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Canada's hockey stars start arriving in Calgary
CALGARY - Players are slowly drifting into town for the start of Canada's men's Olympic orientation camp.
The Chicago Blackhawks' Duncan Keith was the first to arrive, mainly because a trio of players on the scheduled first flight in - including the St. Louis Blues' Andy McDonald and the Los Angeles Kings' Drew Doughty - were delayed for more than two hours.
About half the players were supposed to arrive today - the rest drifted in over the weekend, some by car because they live or vacation in the area, others to get a jump on their off-ice commitments. Sidney Crosby's been here since Saturday; Chris Pronger came in yesterday afternoon, along with his new Philadelphia Flyers' teammate, Mike Richards.
The first on-ice session is scheduled for tonight at 6 p.m. local time; prior to that, coach Mike Babcock and executive director Steve Yzerman were scheduled to do a kick-off press conference.
About 170 members of the press were accredited for the event, but most of the action is going to happen later in the day. Stay tuned for further updates.
Aug 24, 2009 | 7:20 PM ET
I just do not understand why you would want to separate the defensive pairing like Duncan Keith and Brent Seabrook! If they're better together, why even try and break them up for the purpose of evaluation...unless they are possibly already out of the mix as true candidates to enhance the squad.
Aug 24, 2009 | 3:36 PM ET
No shortage of credit towards Canada here - hope they win. If they can't, then why not the Yanks - anybody but the Russians (never to be taken lightly under any circumstances). Besides, the United States of Paranoia will be itching to return the favour.
Aug 24, 2009 | 2:51 PM ET
I don't think you're giving Canada enough credit, and I really don't believe the youth of USA can even come close to matching up to the youth that this Canadien team will bring. I don't want to say that Canada is going to take this in a blowout, because you always have to watch out for those Russians, but don't be surprised if Canada comes out and sweeps the entire competition.
Aug 24, 2009 | 2:22 PM ET
The Americans are going to win - don't want them to, but they will. Severe underdogs without any pressure, their youthful zeal and over-all snottiness will enable them to burn better teams, if taken lightly. On paper, at least, they stack up favourably against the Finns, Czechs, Slovaks and quite possibly, the Swedes. If you're a gambling man, dip into your 'mad-money' stash and swing for the fences! Seriosly - when the smoke clears, they will have boned someone. Just hope it isn't us. Now, let's hear some screaming.
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