It's finally time for the greatest Christmas-time tournament: The Spengler Cup. Oh, you thought I was talking about the World Juniors? How cute. In traditional Spengler Cup preview, here are the rosters, top threat and weakness.
Alder Mannheim Eagles (DEL)
Goalies: Felix Bruckmann, Niklas Deske, Dennis Endras
Defense: Shawn Belle, Dominik Bittner, Nikolai Goc, Florian Kettemer, Denis Reul, Dennis Seidenberg, Jaime Sifers, Steve Wagner
Forwards: Ronny Arendt, Marc El-Sayed, Mike Glumac, Marcel Goc, Mirko Hofflin, Marcus Kink, Yannick Lehoux, Craig MacDonald, Ken Magowan, Frank Mauer, Adam Mitchell, Matthias Plachta, Jason Pominville, Yannic Seidenberg, Christopher Ullmann
Top Threat: Couple of NHLers, German national team members, should be tough competition.
Weakness: They are a favourite team of
this guy, so they will be out early.
HC Fribourg-Gotteron (NLA)
Goalies: Benjamin Conz, Simon Rytz, Cory Schneider
Defense: Marc Abplanalp, Alain Birbaum, Lukas Gerber, Bruno Gervais, Shawn Heins, Joel Kwaitkowski, Romain Loeffel, Michael Ngoy, Sebastian Schilt
Forwards: Cedric Botter, Sandro Brugger, Andrei Bykov, Jan Cadieux, David Desharnais, Christian Dube, Simon Gamache, Adam Hasani, Patric Hornqvist, Sandy Jeannin, Mike Knoepfli, Gregory Mauldin, Melvin Merola, Benjamin Pluss, Pavel Rosa, Julien Sprunger, Sebastian Sutter, Maxime Talbot, Tristan Vauclair
Top Threat: Have the good Canucks goalie, or so I've been told.
Weakness: Unlike the Canucks, no Swedish twins.
HC Vitkovice Steel (Extraliga)
Goalies: Roman Malek, Filip Sindelar
Defense: Michal Barinka, Pavel Kubina, Tomas Kudelka, Marek Malik, Roman Polak, Denis Rehak, Adam Sedlak, Karol Sloboda, Richard Stehlik, Tomas Voracek
Forwards: Marek Bartanus, Jiri Burger, Radim Hruska, Rudolf Huna, Petr Kolouch, Lukas Klimek, Lukas Kucsera, Ondrej Roman, Ondrej Sedivy, Petr Strapac, Vladimir Svacina, Roman Szturc, Viktor Ujcik, Nathan Walker
Top Threat:
Unlike last year, they included Ujcik in the roster. Also, AUSSIE POWER!...and the defense looks good too.
Weakness: Outside of last year's semi-final finish (and a second place finish by Sparta Praha in 2004), Czech teams tend to do poorly. History is not on their side.
Salavat Yulaev Ufa (KHL)
Goalies: Vadim Tarasov, Ilro Tarkki
Defense: Vitali Atyushov, Ivan Barinka, Miroslav Blatak, Yefim Gurkin, Kirill Koltsov, Andrei Konev, Vitali Proshkin, Andrei Zubarev
Forwards: Sergei Emelin, Nikita Filatov, Alexei Glukhov, Alexei Kaigorodov, Denis Khlystov, Igor Mirnov, Igor Musatov, Alexander Pankov, Denis Parshin, Antti Pihlstrom, Thomash Rolinek, Oleg Saprykin, Alexander Stepanov, Alexander Svitov, Yuri Trubachev, Sergei Zinovyev
Top Threat: Was the runner up in their only Spengler Cup appearance (2007)
Weakness: Look at all that failed NHL talent on the roster. Come to think of it, that could be a strength too.
HC Davos (NLA - Host)
Goalies: Reto Berra, Leonardo Genoni, Janick Schwendener
Defense: Santeri Alatalo, Rene Back, Rafael Diaz, Beat Forster, Robin Grossmann, Samuel Guerra, Mathias Joggi, Tim Ramholt, Noah Schneeberger, Jan Von Arx
Forwards: Damien Brunner, Dario Burgler, Enzo Corvi, Loui Eriksson, Gregory Hofmann, Patrick Kane, Josef Marha, Rick Nash, Jan Neuenschwander, Sandro Rizzi, Sven Ryser, Patrick Schommer, Gregory Sciaroni, Lukas Sieber, Janick Steinmann, Petr Sykora, Petr Taticek, Joe Thornton, Reto Von Arx, Dino Weiser
Top Threat: They have Thornton and Nash, they will own the group.
Weakness: They have Thornton and Nash, they will choke in the playoffs.
Team Canada
Goalies: Jonathan Bernier, Devan Dubnyk
Defense: Cam Barker, Carlo Colaiacovo, Jason Demers, Micki Dupont, Geoff Kinrade, Maxim Noreau, Travis Roche, Derrick Walser
Forwards: Patrice Bergeron, Matt Duchene, Sam Gagner, Josh Holder, Brett McLean, Kurtis McLean, Jacob Micflikier, Pascal Pelletier, Marc-Antoine Pouliot, Bryon Ritchie, Tyler Seguin, Ryan Smyth, Jason Spezza, John Tavares, Jason Williams
Top Threat: Lockout NHLers (starts salivating).
Weakness: Oilers on the roster. They know that there is no first overall pick for ending up last here right?
A (Few) Word(s) About Team Canada
This kind of eats at me. Yes, this is the most talented roster Team Canada has had at the Spengler Cup. Even during the last lockout, the only person with an
"NHL" label was an assistant coach. It was a good team, but most of the known players on that team had there NHL careers ended before or because of the lockout. Only Jamie Heward and Alex Auld played in the NHL after the lockout.
But, this lockout should have been a literal goldmine for this team. It still has gold (Spezza, Seguin, Tavares, Bergeron, and a few others), but it also leaves something to be desired. Guys like Crosby and Toews aren't doing anything outside of practicing, the lockout is not going to be solved tomorrow, so why are they not playing? I give credit to Thornton and Nash (despite playing for HC Davos).
Yes, I beat this dead horse every year during the World Championship. If the only time you show up from international duty is for the Olympics (and the World Cup if that ever happens again), then the phrase "honoured to represent my country" starts ringing hollow. It would be nice to see more commitment from the top-talent guys.
Fun Fact: Three players from the 2004 team got Swiss passports years later.
