Hall vs Duchene – Olympic Decisions

Today is Monday, the last day of speculation of who exactly Steve Yzerman is going to name to the 2014 version of Canada’s Olympic hockey team. There are the locks, the sure things, the maybe’s and the should be’s. Yesterday afternoon in a series of tweets from insider Bob Mckenzie, he announced his version of the team.

So there’s Mckenzie’s version, he did mention in the first tweet that he’s making educated guesses based on who he thinks will be named.

Are there any big surprises there? No not really. In fact I really like that Nash is on the team, the player may be having an off year but he’s always been good with the red Maple Leaf on his sweater, has tonnes of big ice experience and has had chemistry with Crosby in the past.

It’s the left wing selections that get me thinking, Couture yes, Benn yes, Sharp definitely, but Duchene? Is Matt Duchene really a better option than Taylor Hall? Duchene, much like Couture is a natural center not a left winger, like Hall, and while I think it’s highly unlikely that Hall makes the cut this year lets compare the two and see what we can come up with.

Matt Duchene

This season Duchene is scoring at a point per game clip, he’s got 38 points in 38 games. Over his career though he’s a .75ppg player and has never finished near a point per game yet, having his best season points wise last year where he managed 43pts in 47 games. Currently Matt is scoring 2.83 points per 60 minutes of ice time at 5v5 play, which is probably where he will see most of his ice time in Sochi should he be there.

Defensively Duchene leaves a lot to be desired, he’s a career minus player (-23) although this season he’s +7 on a team that has seen their defense play surprisingly well and gotten absolutely outstanding goaltending. This season Duchene is helping drive play for the Avalanche as well, one thing he does really well is finish his shifts in his own zone. He gets exactly 50% of his zone starts in the offensive zone and finishes them in the offensive zone 51.4% of the time. That is a very telling sign of how he and his linemates are able to control the play.

Duchene is FAST, he can keep up with anyone on team Canada, and can outskate almost any opponent he’s likely to face. He doesn’t really bring any sort of physical element to the game either, and playing in a bottom six role he may be expected to do just that, the big ice doesn’t necessarily breed physical play but there are going to be times where he’ll need to get the big hit to make the play and I’m not sure he’s best suited for this role.

All of this being said, Duchene on Team Canada isn’t the end of the world. Steve Yzerman has the luxury of so many great players to choose from, me being the homer that I am would much rather see Taylor Hall there.

Taylor Hall

Hall has Duchene beat in many aspects of the game, IMO, he’s one of the few players in the league that can skate better than the Avalanche center. He’s a bit bigger and shows a willingness to play with a more physical edge.

Offensively he is ahead of Duchene in spades. He’s currently sitting at 41 points through 38 games, this is his second straight season where he is eclipsing the point per game mark, and over his career he has a .88 point per game average. Hall is currently the third highest scoring left winger in the game, he’s only 6 points behinds the leader (Kunitz) in that position and has played 6 less games, and not to mention Kunitz plays with Sidney Crosby.

Defense has been a challenge this year for Hall, but I think much of it is a product of the team around him, the shotty defense and the lackluster goaltending. Hall is 13^th in the NHL in takeaways with 35, and likewise as this stat normally shows he’s top 10 in the league in giveaways. But that stat just shows that he is a possession machine. The best players in the game are the ones that lead the league in these two stat categories, because they are players that have the puck and when they don’t have it they want it.

Hall is a top 10 player in the National Hockey League, Duchene is not. He’s not far off, but Taylor is better than Matt, that’s all there is to it. IMO it shouldn’t be a tough decision for Steve Yzerman and the group calling the shots, if anything Oilers Prez Kevin Lowe should be fighting tooth and nail to ensure Hall gets a spot on this team.

Overall I think it’s very doubtful that we get to watch Hall during that two weeks in February but I’ll tell you this, so long as NHL’rs keep going to the Olympics this is the last year we will have to debate whether or not he’ll be adorning the Red Maple Leaf.

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