Canada's pre-tournament forward lines, defensive pairings, and power-play personnel

The Canadian men's Olympic ice hockey team had its second practice in Sochi on Tuesday morning. The players making up the Canadian team are valued at over $150 million in terms of annual NHL salary, which reflects the mega-wattage star power Canada boasts throughout the lineup.

Let's look at how Team Canada's coaching staff deployed its legion of superstars at practice on Tuesday.

Forwards

• Chris Kunitz - Sidney Crosby - Jeff Carter
• Patrick Sharp - Jonathan Toews - Rick Nash
• Patrick Marleau - Ryan Getzlaf - Corey Perry
• Jamie Benn - Jonathan Tavares - Patrice Bergeron
• Extras: Martin St. Louis, Matt Duchene

Team Canada head coach Mike Babcock will surely tinker with his lineup significantly throughout the preliminary round, but his initial choices before the tournament gets underway are instructive nonetheless.

The Canadian team's top-nine forward group features three "pairs" of forwards who also happen to play together in the National Hockey League (Crosby and Kunitz in Pittsburgh; Sharp and Toews in Chicago; Getzlaf and Perry in Anaheim). This would suggest that Babcock puts a lot of stock in the value of familiarity and chemistry, especially in a short tournament.

Canada's forward lines also seem to place a primary, almost obsessive emphasis on the handedness of the players. Canada has left-handed and right-handed centermen on the roster (including both a right and left-handed face-off man on their ostensible fourth line), and seven of the team's eight wingers will lineup on their strong side. Rick Nash - a left-handed shooter who took line rushes on Tuesday while flanking 2010 Olympic line-mate Jonathan Toews on the right side - is pretty much the only imperfection in the design.

Babcock and the Canadian coaching staff should probably be expected to push a lot of buttons during the preliminary round to try and figure out what works up front. St. Louis and Duchene, for example, are expected to rotate in and out of the lineup in the team's upcoming preliminary round games this week. It'll be fascinating to see which of Canada's talented depth forwards finish the tournament playing a major role.

Defense

• Duncan Keith - Shea Weber
• Jay Bouwmeester - Alex Pietrangelo
• Marc-Edouard Vlasic - Drew Doughty
• Dan Hamhuis - P.K. Subban

Team Canada will only dress seven defenders during the tournament (European teams usually dress eight, and roll four five-man units), and for now it would appear that P.K. Subban and Dan Hamhuis find themselves on the outside of the top-six looking in. 

Again, from the pre-tournament defensive pairings it's clear that the Canadian brain trust cares enormously about handedness.

Power-Play

From NHL.com's Arpon Basu:

• First Unit Forwards: Sidney Crosby - Chris Kunitz - Jonathan Tavares
• First Unit Defenseman: Duncan Keith - Patrick Sharp
• Second Unit Forwards: Matt Duchene/Martin St. Louis - Ryan Getzlaf - Corey Perry
• First Unit Defenseman: Drew Doughty/P.K. Subban - Shea Weber

Chris Kunitz and four forwards on Team Canada's first power-play unit? You better believe it.