Hockey

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Four of the Globe and Mail's Olympic writers assess who can make the difference for Team Canada at the Vancouver 2010 Olympic Games.

SIDNEY CROSBY

It seems impossible today to believe that less than four years ago, when the 2006 version of Team Canada headed for the Turin Winter Games, Todd Bertuzzi was on the airplane and Sidney Crosby wasn't.

But then again, that was the year the Liberal Party chose Stéphane Dion as leader - not a stellar year for significant Canadian decisions.

Now, with a scoring championship, a Hart Trophy and a Stanley Cup to his credit in those intervening years, Crosby stands as the single most important Canadian player who will take to the ice in Vancouver - he will most-assuredly lead, even as an alternate captain.

What Crosby has is one of hockey's rarest gifts. It has nothing to do with skating, passing or shooting, but everything to do with an elusive ingredient that burns so intensely inside that it is a wonder the possessor can make it from one end of the ice to the other without turning the rink to slush.

Passion. A desperate need - rather than mere desire - to win.

The Rocket had it. Bobby Clarke's obsession was so deep-rooted, teammate Terry Crisp once said, that Clarke would "drive the ice-cleaning machine" if he thought it would help the team to victory. Wayne Gretzky had it both on and off the ice.

Not all the greats have it - or even have to have it. Sometimes the gift of ability alone is so high that winning comes more from skill rather than will.

Mario Lemieux didn't have the burning desire. He may have been captain of Team Canada in its most successful incarnation - gold medal at Salt Lake City in 2002 - but passion fell more to the quietly driven Joe Sakic on the ice and executive director Gretzky ("the whole world wants us to lose") off the ice.

Crosby has this enormous itch that must be scratched. You can see it in his eyes, hear it in his voice. It is in every stride he takes, every corner he enters, every drive to the net. He has it in ways that neither the choice for Team Canada captain, Scott Niedermayer, nor his alternates do, no matter how high their skill level or deep their determination.

And this is why Sidney Crosby has the potential to be more of a difference maker than any other Canadian hockey player come February in Vancouver.

- Roy MacGregor

JAROME IGINLA

He's done it before and he can do it again.

Jarome Iginla announced his presence to the world at the 2002 Salt Lake City Olympics, scoring twice in Canada's gold-medal win over the United States to become what former Calgary Flames teammate Theo Fleury dubbed "the new Paul Henderson."

For the 2010 Vancouver Olympics, Iginla can still be the difference maker. At 32, he's shown no signs of slowing down. In fact, during the Canadian team's orientation camp in Calgary, he was aligned with Sidney Crosby and Rick Nash to form a most dangerous trio. Little wonder why.

Since 2002-03, Iginla has averaged 39 goals a year. This NHL season, he hit the ice with guns blazing, scoring 13 goals and seven assists in 14 November games. He added back-to-back game winners and recorded his ninth career hat trick to earn a share of NHL player-of-the-month honours; proof plenty that the two-time 50-goal scorer hasn't lost his touch around the net.

But there's more to Iginla's game than offence, always has been. He is a controlled physical force - a prime ingredient for the Olympics, since the games will be played on NHL-sized ice surfaces. His fighting skills won't be needed, but his ability to give and take, grind and skate will make him tough along the boards.

"You can play hard all over the ice," Iginla said of the 2010 Olympic tournament, "but you still have to be careful and not take penalties. You have to be smart."

That speaks to Iginla's leadership. When Iginla first played in Salt Lake, he was cast in a secondary role behind the likes of Steve Yzerman, Mario Lemieux and Joe Sakic. All three of those players have retired and Iginla, who watched and learned from them, will be counted on to say and do the right things at crucial moments.

That's an assignment he's grown comfortable with, having guided the Flames to Game 7 of the 2004 Stanley Cup final. Iginla has become one of the most respected leaders in hockey and that will give him clout on an Olympic team laden with NHL captains, assistant captains and take-charge players. He'll make his points and his Olympic teammates will take heed.

