Wearing the Maple Leaf: Counting Down the Canadian Canucks

The Vancouver Canucks and Team Canada don’t exactly have a long and storied history. There have been a total of twelve international hockey tournaments featuring Canada’s best professionals at the highest level – thirteen if you include the 1972 Summit Series – since the franchise entered the NHL.

And for much of the organization’s 46-year existence, the Canucks were either an awful to mediocre team or else one whose best players carried foreign passports. During the franchise’s most recent run of success, for instance, the Canucks were led, in addition to a number of Canadians, by a bevvy of Swedes, Americans, Germans, Danes, and Finns. It was not a function of being a poor team – quite the opposite – but rather the international flavour of the Canucks roster that limited its relationship with Team Canada.

With the organization’s return to the NHL basement, it should come as no surprise that there are no Canucks representing Canada on the men’s senior squad at this month’s World Cup. What might also bode as something of an ill omen is that there are no Canucks on the under-23 North American squad, either. As Vancouver enters its down-cycle, the former is expected. The latter, meanwhile, could be viewed as a little disappointing.

As a Canadian and a Canuck fan, it is always an added bonus to cheer for your home country as well as your home team. Instead, this World Cup, the Canucks will be well-represented by other nations. The Sedins and newcomer Loui Eriksson will don the Swedish ‘Tre Kronor,” as will goaltender Jacob Markstrom (who is backing up mainstay Henrik Lundqvist, but is not expected to play). Team Europe, meanwhile, will feature Jannik Hansen (Denmark) and Luca Sbisa (Switzerland). So while every player on Team Canada and half of Team North America can theoretically be nicknamed “Canucks,” neither team will feature players who consider themselves Canucks, professionally-speaking. But let’s look back at the times where that wasn’t the case.

If all had gone according to plan, there would likely have been two Canucks on this version of Team Canada. But due to an incident involving Todd Bertuzzi, Steve Moore, and a hard ice surface, there would only be one – and that would be the same lone player who represented Canada in Salt Lake City. Jovanovski was coming off an injury-riddled 2003-04 season that saw him dress in only 56 games, but he had gained a degree of seniority by virtue of his 2002 gold medal. Already without Chris Pronger and Rob Blake to begin the tournament, Team Canada would be increasingly reliant upon JovoCop.

His World Cup experience didn’t last long, however. In the opening game against the United States, Jovanovski slid into the U.S. net with former Canuck teammate Eric Weinrich on top of him. The incident caused Jovanovski to suffer a cracked rib and a second-degree MCL sprain in his right knee. He was replaced thereafter by young San Jose defenceman Scott Hannan. Although Canada would go on to win the tournament in 2004, that game would prove to be Jovo’s last in a best-on-best format.

The Canuck who should have been on Team Canada in 2004 and wasn’t, instead was named to Team Canada in 2006 when he arguably should not have been. Bertuzzi was chosen based on some inspired play in the weeks leading up the roster selection, but in reality his game had declined noticeably over the past couple of years. Bertuzzi was a shadow of the 46-goal, bruising winger of 2003. He earned his spot based more on reputation than his current level of play. On the big ice in Torino, he often looked lost and slow. He recorded three assists in six games, but is primarily remembered for sitting in the penalty box serving an undisciplined interference penalty in the third period of a scoreless quarterfinal against Russia. A young sniper by the name of Alexander Ovechkin scored on the man advantage to give the Russians a lead they would not relinquish.

*Ed Jovanovski was again named to the team, but had to withdraw due to injury. He was replaced by Bryan McCabe prior to the tournament.

With the Winter Games taking place in Vancouver, it would have been truly disappointing for the Canucks to not have a representative in the Canadian lineup. Thankfully, they had an all-star goaltender waiting in the wings. Luongo had represented Canada at both the 2004 World Cup and 2006 Olympics, but this was his first time competing for Canada while a member of the Vancouver Canucks. He played in the opener – an 8-0 shellacking of unheralded Norway – and then sat on the bench for the remaining preliminary games as Martin Brodeur took the reigns. Brodeur, however, fared miserably in his last start against the Americans, losing 5-3, and was directly responsible for a couple goals against. Coach Mike Babcock therefore inserted Luongo into the net for the qualification game against Germany (which Canada won 8-2) and the team never looked back. Luongo was instrumental, too, making a miraculous save against then-Canuck teammate Pavol Demitra in the waning seconds of the semifinal versus Slovakia.

Not an insignificant contribution from a player pegged as a backup to start the tournament.

Although neither Canuck was a major part of the 2014 Olympic champions, this was the first time that two Canucks actually dressed for Team Canada at a best-on-best tournament. Luongo registered a shutout against Austria in the second game and never played again, while Hamhuis played very limited minutes (but more than PK Subban). Hamhuis played so little, in fact, that he counted exactly one shift in the final two games against the United States and Sweden combined. His one shift – all 1:04 of it, in fact – came at the very end of the Gold Medal Game. Yet that shift gave us a wonderful photo which might overstate his total contribution to this iteration of Team Canada, but dammit, it still looks good.