Luongo gets call for Canada against Norway

http://www.ctvolympics.ca/hockey/new...against+norway



In a bit of a surprise decision, Roberto Luongo will get the start in net for Canada's first game of the Olympic hockey tournament Tuesday against Norway.

Martin Brodeur will be in net for Thursday's game against Switzerland.

Team Canada head coach Mike Babcock confirmed the goaltender rotation following a spirited first practice as Canada Hockey Place.

"Marty has played a ton of hockey and this buys him some time," said Mike Babcock, who also admitted that he gave Luongo the opening start partially because Canada Place is the netminder's home rink with the Vancouver Canucks.

Canada also unveiled their tentative lines for the tournament with Sidney Crosby centering a top line featuring Rick Nash on one wing and Crosby's World Junior linemate Patrice Bergeron on the other.
While still far from 100% due to an ankle injury, Ryan Getzlaf was lined up with Ducks' teammate Corey Perry and Eric Staal on the second line. As predicted the Sharks' fearsome combo of Dany Heatley, Joe Thornton and Patrick Marleau skated together on the third line while Mike Richards and Brendan Morrow rotated centering a fourth line with Jarome Iginla and Jonathan Toews on the wings.

Of course the Canadians were not the only team to hit the ice Monday as most of the top squads got practice time in before the tournament opens on Tuesday.

In a practice that was described as ‘extremely up tempo' the Russian's also set up their temporary lines that appeared a little top-heavy.

The Russian's have an abundance of scoring options on the top two lines with Alexander Ovechkin and Alexander Semin flanking Pavel Datsyuk on the number one combo while Evgeni Malkin was centering Ilya Kovalchuk and Maxim Afinogenov on the second unit.

40-year old veteran Sergei Fedorov was skating on a line with Viktor Kozlov and Alexander Radulov while captain Aleksey Morozov centered a fourth line with Danis Zaripov and Sergei Zinoviev on the wings
On defence, Andrei Markov and youngster Ilya Nikulin were featured on the top pairing with Fedor Tyutin and Sergei Gonchar paired up on the second unit. Dmitri Kalinin and Anton Volchenkov will likely be deployed as Russia's shut-down tandem while Denis Grebeshkov and Konstantin Korneev will be the extra pairing.

Team USA also took the ice with a top line of Patrick Kane between Zach Parise and Paul Stastny. Joe Pavelski centered the second line with Phil Kessel on one side and Ryan Malone on the other. Ryan Kesler was flanked by Dustin Brown and captain Jamie Langenbrunner on the third line while Ryan Callahan and Bobby Ryan rotated in on a line with Chris Drury and David Backes. The defensive pairings were not immediately available.

words from the man above to Brodie - focus on the game V's Suisse!!! lol