As you may know, Team Canada's summer camp is now in full swing. And while Jordan Staal and Marc-Andre Fleury are participating, the only sure thing is number 87 (or is it #37?) will be there.
But it won't be countrymen like Mark Recchi, Colby Armstrong or Chris Kunitz on his line this time, it'll be players in their prime with the hands and speed to keep up with him. As you can imagine, it's being described as "scary" by Staal.
That's pretty scary,'' forward Jordan Staal said Tuesday. "When you see those three guys on one line - three star players on their own team and obviously star players throughout the world - it's something scary."
"You don't want to be lining up against those three.''
He's talking about Sid centering Calgary's Jarome Iginla (409 career NHL goals and an average of 93 points in the past three seasons) and Columbus' Rick Nash (355 points in 441 career NHL games and 78 goals in the past two seasons). Those two add a lot of size, speed and dangles that Crosby's never really had -- save the 2008 run with Marian Hossa.
Canada's coaches have said don't read too much into any lines this summer, and with good reason. With the depth of talent they have, and the fact that no country's really going to have enough time to integrate all their players with each other, it doesn't really matter.
Who would you put with Crosby if you were calling the shots? Certainly Iginla-Nash seems to be a great combination. But what about an elite sniper like Dany Heatley? Or a goal scoring big man like Eric Staal or Ryan Getzlaf? Put speedy Martin St. Louis with Sid and you can almost see a defense already backpedaling. Even more, you could slide Crosby to the wing and allow him to play with an elite center like Vincent Lecavalier or a Joe Thornton and the possibilities become even more numerous.
The options are virtually endless. So if you were setting up Team Canada, where would you slot Sid and who would you surround him with? All the talented choices make it a very enviable job to have. Yours in the comments.