Captain Canada.
Many fantastic players have had the honor of being named captain of Team Canada, and Rick Nash is the latest to wear the C above the red maple leaf.
He isn’t a stranger to the leadership role, given his role as captain of the Jackets. This is his first time as captain of the national team, however. It certainly doesn’t hurt that two of the three Canadian coaches are both your current and former club coaches in Columbus.
Nash is a fixture with Team Canada. This will be his fourth World Championship, to go along with a world junior championship appearance, and a pair of Olympic games. World Juniors aside, he has appeared in 40 games for Canada across the different tournaments, putting up 23 goals, 22 assists for 45 points.
Nash’s assistant captains are Jason Spezza– another Team Canada regular, Dion Phaneuf, Andrew Ladd and Travis Zajac. Canada is looking to return to the medals after finishing in 7th last year. Nash wasn’t able to play last year due to injury and needing to rest.
This will be another great opportunity for Nash to show what he can do with other high-calibre players. I’m personally excited to see what sort of chemistry he develops with Spezza. With the Senators rebuilding, and the two show good chemistry, maybe Scott Howson may give Bryan Murray a call…
The tourny starts on April 29th.