The World Cup of Hockey makes its return in Toronto after a 12-year hiatus. Heres a look at the eight teams involved in the tournament, which opens Saturday:CANADAThe unquestioned favorites, Canada will try to recapture the World Cup of Hockey after winning the last edition 12 years ago.The Canadians boast the deepest pool of talent in the tournament, stacked with Art Ross, Hart and Norris trophy winners, as well as the last two goaltenders to win the Vezina. The puzzle pieces should be interchangeable for coach Mike Babcock with just about every player capable of taking on a role or position as needed. Twelve of the 13 forwards have scored at least 30 goals in an NHL season.Canada offered one of the stingiest defensive showings ever at the 2014 Sochi Games, yielding a mere three goals all tournament. The World Cup defense took a hit with Duncan Keith sidelined by injury, but Shea Weber, Marc-Edouard Vlasic, Drew Dougthy, Alex Pietrangelo and Jay Bouwmeester all return. Jake Muzzin adds defensive stability while Brent Burns injects an air of enthusiasm and offensive pep.Carey Price should be a lock to start in goal. Canada also has Vezina Trophy winner Braden Holtby along with two-time Stanley Cup champion Corey Crawford.NORTH AMERICAThe North Americans could be the most exciting team to watch.Built with players 23-and-younger from Canada and the U.S., the team has some of the brightest young talents in hockey, from Connor McDavid to Aaron Ekblad, Jack Eichel, Johnny Gaudreau and Nathan MacKinnon. Imagine Auston Matthews paired with fellow No. 1 overall picks Ryan Nugent-Hopkins and MacKinnon or Eichel teamed with the shifty Gaudreau.The defense is young and inexperienced, led by Ekblad, the Florida Panthers 20-year-old standout along with Morgan Rielly of the Maple Leafs and Seth Jones from the Columbus Blue Jackets. Matt Murray, the Penguins Stanley Cup-winning goaltender, and Anaheims John Gibson could be busy.SWEDENSilver medal winners in Sochi, the Swedes are a good bet to challenge for the World Cup crown.The defense is led by superstar Erik Karlsson and all-around Tampa Bay Lightning stalwart Victor Hedman, complemented by Anton Stralman, Hampus Lindholm, Niklas Hjalmarsson and Oliver Ekman-Larsson. Every member of the group skates well and moves the puck easily.Up front, the Swedes are led by the still-productive Sedin twins as well as Nicklas Backstrom and Loui Eriksson, and emerging talents such as Filip Forsberg and Gabriel Landeskog.Its a smart, responsible group with just enough firepower to complement that fine defense and goaltending, which comes once again from Henrik Lundqvist.UNITED STATESThe Americans have the reigning NHL scoring champ and Hart Trophy winner in Patrick Kane, the deepest goaltending in the tournament and a grind-it-out roster run by coach John Tortorella.The Americans finished a disappointing fourth in Sochi, edged 1-0 by Canada in the semifinal before getting stomped 5-0 by Finland in the bronze-medal game. They opted against bringing back Phil Kessel, their leading scorer from that tournament, and will rely instead on feisty, blue-collar types such as David Backes, Brandon Dubinsky, Justin Abdelkader and Ryan Kesler.Beyond Kane, Jets winger Blake Wheeler, Montreal captain Max Pacioretty, Wild star Zach Parise, and Leafs winger James van Riemsdyk, theres just not the same level of high-end skill on teams such as Canada, Sweden, Finland, Russia and North America.The defense is solid, if unspectacular, with Ryan Suter and Ryan McDonagh as well as a potential game-changer in Dustin Byfuglien. With Jonathan Quick, Ben Bishop and Cory Schneider, the Americans have three of the best goaltenders in the tournament.FINLANDWith medals at five of the last six Olympics, the Finns are unlikely to go quietly.This isnt the aging roster led by Teemu Selanne that won bronze in Sochi. It is brimming with youth, including Winnipeg Jets sensation Patrik Laine, Panthers center Aleksander Barkov as well as young defenders like Olli Maatta and Sami Vatanen. Thirteen players on the 23-man roster are aged 25 and younger. That should offer the Finns, who have always relied on savvy defense and stable goaltending, a little more pep and excitement.Finland is especially young on the back end, which could put more pressure on either Tuukka Rask or Pekka Rinne in goal.RUSSIAPerhaps no team in the tournament can boast game-breaking talent like the Russians.From Alex Ovechkin and Evgeni Malkin to Vladimir Tarasenko and Nikita Kucherov, Russia is loaded with offensive talent. Of course, thats usually the case with the Russians, who have underperformed the past two Olympics, including a fifth-place showing on home soil in 2014.This squad is deeper though, primarily due to the influx of talented young players like the 23-year-old Kucherov (30 goals last season), 24-year-old Tarasenko (40 goals) as well as Artemi Panarin, the reigning Calder Trophy winner, and Evgeny Kuznetsov, the leading scorer (77 points) for the Presidents Trophy-winning Washington Capitals.Stack those stars on top of Ovechkin, Malkin and Pavel Datsyuk, the now former Red Wing legend, and theres plenty to fear here for World Cup opponents.Outside of 37-year-old Montreal Canadiens stalwart Andrei Markov, the defense is mostly a young contingent and the goaltending is riddled with question marks as both Semyon Varlamov and Sergei Bobrovsky had rocky performances last season.EUROPEThe team represents eight different nations -- France, Denmark, Germany, Slovakia, Slovenia, Switzerland, Austria and Norway -- and is a