Team Canada's Official Announcement Accidentally Gets Tweeted Early
We've all made mistakes. Said the wrong thing at the wrong time. Posted something on social media we later regret. Jumped the gun on something that was supposed to be secret.
Well, the IIHF did one even better than that.
On Monday, the IIHF accidentally released Team Canada’s men’s Olympic hockey roster – a full day ahead of time.
Oh Canada!
A mistimed tweet, which was sent from the International Ice Hockey Federation’s official @IIHFHockey account, accidentally blasted out the graphic of Team Canada’s entry for the Beijing 2022 Winter Games. Of course, the tweet was quickly deleted. Hockey Canada was scheduled to formally announce the roster at 11 a.m. ET on Tuesday morning.
Here is the roster, as per the IIHF’s graphic, which was quickly saved by fans in social media posts:
Now, that its 11 am on Tuesday, here's the official announcement:
Per CBC....
Canada unveils non-NHL Olympic hockey roster with pro experience, young talent
Twelve years after winning Olympic hockey gold in Vancouver, forward Eric Staal returns to lead a group of Canadian men into the Beijing tournament that begins Feb. 9.
With a strong performance, the 37-year-old might find a way back to the NHL, which pulled its players from the Olympics in December due to the disruption in the regular-season schedule as a result of rising COVID-19 cases through the league.
Staal, who had a goal and six points in seven games in the 2010 Olympic tourney, is a likely candidate to serve as captain for Team Canada, which announced its 25-player roster on Tuesday.
The free agent has been working himself into game shape on a professional tryout with the American Hockey League's Iowa Wild after helping Montreal to the Stanley Cup final last summer in his 17th NHL campaign. Staal played almost 1,400 games in the NHL and won the 2006 Stanley Cup with the Carolina Hurricanes.
Fans got a glimpse of first-time Olympians and NHL prospects Mason McTavish and Owen Power at the world junior championship in Edmonton and Red Deer, Alta., before it was cancelled in December after four days because of a continued forfeiture of games due to COVID-19.
McTavish, who turns 19 on Jan. 30, is the youngest on the Olympic roster and lone Canadian Hockey League player. The No. 3 overall pick in the 2021 NHL draft appeared in nine games with the Anaheim Ducks earlier this season.
Power, a six-foot-six defenceman taken No. 1 overall last year by the Buffalo Sabres, is in his second season at the University of Michigan. One of four players on the Olympic team under the age of 23, the 19-year-old became the first Canadian blue-liner to score a hat trick with three goals in the team's world junior opener against Czechia.
In goal, Canada chose Devon Levi of Quebec, who boasts a 1.55 goals-against average and .948 save percentage in 24 games this season with Boston's Northeastern University in the NCAA.
The 20-year-old was a seventh-round selection by the Florida Panthers in 2020 and emerged as the starter for Canada at the 2021 world juniors.
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