Olympic Hockey team? Absolutely. He's a terrific two-way forward who will help them offensively, defensively and on the penalty kill. A player like Bergeron, at full health, is the type of player every team dreams about. If I were Canada, I would put him on a line with Sidney Crosby because he and Crosby were masterful in the 2005 World Juniors.

I find myself in agreement. All-star squads exist to show off at the all-star game. Olympic Hockey is a very different game from the NHL. The wider surface requires quickness and plenty of skill managing the transition from offense to defense. Bergeron's ability to play well at both ends of the rink does more to help Team Canada to victory int he tournament than adding another scorer would. To me that's the difference. As fun as the flashy players are, grinders mucking in the corners and hustling on the backcheck is just as important as playing aggressively on the forecheck.

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