There was a time when it was fair to wonder whether Martin St. Louis would even get a second season in the National Hockey League, let alone a second crack at Canada’s Olympic team.
When he showed up in Calgary he was a five-foot-eight, undrafted, former ECAC Player of the Year out of the University of Vermont. He arrived with far less hype than a Johnny Gaudreau (Boston College) will, and moved on with even less ceremony. Looking back, landing under then-Flames coach Brian Sutter back in 1999 was probably not the best entry point for an under-sized, French-Canadian, U.S. college kid.
Today, St. Louis has a Stanley Cup ring, deliciously won over the Flames back in 2004, and will nervously await the announcement of the 2014 Canadian Olympic roster. Across the hockey world, they are silently cheering for the battling St. Louis to make the team. “I don’t think anyone thought he would do what he’s done,” says two-time Olympian Ryan Smyth, whose days of being in the Olympic conversation have passed.
When St. Louis showed up in Calgary, Smyth was in year four with Edmonton, a former first-round pick who walked into the NHL after only nine minor-league games. Today, Smyth has one less Cup ring, one more Olympic assignment, and 200 more NHL games on his resumé. And, of course, a healthy respect for his teammate from the Turin Games, who was left off that golden roster in Vancouver four years ago. “Everything is about an opportunity, and he’s taken that opportunity to a whole new level. Just like Ray Whitney,” says Smyth.
It is difficult to say whether St. Louis is simply playing it cool, or whether Tuesday’s 11 a.m. ET deadline—having been left off four years ago—is simply too emotional to discuss. He emits a vibe that he is extremely hopeful, yet not fully verbalizing it, admitting that he has given Tampa and Team Canada GM Steve Yzerman a wide berth of late. “The last little while, everyone is making a push,” St. Louis says. “A lot of good players playing really good hockey. You feel you’re constantly, being watched, judged on how you play. It’s hard to not think about it.”
There are only a handful of guys scattered across the NHL who are in the same shoes as St. Louis, with a chance to make an Olympic team in 2014, but knowing full well that—if there is a next time—they’ll be too old to be considered. San Jose Sharks Joe Thornton, Patrick Marleau and Dan Boyle would be three. Martin Brodeur would be another. “I was actually facing off against Teemu Selanne the other night,” says Smyth. “I said, ‘Are you going to the Olympics?’ And he said, ‘It could be my sixth.’ I’m like, ‘Six? Six times four, so that’s 24 years… Holy geez.'”
The goals have been accrued sequentially for St. Louis, who came on the scene as a 160-lb. long shot of the highest order. He made the NHL, got picked up as a free agent by Tampa after Calgary gave up on him, then won a Stanley Cup and made the 2006 Olympic team. Now, he’s 38 and has played more than 1,000 games.
There isn’t a lot left to accomplish now, outside an Olympic medal. “I guess I’ve come a long way, considering where I’ve started,” says St. Louis, who won the Art Ross and the Lady Byng trophies last season. “But, life is always about trying to better your fate all the time, and the only way to do that is hard work. You get what you put in. It’s not something that I just felt was going to happen, and you’ve got to be honest with yourself on the amount of work it’s going to take to get there. I think I’ve done that.”
Down in Anaheim, Selanne awaits word on his sixth assignment. He first donned the SUOMI at Albertville back in 1992. Today he is 43 years old, in his final NHL season, and is the all-time leading scorer at the Olympic Games. He would very likely be the Finnish flag bearer in Sochi. “It’s awesome to see the older players doing well. I hope guys like Marty make it,” Selanne says. “Speed is big plus in the Olympics on the larger ice, so that’s an important factor and should be a plus for guys like Marty. I will be rooting for guys like Marty, unless they play us.”
Less than 24 hours remain. St. Louis doesn’t get nervous about many hockey related matters anymore, but he is nervous about this.