Defending the Gold

In a recent article on si.com, Sport’s Illustrated’s hockey columnist, Michael Farber, takes some time to share his thoughts on Team Canada’s recent “snub” when it decided to forego Mario Lemieux’s advice and not add Sidney Crosby to the Olympic roster.

Farber writes that the decision to not take Lemieux’s advice and add Crosby to the team “downgraded Lemieux from icon to just another Canadian arguing about the makeup of the Olympic team, which rates with shoveling snow as the leading winter activity.”

There were a number of things that irritated me about Farber’s article. Beyond that, there are a number of things that irritate me about much of the debate surrounding the Team Canada selection process.

Farber makes it sound like Lemieux’s opinion should not only be listened to, but taken as gospel truth. Are Lemieux’s ideas stronger than Gretzky’s, or Lowe’s, or Bob Nicholson’s? Okay, maybe I’d put them up above Lowe’s and Nicholson’s but certainly not higher on the pole than the Great One’s.
Fact is, Lemieux is still a player, and not only that, he’s an owner of a hockey team who is desperately trying to market his budding young superstar in order to save his beloved franchise. The bigger the legend of Sidney Crosby grows, the better business will be for Mario Lemieux. No doubt having his 18-year-old protégé as part of Team Canada would help to further intensify the position of Crosby as the next “Great One”.

For myself, and I would say the majority of other Canadians, I’ll continue to place a whole lot more trust in Wayne Gretzky and his decision-making ability then I will in Mario Lemieux. Every time Gretzky is doubted he proves his critics wrong. When will people finally give this guy his due and realize that he is as dominant as a GM, Coach, Director of Anything Hockey Related, as he was as the greatest hockey player to ever play the game?

The debate about whether some of Canada’s young guns should be included on this team really is something that is overblown. It’s great that we have so much young talent but the fact is, their time will come. What’s greater is that we still have so much veteran talent that allows us to fill a team with guys who have been there before, who understand what it takes to win at an Olympic level and who know how to gel as a team in a short period of time in order to accomplish the over-arching goal of defending the gold medal.

Defending the gold is what it’s all about. That is more important than showcasing the surplus of young talent that Canada currently has. When it comes to selecting the best Olympic team stats are not the primary concern.

So when Farber writes that Canada should have taken Eric Staal as the 13th forward ahead of a player like Ryan Smyth that’s where I see that this man not only doesn’t understand hockey in Canada, but he really doesn’t understand hockey in general.

Fact of the matter is that Ryan Smyth is known as Captain Canada. Nobody has put more blood, sweat and energy into representing his country than Ryan Smyth. He’s represented this great country at every level of International hockey competition.

Ryan Smyth is the central example of why Canadians love hockey so much. He plays the game the way it was meant to be played. Every great team needs at least one player like Ryan Smyth. He may not be the sexiest player statistically speaking but people who truly know hockey and understand what it takes to succeed as a team, people like Gretzky, Lowe and Bob Nicholson, know that statistics only tell a small portion of the story. I wonder if USA basketball still believes that having the biggest “name” players is the best way to create a successful team?

And so I look at Lemieux’s recommendation of Crosby as simply just a suggestion. I don’t see it as gospel truth and it’s clear that Team Canada officials didn’t see it that way either. What if Lemieux had suggested that Mark Recchi or Lyle Odelein be added? Or that his other #1 pick, Marc-Andre Fleury, be added to the goaltending mix?

I think Farber is mistaken to place Lemieux on the same level as Gretzky. Mario is a great hockey player but he never has been, nor will he ever be, Gretzky-esque.

The fact is, with or without Crosby, Staal or Spezza, Team Canada will defend their gold medal in February and, once again, Wayne Gretzky will prove to his many doubters that he is the greatest hockey mind ever involved in this great Canadian game.