Well, I was waiting for the medal round to start posting about the Olympics...
wait over.
Let me now add to the cocaphony of mutters and hair pulling and finger pointing now spilling over the Great White North in the aftermath of one the WORST Olympic hockey debacles the country's ever experienced...
Now, most of what Im going to say has probably already been said. In spades. But as a passionate hockey fan and amateur pundit, I simply can't help myself. So here goes:
After the selection of the Canadian team (and the subsequent replacements once Jovo and Neids were elminated), I had a rather lengthy "debate" with a friend of mine regarding Team Canada's roster.
I argued that Gretzky and co. didn't seem to have a single, overarching "theme" when creating the team - the principle I figure they should have followed was "the best Canadian players get chosen" (by "the best"I mean "those playing the best at the time"). This, of course, was not the case. During the debate, my acquaintence tried to enumerate and decipher the thinking behind each roster selection that I challenged. And each time we were faced with different premises and contradictions. For instance:
1.) I questioned the selection of players like Adam Foote and Kris Draper. My friend argued that they were picked based on experience and past performance (and to fill certain rolls on the team). I responded that both were having very poor years and were probably on the down slope of their careers. Canada is rife with defensive defensemen and PK specialists - some of which were having vastly superior years to Draper and Foote. He noted that they have both been on the international stage before. Fair enough. Canada is going with international experience, right?
Wrong...
2.) I questioned the inclusion of Todd Bertuzzi. Besides the Moore incident, Bertuzzi has been decidedly ordinary for the last 2 seasons. Just ask Vancouver fans about Bertuzzi's maddeningly inconsistent play this year. In addition, Bertuzzi has never really won anything and never been on the international stage. His stats were worse than half a dozen players left off the roster and he lacked any relevent experience. My friend argued that Gretzky and company liked to give "second chances" and opportunities for redemption a la Fleury in 2002. Hmmm...
3.) The selection of McCabe to the roster was doubly baffling. A powerplay specialist who is quesitonable (at best) in his own end, McCabe also lacked any sort of international experience (and downright stunk during significant contests in the previous season's play-offs). Was McCabe chosen as a role player, then? No...his role is a PP specialist. Canada already had Blake, Redden and Pronger on the point. For experience? Clearly, no. Strong defensive play and positioning? Haha. To deliver the big hit?? Errr...when I brought up McCabe to my friend, he noted it was probably to placate the Toronto media and fans. Uh-oh...
So this is how it came to be that players like Staal, Spezza, Crosby, Marleau, Cheechoo, Savard, Brindamor, Phaneuf and Boucher were left off of the roster. The selection process for Team Canada seemed to serve several masters and satsify none. Simply speaking, Gretzky and co. did not pick the best players for the job. Hell, they didn't even pick the best COACH for the job. Canada's roster was seemingly chosen through varying degrees of loyaty, status quo, hunches and placation. The result is 3 shut-out losses and not even a sniff at a medal.
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Beyond some of the obvious blunders committed by the upper office, clearly some of the players have to shoulder some of the blame here. Players like Sakic and Iginla was merely adequate and hardly ever "great" or "dominating". Players like Nash and Thornton were invisible. Guys named McCabe and Pronger were downright horrible at times. It was odd to watch a team of superstars struggle so mightily and consistently over the course of the tournament. For Flame's fans, it was almost a case of deja vu - watching Canada struggle to score in 3 of 4 games was eerily similar to some of the stretches the Flames have endured this season...
speaking of deja vu, Flames fans were probably disappointed (but not surprised) to see Iginla flub two decent scoring chances in the quarter-final against Russia. Like so many of his NHL performance this year, Iginla was frequently decent, but never dazzling. On a key two-on-one with Sakic on a penalty-kill, Iggy managed a lame shot into Nabokov's right pad (one which look like it would have rung off the side of the net had Nabby decided to let it by). No screamer to the top corner, no shitfy pass across to Burnaby Joe and no slick wrister to the far side to provoke a rebound.
He had a similarly decent chance again in the 3rd. Thanks to a fantastic set-up by Heatley, Jarome was left alone briefly in front of the Russian net. And, again, he failed to make anything significant happen.
2002 Jarome buries one or both of those opportunities. 2004 play-off Jarome scores on both (and hits a post or two besides). But the squandering of valuable scoring chances is very much in line with this season's version of Iginla...
now, don't get me wrong. Im not blaming Jarome exclusively for Canada's struggles. Im not even saying he played that badly. But, in light of his game breaking performances previously (and considering the expectations for him going into this season) Jarome is clearly a disappointment. Except for a few flashes of fleeting brilliance, Iginla has not played like a top ten player all year. And Im starting to think that a return to form is no longer inevitable. If the Iginla of the Olympics and the regular season shows up in the post-season, Calgary's hopes for an extended play-off run are all but extinguished.
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On a positive note, Im secretly and selfishly relieved that Canada (and the US) were eliminated early. Now Regehr, Iginla and Leopold can have some rest time before gearing up for the Flame's upcoming stretch run in March and April. Considering the toll that the Olympics have had on the Canucks line-up (injuries to Salo AND Ohlund), Calgary has escaped relatively unscathed from the Olympic grind (aside from, perhaps, some hurt pride). Hopefully Iginla and friends can put this mess behind them and soldier forward, healthy and rested, into battle.
