Bedard! On the team! Now! Stop being dumb! This isn't even a hard decision!
__________________ "The great promise of the Internet was that more information would automatically yield better decisions. The great disappointment is that more information actually yields more possibilities to confirm what you already believed anyway." - Brian Eno
Bedard cannot fill Cirelli's role on the roster: 12 minutes a game with mostly d-zone starts against other team's top lines, and killing penalties.
Like it or not, the Canadian (and American) Olympic teams are built around roles. The Canadian team submitted a list of 15 players as alternates. That's not because they thought 8 or 10 guys might get injured. Their list is 15 deep because the replacement depends on who they're replacing. If Reinhart or Marner was injured, Bedard is probably top of the list. For Cirelli, it's Bennett or Jarvis.
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Last edited by CliffFletcher; 02-03-2026 at 01:26 PM.
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I assume Bedard would be in for Point if he cannot go.
I've heard many pundits say it's Hyman. Point is penciled in for McDavid's wing. Hyman would be plug and play.
I don't think Bedard was even top 5 among replacement candidates. Bennett (obviously), Hyman, Scheifele, Wyatt Johnston, Seth Jarvis all ahead of Bedard
Personally I think you have enough 2-way talent on that team, you need an offensive game breaker you can shift in if required...I'd be going Bedard or Scheifele before Hyman for sure. Preferably Bedard
Hyman is 0.97 P/GP playing with 1.7 P/GP McDavid...shouldn't be anywhere near the team. His 24 5v5 points rank 54th in the NHL and he's not getting anywhere close to the PP on this team.
Last edited by SuperMatt18; 02-03-2026 at 02:12 PM.
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Personally I think you have enough 2-way talent on that team, you need an offensive game breaker you can shift in if required...I'd be going Bedard or Scheifele before Hyman for sure. Preferably Bedard
Hyman is 0.97 P/GP playing with 1.7 P/GP McDavid...shouldn't be anywhere near the team. His 24 5v5 points rank 54th in the NHL and he's not getting anywhere close to the PP on this team.
I was dumb and thought the Flames game started at 8 eastern time yesterday because it was against the Leafs. They were showing some Olympic Team Canada making the team show and DeBoer was talking about they only had 4 penalty killer forwards at the 4 Nations.
Cirelli was their big PK guy, but they still have Hagel, Horvat, Wilson and Reinhart. Could mean Jarvis steps in if Point can't go since Bennett isn't really a PKer if they want to have an extra guy without using someone like Marner
Bedard cannot fill Cirelli's role on the roster: 12 minutes a game with mostly d-zone starts against other team's top lines, and killing penalties.
Like it or not, the Canadian (and American) Olympic teams are built around roles.
I do not like it. I never have. I think this is stupid. They have plenty of guys on the roster who can kill penalties and the opportunity cost in terms of Bennett killing penalties as opposed to someone else is ridiculously minimal. As for "playing against the other team's top lines", that is what your best players are for, especially when your best players are literally the best players.
It's not even an argument about "you should take the best guys you have available", although that would be a good argument. It's about taking every player who can singlehandedly, regardless of who else is on the ice, create a goal for your team in circumstances where there's just nothing the opposition can do about it. There are a half dozen of those guys on the planet.
I reiterate: this is stupid. I know it's what they do and what they've always done. That doesn't make it not stupid. When the team is down 4-2 mid-way through the third and we're all forced to sit there thinking "OK, once this fourth line shift is over, hopefully MacKinnon or McDavid's line can get back out there and maybe generate something", maybe this will finally be clear to people.
__________________ "The great promise of the Internet was that more information would automatically yield better decisions. The great disappointment is that more information actually yields more possibilities to confirm what you already believed anyway." - Brian Eno
Last edited by CorsiHockeyLeague; 02-03-2026 at 03:15 PM.
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I'm with you. I want to see a best on best roster as well. Sucks seeing guys like Scheifele out when he deserves to be there based on his production the past years, including this year.
This undersells him because it goes back to his rookie debut and he's been his best self this season, but just watch the way these goals are scored. A bunch are power play royal road quick-release snipes, which in and of itself is valuable to have on your roster post-Stamkos. But a RIDICULOUS number fall into the following category:
a) in a situation where the goaltender knows the shot is coming; and
b) either from distance, with a defender between him and the net, or both.
Almost no one can routinely score goals like this, where it's just a low-percentage prayer of a shot on goal for not just most players but most all-stars, and for Bedard it's just "nah, #### it, this is going in the net because I'm just going to beat the goalie clean."
__________________ "The great promise of the Internet was that more information would automatically yield better decisions. The great disappointment is that more information actually yields more possibilities to confirm what you already believed anyway." - Brian Eno
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Mackinnon is that level of finisher as well IMO, especially off the rush. But if anyone involved with Hockey Canada is of the view that, "well we already have plenty of guys who can score goals", fire that person immediately and never listen to them again.
__________________ "The great promise of the Internet was that more information would automatically yield better decisions. The great disappointment is that more information actually yields more possibilities to confirm what you already believed anyway." - Brian Eno
Personally i think it should be Bedard or Wyatt Johnston, but hard to ignore that after going scoreless in his first 6 games since returning from injury, Hyman has 22 goals in 31 games.
Personally i think it should be Bedard or Wyatt Johnston, but hard to ignore that after going scoreless in his first 6 games since returning from injury, Hyman has 22 goals in 31 games.
It's not about how many goals you have, though, it's about how you score them and what you can do for the team. Hyman scores goals in tight and can be a net-front guy on the power play. He does that better than most anyone, but there are lots of guys who can do it well and it's not a skillset that's overly likely to be the thing that makes the difference between a win and a loss in a best on best context. He cannot, however, do anything remotely like this:
If a guy has 20 more goals than the next closest player, that's a different story, but when we're arguing "well this guy has X goals in Y games and that's 5 more than this other guy" we've completely lost the plot. It's not an exercise in counting stats.
__________________ "The great promise of the Internet was that more information would automatically yield better decisions. The great disappointment is that more information actually yields more possibilities to confirm what you already believed anyway." - Brian Eno
Last edited by CorsiHockeyLeague; 02-03-2026 at 04:26 PM.
