Some unexpected names on Olympic hockey roster

It’s the call Canadian hockey players dream of getting—official notification that they will play for Team Canada at the Olympics.
Those calls came in all sorts of ways yesterday.

Sidney Crosby was in a Pittsburgh Penguins’ team meeting and heard it later on his voice mail. Jonathan Toews’ mother got the call on his spare cellphone and ran into his room to tell him.
One Chicago Blackhawks defenceman—Team Canada assistant general manager Kevin Lowe wouldn’t say if it was Duncan Keith or Brent Seabrook—answered with an expletive.
“But it was an expletive of excitement,” Lowe explained on the happy day for the 23 players chosen to represent Canada at the Vancouver Olympics in February.
“This is a special honour,” Crosby told reporters in New Jersey before facing the Devils last night.
“I’m pretty proud of it.
“From here on in it’s going to be a pretty popular subject, not that it wasn’t already,” he added.
“To be able to put faces on the team; I think everyone is getting more and more excited for it, and this is the next step in that process.”
Months of public speculation, and debate in the media and in coffee shops across the country over which players should make the team, ended in the vast WorldFest hall, where executive director Steve Yzerman and his management team read off the names before about 4,000 giddy supporters and a national television audience.
It was no surprise that Crosby, the scoring star who will carry much of the load of the country’s sky-high expectations, was named after he was controversially left off the aging team that finished a feeble seventh at the 2006 Games in Turin, Italy.
Goaltending great Martin Brodeur and his back-up, Roberto Luongo, defence stalwarts Scott Niedermayer and Chris Pronger, and forwards Dany Heatley, Jarome Iginla, Rick Nash, and Joe Thornton are the only returnees from 2006 on a younger team that Yzerman and his crew hope is quicker and grittier, with a more mobile defence.
The 2010 team includes some unexpected names, starting with 20-year-old Drew Doughty, the gifted L.A. Kings’ defenceman who drew rave reviews at the world championships last spring, and Boston Bruins’ forward Patrice Bergeron, lauded for his faceoff and penalty-killing skills.
Dallas Stars’ winger Brendan Morrow was another who made the team while several veterans of past Olympic teams, including Vincent Lecavalier, Shane Doan, Ryan Smyth, and Martin St. Louis, were overlooked.
Niedermayer will serve as captain, with Pronger and forwards Crosby and Iginla as the alternates.
“A first glance, it looks younger, but extremely talented, with guys who have had success at all different levels,” said Iginla.
The goaltenders were obvious picks—Brodeur, Luongo, and Marc-Andre Fleury.
Along with Niedermayer, Pronger, and Doughty, the defence includes the Blackhawks’ regular duo of Keith and Seabrook, as well as Shea Weber and Dan Boyle.
Boyle said it still hasn’t quite sunk in that he made the actual team this time around, especially with the tournament in Canada.
“I’m still pretty calm,” he said. “My parents and brother are a lot more excited than I was.
“That’s just for right now,” he stressed. “Opening night, the first game when I put the sweater on, is when it will really kick in.”
Combinations from club teams were favoured, including the dynamic top line of the San Jose Sharks—Joe Thornton, Dany Heatley, and Patrick Marleau—and the Anaheim Ducks duo of Ryan Getzlaf and Corey Perry.
“It’s incredible,” said Thornton, who also was on Canada’s 2006 Olympic team.
“You’re lucky enough to go to an all-star game with one other player on your team,” he noted. “Four guys on the same Olympic team is very special because it’s one of the toughest teams to make.” Forwards Nash, centre Eric Staal, physical centre Mike Richards, and gritty winger Brendan Morrow also made the cut.
The crowd at the WorldFest venue near the Credit Union Centre at the world junior hockey championship reserved special cheers for head coach and Saskatoon native Mike Babcock, who was heavily involved in the selection process, and Saskatchewan natives Getzlaf, Marleau, and Morrow.
The midday announcement also was carried on some 13 network and cable channels across the country.
Yzerman was confident he and his team picked the best mix of talent from Canada’s very deep pool, but acknowledged very good players had to be left off the list.
“We had a lot of debate, all afternoon [Tuesday],” Yzerman said. “We took a break, went to the [Canadian junior] game last night, and talked about it some more last evening and then we’re deciding on one spot.
“Mike and I talked this morning [Wednesday] and debated it again, and virtually made the decision this morning at 7.”
He said the final decision was on the 13th forward, although there also was debate on the final defence positions.
That likely included the decision to take Doughty and leave off Washington Capitals’ rearguard Mike Green—the NHL’s scoring leader among defencemen.