Olympic Shutout

by Eric Meliton

The Montreal Canadiens are one of the storied franchises in all of sports and youngsters growing up in Canada, specifically in the province of Quebec follow the team religiously.  In preparation for the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver, team architect Steve Yzerman announced his roster invitees to the August preparation camp – 46 NHL players in all… zero players from the Montreal Canadiens.

If you were to look at the list of players invited to this preliminary camp, there is a strong contingent of French-Canadian players.  For example, 3 out of the 5 goaltenders invited are from Quebec (Martin Brodeur, Roberto Luongo, and Marc-Andre Fleury).  Inclusive of this invitee list are two defensemen (Stephane Robidas and Francois Beauchemin) and three forwards (Simon Gagne, Martin St. Louis, and Vincent Lecavalier).

TSN’s Darren Dreger made an astute comment stating that there were some notable omissions, two of which included newly acquired Mike Cammalleri and the enigmatic Carey Price.

With Price’s poor play in the 2008-09 season and the obvious pressure placed upon his shoulders by the team and the fans at the early stages of his career, a strong, bounce-back season is required for Price to be considered in the top five ranking amongst Canadian goaltenders.  With his stellar rookie season in the past, Price needs to strengthen his mental toughness and let his abilities and results do the talking.  In fact, he’s already been surpassed in terms of Team Canada relevance by rookie phenom Steve Mason.  With 2010 marking the changing of the guard with Martin Brodeur riding off into the sunset on home ice, Price could be one of many hopefuls to emerge as a future representative of Team Canada for the big show.

With Cammalleri, a strong showing at the early stages of 2009-10 could enhance his overall stock.  Joining a new team and being relied upon to provide instant offense is a challenge that Cammalleri has be capable of adapting to in his time spent with the Los Angeles Kings and the Calgary Flames.  However, his situation in those two teams had primary scoring threats in existence, which opened up opportunities for the smallish forward.  Being the potential leading scorer on a team with many question marks could land Cammalleri between the cross hairs of many checking lines in 2009-10.  If the Habs can sure up some of their top six forwards that are still awaiting contract negotations, the story may change come October.

Its definitely a long-shot to see either Price or Cammalleri in a Team Canada uniform for 2010, however, stranger things have happened with Team Canada’s roster for the Olympic games.  Most notable examples would be the omission of Sidney Crosby from the 2006 roster in favor of the likes of Todd Bertuzzi and Bryan McCabe or who could forget the inclusion of Rob Zamuner and the choice not to allow Wayne Gretzky to shoot in the 1998 campaign.  Let’s hope that the brain trust put together by Steve Yzerman realizes that although debates of who should go and who shouldn’t will continue – decisions will only be justified by positive results.

Tags: 2010, Bryan McCabe, Carey Price, Francois Beauchemin, Marc-Andre Fleury, Martin Brodeur, Martin St. Louis, Mike Cammalleri, Olympics, Rob Zamuner, Roberto Luongo, Sidney Crosby, Simon Gagne, Stephane Robidas, Steve Mason, Steve Yzerman, Team Canada, Todd Bertuzzi, Vancouver, Vincent Lecavalier, Wayne Gretzky