Lemieux Not At Camp, Morrison Replaces Him
Canadian Press
8/15/2005 11:17:42 AM
VANCOUVER (CP) - Team Canada's preparation for defending the men's Olympic hockey title will begin today without its captain from the Salt Lake City Games.
The Canadians announced late Sunday that Pittsburgh Penguins centre Mario Lemieux will not attend their five-day orientation camp because of prior commitments to his NHL club.
Vancouver Canucks forward Brendan Morrison was added to the orientation camp's roster.
Though Lemieux will not be at GM Place for the camp, he will still be eligible for the team that will represent Canada in Turin, Italy.
There was a time when it appeared this camp would never happen because NHL commissioner Gary Bettman wasn't in favour of taking a two-week break in the 2005-06 schedule after losing all of 2004-05 to the lockout. But NHL Players' Association executive director Ted Saskin pushed hard for Olympic participation to be included in the new collective bargaining agreement, meaning NHLers will take in their third Games.
''When they were thinking of not going there, I thought it made no sense,'' Tampa Bay Lightning centre Vincent Lecavalier said in a recent interview. ''I think it's a great show, it's great for the NHL. Last time it made such a big impact, it would be a big thrill for me to go.
''There's more than 35 great players in camp, but hopefully I'll be on the team in February.''
Todd Bertuzzi's late addition gives Canada 37 players at the camp, which shifts to Kelowna on Wednesday, as executive director Wayne Gretzky and his assistants Kevin Lowe and Steve Tambellini return in their roles from Salt Lake City with perhaps tougher decisions ahead of them.
A younger wave of star players has moved up the ranks of elite players since Canada snapped its 50-year gold medal drought in February 2002, meaning the likes of Lecavalier, Brad Richards, Martin St. Louis, Joe Thornton, Rick Nash, Shane Doan, Wade Redden, Scott Hannan and Robyn Regehr could all be making their Olympic debuts in Turin, Feb. 15-26.
Not invited back to camp from the Olympic champions were Paul Kariya, Joe Nieuwendyk, Brendan Shanahan, Owen Nolan, Eric Lindros, Theo Fleury, Al MacInnis, Ed Belfour and Curtis Joseph.
The returnees are led by the absent Lemieux as well as Steve Yzerman, Jarome Iginla, Joe Sakic, Ryan Smyth, Mike Peca, Simon Gagne, Adam Foote, Chris Pronger, Rob Blake, Scott Niedermayer, Ed Jovanovksi, Eric Brewer and Martin Brodeur, all of whom also attended a similar orientation camp at Calgary in September 2001.
The new wave of stars carries an impressive resume into camp, starting with the Tampa threesome: Richards was the Conn Smythe Trophy winner in the 2004 playoffs, St. Louis was the Hart Trophy winner as regular-season MVP and Lecavalier was World Cup MVP. Thornton then chimes in with his world championship MVP after leading the IIHF tournament in scoring this past May in Austria, while linemate Nash was the most exciting player on the ice in Innsbruck as well as sharing the Rocket Richard Trophy as NHL top goal-scorer in 2003-04.
Hannan and Regehr were among the top performers for Canada at the September 2004 World Cup while Redden was the best blue-liner in Austria.
All of which means a tremendous battle for a berth on the Olympic team. Gretzky, Lowe, Tambellini as well as head coach Pat Quinn and assistants Ken Hitchcock, Jacques Martin and Wayne Fleming will likely make their final decisions on the roster in December or early January.
The battles for jobs begin Monday. While Brodeur is a no-brainer to return at the starting goalie, Roberto Luongo, Jose Theodore and Marty Turco will fight it out for the right to sit on the bench as the No. 2 man. Three goalies will make the team and Turco will need a huge first half to beat out Theodore and Luongo - World Cup returnees.
Niedermayer, Pronger, Blake and Foote are locks on defence, but it's fairly open after that. Jovanovski struggled in Austria after not playing all year so he'll need to reassert himself this fall. The same goes for Brewer, who struggled in 2003-04, although he had a strong World Cup. Tampa's Dan Boyle had a strong world championship in his first-ever taste of international hockey, the smooth-skating blue-liner could make a case for himself on the big ice. Jay Bouwmeester and Chris Phillips also hope to crack the blue-line.