For all those reasons - his adaptability, accountability and attitude - Iginla is ideally suited to be the Canadian player who benefits from Crosby's passing and from Nash's rebounds to emerge from Vancouver a star indeed, a hero reborn.

- Allan Maki

RICK NASH

What sets Rick Nash apart from the other big-bodied forwards who will play for Canada is his unique ability to make something out of nothing. In that sense, Nash is very much like Alex Ovechkin. He is the one Canadian player most likely to give Russia's human highlight reel a run for his money on YouTube.

Even though many of the NHL's top-20 scorers this season are Canadian-born, few possess Nash's one-on-one abilities. It is a critical skill set, given that scoring was Canada's greatest issue in the last Olympics - 2006 in Turin. The Canadians were shut out in three of the final four games.

Nash made the team back then, but was just 21 and struggled with the challenge. He had just one assist in six games. However, he has matured considerably in the four years since and is a far more assertive presence, on and off the ice.

Moreover, Nash has in the past demonstrated great chemistry with virtually every centre on the team - from Joe Thornton (in Switzerland, playing for Davos during the lockout) to Ryan Getzlaf (at the world championships) to Sidney Crosby (at the August orientation camp, where coach Mike Babcock kept them together as a pair for the entire week).

Nash's boss in Columbus, Blue Jackets' general manager Scott Howson, believes that his captain is so easy to play with because he doesn't need to carry the puck through the neutral zone in order to be effective. Nash can lug it with the best of them - but he is also capable of getting himself to the right areas of the ice, if his centre has possession.

This year, under coach Ken Hitchcock, Nash has added a penalty-killing role, and that just adds to his versatility.

Nash is a threat to score playing a man short, because of his breakaway speed and his ability to find the seam in a defence, something he perfected playing in Europe during the lockout. Nash's ability to sneak behind the defence is something that the pinpoint passers on Canada's blue line can capitalize on - either to get him in the clear on a breakaway; or to make an opponent so leery of him lurking high in the zone that they're looking backward to monitor his whereabouts.

Ovechkin, Evgeni Malkin, Ilya Kovalchuk are all capable of giving the Canadian team headaches because of their offensive ability. Thankfully, in Nash, Canada has a player capable of returning the favour.

- Eric Duhatschek

JOE THORNTON

Joe Thornton is playing with a hunger this year, a hunger that could silence his multiplying critics.

Thornton, the NHL leader in scoring and power-play points prior to the Christmas break, has something to prove after another premature exit from the Stanley Cup playoffs last spring. The Olympic tournament brings a shot at redeeming an image tainted by early playoff exits and prior Olympic failure.

"He's got a lot more naysayers than there used to be," one NHL executive said. "But when you look at the Olympics, Joe could really flourish because he's one of many great players on the team, and he's a great passer - sees the ice well."

San Jose's franchise player may well be Canada's No.3 centre after Sidney Crosby and Ryan Getzlaf, which points to the team's potential to wear down opponents with waves of offence. The Sharks continually implore Thornton to shoot more often, but his disposition to pass - especially from the side-boards where he often sets up on the power play - may suit the Canadian team better as there's an abundance of potent goal scorers, regardless of line combinations.

Thornton's Olympic worthiness is evident after a strong first-half, but the first-round loss to the Anaheim Ducks tossed his name into bubble discussions this summer, when the Canadian team gathered for its orientation camp.

The 30-year-old has never advanced past the second-round of the playoffs, and had some ugly post-seasons with the Boston Bruins, who traded him in November, 2005, to San Jose. Internationally, he had but three points in six games at the 2006 Turin Olympics, and hasn't won gold in two tries at the world championships.

But Thornton has shown improvement in the quadrennial. He is the NHL's second-leading scorer, after Alex Ovechkin, over the last three-plus seasons, and he is nearly a point-per-game player in four playoff appearances with San Jose.

He is also an excellent face-off man, having won more than 54 per cent of his draws over the last two years, and ranking among the league leaders again this season. That, along with a huge frame (6 foot 4, 230 pounds) and long reach, translates into another asset for a team bent on puck possession over dump-and-chase.

- Matthew Sekeres