My Canadian and American Olympic Teams...

The Canadian and American Olympic teams are going to be announced this week and there's no shortage of quality candidates on either side. Here's a look at the two teams I'd select...

TEAM CANADA

Nash - Crosby - Iginla
Heatley - Getzlaf - Perry
E.Staal - Stamkos - St.Louis
Lucic - M.Richards - Doan
Spares: Marleau, Toews

Bouwmeester - Pronger
Weber - Keith
Phaneuf - Green
Spares: Niedermayers, Doughty

Brodeur
Fleury - Luongo

Notes: The most notable cut here has to be the NHL's scoring leader, Joe Thornton. But Thornton has failed to deliver too many times in the post-season for me to rely on him. I also wanted to integrate some fresh faces and young blood onto this team so I included young superstars like Getzlaf, Perry, Toews, Eric Staal and Steven Stamkos. And to make their transitions smooth, I put them with their regular linemates. I wanted my fourth line to have a crash/bang feel, so I went with a proven leader in Doan alongside one of the league's nastiest SOB's in Mike Richards. And I chose hometown hero Milan Lucic over Brendan Morrow and Ryan Smyth as part of the same youth training program. Patrick Marleau didn't quite make it as a regular (see Thornton), but I like him as a spare because he's as talented a scorer as anyone on the team and he's versatile in that he can play center or wing, power play or penalty kill. If there's a weakness in this forward group, it's that there's not a lot of real speed merchants, and again, Marleau could help in that regard.

On defense, I dropped Bryan Boyle for the younger Mike Green. I also reduced the role of Scott Niedermayer, so that I could integrate some of Canada's great young dmen like Duncan Keith, and Drew Doughty into the fold. The toughest call here was in choosing Dion Phaneuf over steadier defensemen, but ultimately I chose him for his upside. Overall this defense is extraordinarily mobile, tough and talented.

No surprises in goal where I expect Brodeur to once again carry the load.

 TEAM USA

Parise - Stastny - Kane
Ryan - Pavelski - Kessel
Malone - Kesler - Langenbrunner
Brown - Dubinsky - Backes
Spares: van Riemsdyk, Callahan

E.Johnson - Rafalski
Suter - Bogosian
Martin - Komisarek
Spares: Orpik, Myers

Miller - Thomas

Quick

Notes: Brian Burke is on record as wanting a Team USA that's extremely hard to play against. And I actually think that's a pretty good strategy. The Americans have some talented players, but they can't match up talent-wise with the Russians or Canadians, so why not build a team with a defensive strategy in mind, rather than simply collecting the 10 highest scoring American forwards. To that end, I loaded the top6 with the country's best and brightest offensive players, but in the bottom6, I opted for players with grit and defensive acumen over more talented offensive players like Gomez and Connolly.

The US defense boasts some incredible young talent in Eric Johnson, Zack Bogosian, Ryan Suter and Tyler Myers. To offset some of that youth I included a pair of veterans in Brian Rafalski and Paul Martin. Lastly, in keeping with the 'tough to play against' mantra, I added Mike Komisarek and Brooks Orpik. 

There should be a great battle for starting goalie in the US nets. Ryan Miller has outplayed the entire league through the first half of the season, but when Tim Thomas is focused and determined to win, he has the ability to steal games and make saves you didn't think were possible. For the backup role, I snubbed the more productive Craig Anderson in favor of training the younger Jonathan Quick.