The poop on Dany Heatley, Joe Thornton and Patrick Marleau.

Posted Monday, December 21. 2009 by Warren Baker
Filed under 2010 Olympics, Heatley, Dany, Marleau, Patrick, Thornton, Joe

Comments (8)

Many people think that the lineup of Dany Heatley, Joe Thornton and Patrick Marleau should be Team Canada's top line at the 2010 Olympics in Vancouver. They are on a tear with the San Jose Sharks this season and the theory is that if they are put together on a line at the Olympics, they will lead Canada to a gold medal.

Don Cherry may be sipping this kool-aid, but I am definitely not.

In fact, not only do I think this should not be Canada's top line at the games, I don't think any of those players should even be on the team. Think I'm crazy?

Let's start with big Joe Thornton. I read on a blog somewhere that Joe "poops assists". Maybe not the most visually appealing analogy, but it's true. Joe's soft hands and his incredible patience have indeed made him the league's premier setup man. He has led the league in assists 3 times in the last 4 years and is on pace this season to make it 4 of 5. Unfortunately, this applies only to the regular season. In the playoffs, Joe's production tends to be a little "constipated". In the aforementioned 5 year period, Joe averaged almost an assist a game in the regular season. In that same time period during the playoffs, his production was cut by almost a third. In the 2006 Olympics, Joe managed only 2 assists over a 6 game span. Simply put, the Joe Thornton that plays in the regular season does not show up when the pressure is on. And in Vancouver, the pressure will be on.

If Joe poops assists, then Dany Heatley poops goals. A two-time 50 goal scorer, Dany has averaged .57 goals per game over the last 5 years. And while his output has slowed down over the last two seasons, his trade to the San Jose Sharks has reignited his career. He has had an excellent start to the 2009/10 season and at his current pace he will have another shot at a 50 goal campaign. What is giving Dany "the runs"? Well, it's not just the water in California. Being paired with Joe Thornton has unquestionably been the reason behind Dany's increased production. So this begs the question - if big Joe doesn't show up in Vancouver, what will happen to Dany Heatley? When he cannot count on Joe Thornton to send him pretty passes, will he bear down and find other ways to score? If this summer's trade antics are any indication of Heatley's character, I'm guessing not. In fact, I think that if things get tough for Team Canada, Dany might waive his citizenship and ask to be traded to Team Russia.

And what about Patrick Marleau? His main criticism is his inability to score consistently. While he scored 71 and 86 points in 2008 and 2006 respectively, he tallied a disappointing and surprising 48 in 2007. He has shouldered the blame for the Sharks dismal playoff performances and was stripped of his captaincy this summer. While he is more "regular" this year, the main source of fiber in his diet is without a doubt his linemates Joe Thornton and Dany Heatley. If they disappear in Vancouver, Marleau's production will likely dry up as well.

So while they may be the NHL's top scoring line this season, they are also a line that has the risk of disappearing when the games get tough. And according to Team Canada GM Steve Yzerman, risk does not equal success.

"I've been to these tournaments, and the types of players that I found to be successful [are] guys that are responsible players," [Yzerman] said. "If you lose a game, you're out of the tournament, and you can't afford guys that are going to be high-risk." - Steve Yzerman (CBC Sports)

I agree. Let's leave the risky guys at home in February and take some "less-skilled" but dependable players to Vancouver.

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adam December 24, 2009 at 5:20 am

I’m glad to know that I’m not the only one who feels this way. And I couldn’t have said it better myself – so well said. Let’s go Team Canada!!!

vegas_shark December 24, 2009 at 2:17 pm

Where do I start? First off, as a citizen of the good old USA, I hope Stevie Y takes your advice and doesn’t take any of the three. No sense in wasting all that energy on a gold medal when the real goal is a Stanley Cup. But it would be his (and Canada’s) loss.

You see, your basing your theory on Thornton’s playoff stats over the last five years, which just don’t translate to the Olympic tournament. The formula to beat the Sharks with Thornton in the playoffs has been to key your best five defensive players on him, play him physical, and make the other lines beat you. Unfortunately, the Sharks other lines in the past have been full of pansy-assed, Euro-trash players who couldn’t get the job done.

In the Olympics, the other lines for Team Canada will be filled with highly skilled, hard-nosed Canadian boys and they will be playing against teams full of the aforementioned pansy-assed, Euro-trash players. So while I firmly believe that taking the Thornton-Heatley-Marleau line intact will virtually guarantee a gold for Canada, please Stevie, please . . . leave them all in San Jose like Warren says. They’ll need their strength to skate that big shiny thing in June.

Warren Baker December 25, 2009 at 1:47 pm

lol .. well said.

Time will tell I guess.

One thing is for sure – if they make the team, I will be cheering for them.

I just might not take them too early in my hockey pool …

Aaron Lamb December 27, 2009 at 11:28 am

I am so glad we have naive people in this world like Warren Baker. His logic is totally flawed. There is no way one could keep Thornton, Heatley or Marleau off the team. If the team loses, Yzerman would be criticized for not having them on the team. If they win, it will be because of the three aforementioned. This is a world of simplicity where no one takes any risks. Its safer and simple to keep the old trains on the track. I think the most important question….would you have the slow cheap old man Pronger on the team or Drew Doughty? Nuff said.

Warren Baker December 27, 2009 at 9:30 pm

I want to know why this Crosby kid is on the team when we have experienced guys like Todd Bertuzzi available.

Warren Baker March 15, 2010 at 11:22 am

So I cheered for them. They won. But I would have to say I went 2/3 on my predictions. Thornton had 2 points over the Olympics and was invisible. Heatley scored a bushel against the weaker teams in the qualifying rounds. Then was a non-factor.

I thought Marleau played consistent and in hindsight, I would have put him on the team.

However, the “Shark Line” was pretty much a bust in my opinion.

Martin March 19, 2010 at 1:02 pm

I’d say that they did well and, in hindsight, it was good idea having them on the team. The main reason, I think, was that it was a big advantage having a complete line who know each other well and who play together through the regular season.

In the early games, they were the one line that played well as a unit, and that gave the rest of the lines time to gel. It’s very difficult to play well as a line when you’re with a group of guys you don’t know, it takes a few games to figure out how to work together, so it made a big difference I thought having at least one line that were able to hit the ground running.

Warren Baker March 24, 2010 at 10:11 pm

I have to disagree. They only hogged valuable ice time against the weaker teams. If they had just ridden the pine against Norway and Switzerland, the other lines would have had lots of time to gel.

Although, if you mean by they helped by making us lose to the USA in the round robin and getting us the extra game to gel, then I agree

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