Beauchemin Gets Snubbed from Team Canada (Not)
Peter Morrow | 30 December, 2009, 4:10 pm
With the announcement of the men’s Olympic roster for Canada today, it surely came as no shock that no Leafs were named. Our best shot, it seemed, was Francois Beauchemin.
Such is life for Maple Leafs fans.
Calgary Flames fans were on the edge of their seats waiting to see which of their four candidates would make it - but out of Jay Bouwemeester, Robin Regehr, Dion Phaneuf and Jarome Iginla, only Iginla was able to make the cut.
No, it’s been a while since anyone in the Blue and White donned the Canada colours effectively on such a large stage. Bryan McCabe snuck his way onto the 2006 Olympic roster, but he was a weak spot on the squad and quickly lost the trust of Pat Quinn and the coaching staff. In 2002, goaltender Curtis Joseph was embarrassed in a preliminary defeat to the Swedes and never saw the ice again.
This year, our one camp invitee, Beauchemin, was never really in the mix after a very poor start to the season with his new team.
On the other hand, a lot of the other players on the Leafs have found their way onto other country’s rosters - most notably Jonas Gustavsson being invited to join Sweden as one of the three goalies.
So, sure, there are plenty of Leafs at the Olympics who we can half-heartedly cheer for - that is, when they’re not facing Team Canada.
But the possibility of a Leaf playing any meaningful role on Team Canada at the Olympics in the future is bleak. Even more bleak when the NHL is thinking of stopping players from going to the winter Olympics in Russia in four years time.
I still don’t understand the objection of the NHL for allowing players to go the olympics. As for a leaf playing a role on Team Canada, I totally agree with you. The best Canadian players ust dont seem to play for the leafs…i don’t understand why?!?!