Wherever Marc Kennedy has gone in the world of curling, he has been a winner. From the Canada Winter Games to the Olympic Winter Games, Kennedy knows the feeling of wearing a gold medal around his neck.
A native of St. Albert, Alta., Kennedy represented Alberta at three Canadian Junior Curling Championships, in 1997, 1999 and 2001, winning a gold medal at the 1999 Canada Games in Corner Brook, N.L., along the way. He earned another gold, this time as an alternate at the 2003 Winter Universiade in Tarvisio, Italy, before making the jump to the senior level.
As the second with John Morris’ rink, Kennedy played at three Briers, in 2004, 2005 and 2006, before he and Morris joined Kevin Martin’s rink in 2006. The Martin rink is one of the most successful of all-time, winning two Briers (2008, 2009), one world championship (2008) and the Olympic gold medal at the 2010 Games in Vancouver. Kennedy achieved individual success as well, earning a spot on the first all-star team at the Brier in 2007, 2008, 2009 and 2011.
Goaltenders |
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Corey Crawford |
Roberto Luongo |
Carey Price |
WHY?: Luongo was so good in Vancouver, and has that experience, and you want that experience in net at the Olympics, so he’s going to be the guy. The other two are tough calls. I like Price; very solid, very consistent. Then I was between Mike Smith and Crawford, and Crawford is the hot goalie right now, coming off a Stanley Cup, and he’s a guy you know you can go to if you have to. |
Defencemen |
Jay Bouwmeester |
Drew Doughty |
Duncan Keith |
Kris Letang |
Alex Pietrangleo |
Brent Seabrook |
P.K. Subban |
Shea Weber |
WHY?: I tried to get a nice mix of speed and experience. You’ve got a lot of guys who have been there before, competed at Olympics, and then you bring in some young guys, guys like P.K., who is a no-brainer to me as last year’s Norris Trophy winner. You have to have a couple big guys in there, guys like Weber and Pietrangelo. Weber was a machine in Vancouver, but they can all skate, they can all move the puck well. I don’t know if I had a lot of tough choices on the blue-line; the one borderline guy was Dan Boyle, but I just thought it was time to go with more youth. |
Forwards |
Patrice Bergeron |
Sidney Crosby |
Matt Duchene |
Ryan Getzlaf |
Claude Giroux |
Rick Nash |
James Neal |
Corey Perry |
Michael Richards |
Martin St. Louis |
Patrick Sharp |
Steven Stamkos |
John Tavares |
Jonathan Toews |
WHY?: It’s a pretty good team. A lot of them are no-brainers; you’ve got a lot of experience, you’ve got a lot of skill. I didn’t keep a lot of the older guys, guys like Thornton; I went younger. The tough choices for me were St. Louis and Duchene. It’s hard to leave Lucic off, but watching the team in 2006, having a bunch of bigger guys doesn’t seem to matter on that ice surface. I know some of the big guys can skate, but I went for smaller, more explosive, more speed. And then it was a combination of bringing in the youthful energy guys, guys that will have a lot of enthusiasm. It’s a tough call though; you could bring in a guy like Taylor Hall over Duchene, but I love what I’ve seen from Colorado, and Duchene’s a big part of that. |