Joe Starkey: Canada got what it deserved

Joe Starkey
PITTSBURGH TRIBUNE-REVIEW
Friday, February 24, 2006

When he played, Wayne Gretzky saw everything.

Now, apparently, he sees nothing.

His top assistant coach with the Phoenix Coyotes was allegedly involved in a gambling ring?

Had no idea.

His wife allegedly placed $100,000 worth of bets in said gambling ring?

Um, you'll have to ask her.

Team Canada was bounced from the Olympics in humiliating fashion?

We're assuming even Gretzky knows about that, seeing as he's the one who formed Canada's roster.

He couldn't have mangled the job any worse.

Somebody must have forgotten to hand Mr. Oblivious a copy of the NHL scoring leaders when it came time to choose his Olympic team. He would have seen that Carolina's swift-skating, 6-foot-4 center, Eric Staal, was among the top few on the list (and is currently third with 75 points). Staal is a legitimate MVP candidate in the league, but he wasn't good enough for Team Canada.

Neither was Sidney Crosby, who is 12th in the NHL in scoring (sixth among Canadian players) and undoubtedly would have used his blazing speed to torture opponents on the large Olympic ice surface.
Crosby, 18, and Staal, 21, evidently were too young to play for Team Can't-ada (and you didn't know there was an age limit).
It's incredible that so many Canadian observers aren't convinced that Staal and Crosby would have made a major difference. Did they not see what Alexander Ovechkin and Evgeni Malkin did for Team Russia?

Canada's brass outsmarted itself, opting for the likes of Kris Draper, Todd Bertuzzi and Shane Doan (Doan being one of Gretzky's players in Phoenix). They weren't going to choose the best players, or the players having the best years. They were going to fill out their team with "role players."

The truth is that great players can play just about any role. In fact, they ought to be able to play a given role better than a role player. Mario Lemieux, when he felt so inclined, was the best penalty killer in NHL history.

Bertuzzi was an idiotic choice from day one, a bad penalty waiting to happen and a potential public-relations nightmare because of his well-known assault on a defenseless opponent during a game two years ago.

Gretzky instead could have picked a PR sensation in Crosby but obviously had his team chosen before the season. He and his cabinet - including Kevin Lowe, Steve Tambellini, Pat Quinn, Ken Hitchcock, Jacques Martin and Wayne Fleming - favored experience above all else. As if nothing had changed since Canada won a gold medal four years ago in Salt Lake City.

Did this team really need Kris Draper?

Simon Gagne wasn't exactly an inspired pick, either. His unusually high goal total this season is largely the result of playing next to Peter Forsberg.

How fitting it was that Ovechkin beat the Canadians with Bertuzzi sitting in the penalty box on account of a foolish offensive-zone interference penalty.

Canada did not score in 15 of its final 16 periods. Long after the last one of those, Gretzky still didn't get it, lamenting to NBC's Bob Costas the fact that Canada was without Lemieux and fellow fossil Steve Yzerman.

Lemieux, on the other hand, spoke the truth at his retirement news conference when he said today's game is for the younger players. Somebody should deliver the message to Mr. Oblivious, and, while they're at it, to the boys running Team USA.

Joe Starkey is a sports writer for the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review. He can be reached at jstarkey@tribweb.com