Exchanging Olympic hockey hot takes

Justin Cuthbert argues that Aaron Ekblad and Mackenzie Weegar should make Team Canada as a pairing while Julian McKenzie advocates for Troy Terry to make Team USA.

Video Transcript

JUSTIN CUTHBERT: The Olympics, we still believe we are going. We still believe that the NHL players will be there despite a little speed wobble with the Ottawa Senators, and some chatter about, you know, the issues about going and taking a big break in the season, and of course, what's going on with COVID. But we believe it's going to happen, so we should be able to provide a hot Olympic take. What is yours?

JULIAN MCKENZIE: Troy Terry for Team USA. He is literally the hottest player going in the National Hockey League. I do not know if he's on Team USA's Olympic long list. He better be, because he's been as good as he's been so far. We're talking about a guy who, if you look at him with the league leaders in terms of goals and points, he's out here chilling with some of the best players in the National Hockey League. Why not bring him on to the US Olympic Team? I don't know where they might have planned him.

Maybe they did have him on their long list, maybe they did think about him on the roster, but I don't think there was nearly as much hype compared to some of the other mainstays who were supposed to be on that team. So Troy Terry for Team USA. He better be off that Olympic long list, or they will be kicking themselves.

JUSTIN CUTHBERT: Yeah. I mean, there's only a few players-- US-born players hovering at the top of the NHL points list, and it's Troy Terry, Kyle Connor, Johnny Gaudreau. And maybe those-- like, Kyle Connor, maybe not a shoe-in, but I think he would be a lock to make the team. But Troy Terry, we didn't talk about before. Johnny Gaudreau is coming off a terrible year. It's not-- it's like a different wave of guys that are performing really, really well here.

So I wonder if the brain trust is working overdrive right now to try and fit the pieces, and because maybe this season hasn't gone completely according to plan with the US Olympic roster. Again, not as in-tune with it as I am the Canadian team, but I feel like there are gonna be some surprises on that team, where as with Canada, there might not be. But I wanted to give a Canadian hot take, so my hot take is that Aaron Ekblad and Mackenzie Weegar should make the team together.

Hockey Canada loves pairs. Hockey Canada loves pairs, right? That's what they do. Put a pair here, forward group, a little synergy going into the tournament, less of a, you know, feeling-out process. Immediately put them in the lineup, they're gonna perform. So why not bring the top-performing all-Canadian defensive pair in the NHL to the Canadian Olympic team? 275 minutes together, on-ice goal differential of 19-8 for the first-place Florida Panthers. 55% in all of the important metrics, which is great. 54% in expected goals.

I don't know if there's many locks on the defensive side for Canada, other than Pietrangelo, who's already on the team, and Cale Makar. I don't really know if there's any other guarantees--

[INTERPOSING VOICES]

JULIAN MCKENZIE: If you want to talk about pairings, maybe they bring together--

JUSTIN CUTHBERT: [INAUDIBLE] hasn't been great, but yeah.

JULIAN MCKENZIE: I know, but yeah.

JUSTIN CUTHBERT: I would assume, but he hasn't been great. So I feel like the door is open, and Ekblad could be on the team regardless. Weegar could maybe be your seventh or eighth, and if there's an injury, he comes in and immediately, you've got something that you can rely on. So I feel like you could do worse than having those two guys be at the depths of the blue line for Canada. So there's my Olympic hot take.

JULIAN MCKENZIE: OK. I didn't--

JUSTIN CUTHBERT: You didn't like that one. You can disagree--

JULIAN MCKENZIE: Not that didn't like-- not that didn't like it. I was-- I think that's the one I was like, wow, OK. All right, all right. Like, Aaron Ekblad on Team Canada makes sense to me. Mackenzie Weegar, I'm like-- like, really? Like--

JUSTIN CUTHBERT: He's pretty good, man.

JULIAN MCKENZIE: I get it. It's just, I don't see it. I don't see it.

JUSTIN CUTHBERT: I mean, it's probably not going to happen. We're probably going to get Drew Doughty and Thomas Chabot, and-- you know, I'm forgetting [INAUDIBLE] right now.

JULIAN MCKENZIE: I feel like-- I feel like-- I feel like if Team Canada could-- if they could find a way to get Shea Weber, like-- like, if there's some way to get him on the team, or whatever, but like, Mackenzie Weegar, I was like, oh, OK,

JUSTIN CUTHBERT: Weegar's got some Weber in him. He's got some Weber in him.

JULIAN MCKENZIE: Yeah. All right. Let's see. Let's see. Let's see.

JUSTIN CUTHBERT: We'll see what happens. I think that's the one thing-- well, the goaltending is-- the goaltending is what it is. But I think the blue line, there are gonna be a couple of surprises because I don't think it's all that obvious. Anyway--

JULIAN MCKENZIE: I can't-- I can't wait to debate this next one.