National Post (National Edition)
WOLSKI SAGA TYPIFIES TEAM CANADA MAKEUP
PLAYERS HAVE A REAL SHOT AT CAPTURING THE IMAGINATION OF CANADIANS
Sean Burke had but one prediction he wasn’t reluctant to share at the unveiling of Canada’s Olympic hockey roster Thursday.
“When we get to Pyeongchang, this team is going to make a lot of Canadians proud,” said the GM minutes before announcing the 25 players who will vie for Canada’s third-straight Olympic gold.
“I think Canadians are going to get behind this team. There are some incredible stories and guys who’ve had adversity through various phases in their career who are now going to put that Canadian jersey on who never thought that would be possible.
“It will be a gold medal effort, and there won’t be one guy who puts his jersey on that this isn’t the highlight of his hockey career.”
Yes, the NHLers who had previously taken bows on this day are absent, as is the excitement many Canadians typically feel about their nation’s chances on the biggest of stages.
However, what became evident at Thursday’s roster announcement at Calgary’s Winsport Arena in front of a surprisingly large media contingent was these players have a real shot at capturing the imagination of Canadians.
Few fans are familiar with the bulk of the NHL castoffs coach Willie Desjardins will have 19 days to meld into a contender, but they all have tremendous tales of perseverance to realize the dream of putting on the Maple Leaf next month in South Korea.
“All our players somewhere along the line were told ‘no,’ and that they weren’t going to get a chance to continue their NHL careers, or in some cases even start it,” said Desjardins, who worked closely with Burke to evaluate 100 players during the last 14 months.
“There were reasons for them to quit — there were reasons for them to say, ‘I’ve had enough.’ But they have a dream of representing their country. For some guys, that’s the only reason they’re playing this year. I think that’s pretty special. I respect that and I think Canadians will as well.”
All but three of the group are playing overseas, including a group of forwards that includes Rene Bourque, Gilbert Brule, Brandon Kozun, Mason Raymond, Derek Roy and Linden Vey, who sits just six points out of the KHL’s scoring lead.
Defensively they’ll count on a mobile group made up of names like Chris Lee, Mat Robinson, Chay Genoway and Marc-André Gragnani, who is fourth among KHL defencemen in scoring.
Ben Scrivens, Kevin Poulin and Justin Peters will vie for starting duties in goal.
No juniors were included on the roster as officials suggested they thought it would be too much to ask teens to adjust to a “man’s game” at the Olympic tourney.
Burke and Desjardins spoke Thursday of just how emotional the phone calls were informing players of their Olympic fate — an exercise that included plenty of tears on both ends of the line.
Desjardins cherished hearing former NHLer Steve Thomas inform his son, Christian, he had made the team.
Then there’s the moving story of former Avalanche 20-goal scorer Wojtek Wolski, one of 13 KHLers in the mix.
“A year ago today he had a serious neck injury and thought his career was over,” said Desjardins, a former Vancouver Canucks coach who has twice coached Canada’s world junior entry.
“You see the picture of him in the hospital with his neck brace on and last night, he looked at that photo after being named to the team and started crying. To get that chance and the honour to come back, that’s what our team is all about.”
After seeing the hand Vegas and the Golden Knights were dealt with to start their NHL journey, and how they’ve responded, is it really that impossible to believe this rag-tag group of Canadians can’t be competitive in the 12-team Olympic tourney starting Feb. 15?
None of this has been easy for anyone involved, given the “moving target” Hockey Canada president Tom Renney reminded people of regarding the soap opera that played out between the IOC and NHL.
So here we are with a group of players who will enter the Olympic tourney as one of the favourites only to trend nationally on Google searches, with a chance to shock the nation and make household names for themselves.
The opportunity of a lifetime, which is what the Olympics are about.
“We’ll have a hard-working, competitive team,” said Hockey Canada VP Scott Salmond, who helped Burke and assistant GM Martin Brodeur pick the roster, along with assistants Dave King, Scott Walker and Craig Woodcroft.
“When we were interviewing Willie for the job, one thing that stuck with me was when he said, ‘I don’t think people really care the level of player they’re going to watch at the Olympics — they just care about the level of compete and how competitive the tournament will be.’ I think we’ll be a really hard team to play against.”
The Canadian way, regardless of the names on their backs.