The competition up front is no less fierce. The NHL's top three defensive forwards are in camp in Peca, Kris Draper and Keith Primeau and it's doubtful all three can make the team. Peca was in Salt Lake and now plays for Lowe in Edmonton, Draper won a World Cup in 2004 and a world championship in 2003, while Primeau played on the '98 Olympic team and has re-asserted himself under Hitchcock in Philadelphia. Again, the first half of the NHL season will be huge for all three.
Perhaps the biggest wild-card will be Dany Heatley, the 2004 world championship MVP whose play deteriorated at this year's world championship as well as at the World Cup. The Atlanta Thrashers sniper is on the outside looking in right now.
Kirk Maltby, Patrick Marleau, Alex Tanguay and Brenden Morrow are also in camp among the forwards, a group that grew to 21 after Bertuzzi was added following his reinstatement by the NHL. There's speculation the Vancouver Canucks winger will address the media Monday but nothing was written in stone as of Sunday.
Yzerman, 40, and Lemieux, 39, will be closely watched in the first half of the season. They are both automatics to be on the team but need to stay healthy. Then again, both future Hall of Famers played on one leg in Salt Lake City.
Morrison Looks To Prove
Himself At Olympic Camp
Canadian Press
8/16/2005 6:27:54 PM
VANCOUVER (CP) - Brendan Morrison is used to playing the third man.
The centre on the Vancouver Canucks' top line is comfortable being the fuse for Markus Naslund's flash and Todd Bertuzzi's bang.
He's like the co-star whose name doesn't come up until after a movie's title or the band that plays behind Bruce Springsteen.
But the amiable Morrison says he has something to prove at this week's Olympic team orientation camp.
The Pitt Meadows, B.C., native wants to show he's a legitimate contender for a spot on the roster for the Canadian team that will play in February's Winter Olympics, not just a last-minute fill in for the absent Mario Lemieux.
''You don't want to be looked at as a guy who is just a filler,'' said Morrison, who didn't learn until Sunday he was invited to the camp. ''You want to show you can belong. I'm confident enough I can play and be successful with these guys.''
The ''these guys'' Morrison refers to includes Vincent Lecavalier, Jarome Iginla, Steve Yzerman, and Martin St. Louis.
Hockey Canada has invited 37 players to the camp, which shifts to Kelowna, B.C., on Wednesday.
When coach Pat Quinn and his staff make the final decision on the team, some excellent hockey players will be left out.
Wayne Gretzky, the Olympic team's executive director, admitted that Morrison living in Vancouver had something to do with him being included.
His talent was also a factor, and Gretzky compared Morrison's situation to when Iginla was invited to the orientation camp for the 2002 team that went on to win the gold medal at the Salt Lake Olympics.
''Few people at that point thought Jarome would make the team,'' said Gretzky. ''The rest, as we know, is history.
''If we could have another situation like that, we would be thrilled, our fans would be thrilled and he would be thrilled. Each and every guy that's here has a chance to make it.''
Morrison, who has played on Canada's last two world championship teams, including the squad that won the gold medal in 2004, admits he was miffed when his name wasn't included when the camp was first announced.
''Maybe a little frustrated at first,'' he said. ''I didn't take it as a slap on the face or anything like that. What it will do for me is give more motivation to go out and have a good first half (of the season) and say maybe I'm a guy that should have been at the camp.''
Morrison has scored 20-plus goals and averaged more than 42 assists in each of his last three years with Vancouver. He also hasn't missed a regular season game in four years.
Canuck defenceman Ed Jovanovski is thrilled Morrison has been given a chance.
''He's a great two-way centre who sees the ice really well,'' said Jovanovski, who won a gold medal in 2002.
''You look at the depth, there's so many centres here. Unfortunately sometimes guys are left out. He has his opportunity and I hope he makes the best out of it.''
It's been a busy few weeks for the 29-year-old Morrison because he recently signed a $9.6-million US, three-year contract with the Canucks and his wife just gave birth to their third child.
Morrison was out fishing Sunday and returned to shore to find 10 missed calls on his cell phone. At first he didn't believe the message from Gretzky, asking him to attend the Olympic camp.
''I tried to figure out which one of my buddies was pulling a prank on me,'' Morrison laughed. ''It ended up being the real thing.''
|
