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Scott Niedermayer's leadership help lead the Ducks to their first Stanley Cup in '07.
With the 2010 Winter Olympics only two months away, nobody is feeling more pressure right now than Team Canada. When you consider that they are coming off their worst showing at the games (finishing seventh at the 2006 Turin Olympics) and the fact that in 2010 they will be playing in front of their home crowd in Vancouver, to say that there is a lot riding on this team could very well be the understatement of the century.
It will be hard enough for head coach Mike Babcock and company to cull through the cornucopia of talent that showed up at the National Men’s Team orientation camp in Calgary over the summer (a fellow writer joked that “This list will be picked apart and analyzed more than anything the Canadian parliament has done all year”); but once the 23-man roster has been set, the all important decision of who will don the “C” comes to the forefront.
With only a handful of names being debated about over hockey message boards across the web (Sidney Crosby, Jarome Iginla, Vincent Lecavalier, Joe Thornton), there really only seems to be one standout candidate: Scott Niedermayer. His name has become synonymous with the word “Leader” and his resume speaks for itself. As one of the NHL’s top defenseman over the last decade, Niedermayer has always answered the call for Team Canada. He won a Gold Medal as a member of Canada’s 1991 World Junior Team and followed that up by winning a Silver Medal as a member of Canada’s 1996 World Cup of Hockey Team. Niedermayer was also a key member of Canada’s Gold Medal winning team at the 2002 Olympics in Salt Lake City and added yet another Gold Medal in 2004 as a member of Canada’s World Championship team. Crosby may be the NHL’s ultimate superstar and Iggy might be the next Steve Yzerman, but no one has as much hardware as Niedermayer.
(photo courtesy: Phil Walsh - Flickr)
And his NHL totals are just as impressive as his International contributions. In 1992-93 Niedermayer was elected to the NHL’s all-rookie team. Two season’s later,(1994-95), Niedermayer won a Stanley Cup as a member of the New Jersey Devils. He would have his name engraved on the Cup for a second time with the Devils in 2003-04 and win another championship with the Ducks in 2006-07, the same year he took home the Conn Smythe Trophy as the NHL’s playoff MVP. When you add all of that together with a James Norris Memorial Trophy as the NHL’s best defenseman in 2003-04 and eight different NHL All-Star game appearances, Niedermayer only seems to be getting better with age.
No one has more poise with the puck behind the blue line and his silent leadership is a rare intangible quality that few players possess. With the competition expected to be more competitive than ever at the 2010 Olympics, Canada will need a captain to lead by example. Look no further than Scott Niedermayer.
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