Injuries expose Canada's vulnerability in net

What if this were January 2010, instead of 2009: How much angst would there be over the state of Canadian goaltending this close to the Winter Olympics?

Martin Brodeur remains injured in New Jersey. Roberto Luongo has just come back and hasn't been sharp in Vancouver. Carey Price is hurting, although he's playing in tonight's all-star game in Montreal. And after that, what?

Marc-Andre Fleury is having a terrible season in Pittsburgh. Same with Marty Turco in Dallas. Cam Ward has been up and down in Carolina.

You could argue the best Canadian goaltenders in the National Hockey League so far this season have been Manny Fernandez in Boston and rookie Steve Mason in Columbus.

Would anyone be comfortable with an Olympic team with either of them starting?

The assumption remains that Brodeur and Luongo will be the goaltenders for Team Canada, with Price, likely as the third netminder. But with the preponderance of goalie injuries -- and with butterfly goaltenders the incidents are becoming more frequent -- it's not exactly a comfortable feeling.

Not when you consider that Henrik Lundqvist may be in goal for Sweden, Miikka Kiprusoff could be manning the nets for Finland and Tim Thomas for the United States, Evgeny Nabokov for Russia and Tomas Vokoun for the Czechs -- the quality of world goaltenders is that high.

Canada needs a healthy Luongo or a healthy Brodeur to compete.

Good thing there still is a year to go to Vancouver.