predictably mish-mashed roster tilted toward an aging group of NHL stars, including Zdeno Chara (39 years old), Marian Hossa (37), Marian Gaborik (34) and Thomas Vanek (32).On defense, Chara will be joined by 38-year-old Mark Streit, 35-year-old Dennis Seidenberg, and 34-year-old Christian Ehrhoff.New Kings captain Anze Kopitar gives the Europeans a powerful, two-way force down the middle, but there might not be enough scoring in this group to be a threat. Hossa, Gaborik and Vanek are all veterans and Oilers up-and-comer Leon Draisaitl is just 20.Jaroslav Halak is a solid option in goal.CZECH REPUBLICThe Czechs have a young roster that appears the weakest on paper heading into the World Cup.Petr Mrazek, the likely No. 1 netminder who was one of the NHLs best for the first half of last season, could be the difference. The team will need him to be red hot since it does not have much firepower after top center David Krejci backed out because of injury. Jakub Voracek fronts a forward contingent mixed with youth, such as 20-year-old David Pastrnak and 22-year-old Tomas Hertl, as well as aging talent like Milan Michalek and Ales Hemsky.The group on defense is easily the thinnest among the eight teams with Maple Leafs defender Roman Polak joined by the likes of Zbynek Michalek and Andrej Sustr. Vapormax Danmark . With the first unit struggling of late and Amir Johnson - one of the teams iron men - hobbling on an injured right ankle, Patterson knew he could get the nod in a challenging matchup against one of the leagues up and coming players at his position. Vapormax Herre Udsalg . As he recorded his 23rd and 24th points of the evening, a segment of the sellout Air Canada Centre crowd expressed their appreciation for the Raptors point guard with a smattering of MVP chants. http://www.vapormaxdanmark.com/ . Colin Wilson had two goals and an assist, and Mike Fisher scored a goal and helped set up two others in the Predators 6-4 victory over the Red Wings on Monday night. Vapormax Danmark Online . -- Jaye Marie Green shot a 4-under 68 on Thursday to increase her lead to five strokes after the second round of the LPGA Tours qualifying tournament. Nike Vapormax Dk . The Oilers come in having lost five in a row (0-4-1) and 16 of their last 20 games, dropping a 2-1 decision to the Vancouver Canucks on Tuesday. HOLLYWOOD, Fla. -- Former NFL Alumni Association President George Martin told a concussion conference Friday the injury is a scourge in contact sports with long-term consequences still widely underestimated.We need to take off the veil, Martin said. Ive attended far too many funerals lately for teammates and colleagues who have unfortunately succumbed to CTE.Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy is a progressive degenerative disease of the brain found in athletes and others with a history of repetitive brain trauma, including concussions.Martin was the keynote speaker at the Ultimate Concussion Conference, a gathering of experts and policymakers in sports administration, law, education and health, including neuroscience and neuropsychology. About 80 people were expected for the three-day event.I always felt there was a lack of communication between disciplines, so I said, `Lets start a meeting that does this, said co-organizer Dr. Don Teig, an expert in sports vision from Ridgefield, Connecticut. A lot of players are so thrilled were doing this, because the subject had been pushed aside and buried. My goal was not to bury it anymore, and build it into something that lets people who are looking to come up with answers share their ideas.The first speaker was Martin, who described the toll he has seen concussions take. Martin played defensive end for the New York Giants from 1975 to 1988.The helmet I wore for the first five years of my career will tell you everything you need to know about concussions in the NFL, he said. If you looked at that helmet, you would be aghast. On the front there are nothing but scars, deep and penetrating. Its absolutely covereed with them.ddddddddddddMartin said helmets today are much improved, and said he has no criticism of the leagues recent response to concerns about CTE.But Martin said the disease has many players from his era worrying about their health.When I walk into the hospital room of a colleague who is a shell of his former self, I ask myself, is this a prelude to the future for me? he said. You dont know how frightening that question is.Dr. Michael Bergeron, president of Youth Sports of the Americas, told the conference there has been little improvement in understanding concussion risk because, ironically, theres so much data to absorb. Supercomputer software will help process information in the years to come, Bergeron predicted.Its too much for a human being to do, he said. We have to rely on software that can pull it together in an intelligent way. This will help prediction models and prevention.New findings will be presented Saturday by Dr. Tad Seifert, a Louisville neurologist involved in a study of boxers and mixed martial artists. He said the study found headaches increase with the incidence of concussion -- not a surprise, but something previously unsubstantiated.It could be a marker to follow over the arc of an athletes career in helping to identify those who become high-risk and most susceptible to long-term problems, he said.---AP NFL website: www.pro32.ap.org and http://twitter.com/AP-NFL---Follow Steven Wine on Twitter: http://twitter.com/Steve-Wine. His work can be found at http://bigstory.ap.org/content/steven-wine ' ' '