With the big ice surface my guess is Canada goes with a skater/PP guy like Subban or Letang for the 7th role and it is doubtful Giordano beats any of them.
Throw in Keith, Doughty, Weber, Pietrangleo for 4 additional spots that Gio has 0 shot of beating out and it looks at best he is competing for the bottom pairing spots against 2 guys better than him and with familiarity with team Canada and a player on the team in Seabrook and Bouwmeester.
In terms of left handed defense I would say it is unlikely that he would be ahead of Hamhuis, Marc Staal or Dion Phaneuf unless he turns up his play even more than he has now and he has been about as good as he ever has so far.
For me that puts at least 5 guys ahead of him right now with guys like Vlasic, Boyle, Hamonic and Alzner about equal. With his great season he may pass some of them but with a lack of team Canada experience, okay but not great skating/style for the big ice surface and a really poor year last year I see no chance that Gio makes the team Canada roster. Does his name come up when they are tossing names around the room pre-tournament? Likely but doubt it goes much beyond mentioning him and then moving on.
No shame in that as it is a crazy tough team to make and doesn't take away that Gio has been great this year and likely the best Flames player, certainly defenseman, this year.
|