from Roy MacGregor of the Globe and Mail,

The large ice surface is different, despite those who will argue endlessly that it is not. The game itself is different.

Ottawa Senators defenceman Marc Methot, perhaps a surprise name among the 47 called to camp, told the Ottawa Citizen Tuesday that he doubts he would have merited consideration had it not been for his play the past couple of years in the world championship.

“I think I turned a lot of heads,” Methot said. “I think a big reason is because of how I played on the big surface. A lot of it is about skating, and having my skating ability mixed in with the defensive game surely helped.”

It is also different for goaltenders, as Canada’s Patrick Roy noted in Nagano. Angles and distance change; the quick shot often becomes the pause, leaving reflex goalies at a shooter’s mercy. Canada has some fine goaltenders, but no Canadian goalie has stolen Olympic matches the way the Czech Republic’s Dominik Hasek did in Nagano.

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