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OLYMPIC SNUB STINGS CANES’ ERIC STAAL
Canes center Eric Staal, via The Raleigh News & Observer, on not being chosen for Team Canada Tuesday.
“I really felt I’d get an opportunity to defend the gold medal, but unfortunately it was not to be,” Staal said by phone from Raleigh. “They went with other choices.
“Does it feel good to get left off the team? No. Am I good enough to be on the team? Yes. I feel I’ve proven that. Do I think they made a mistake in not taking me? I hope to prove that.”
More Staal: “Like our team, it’s been a bit of an up-and-down year for myself. Coming off (the injury), I did not have the start I wanted, and it took a little while to get back to my style of game and play like I normally do.
“Some of the players chosen, in my opinion, I’m a better player than, but I needed to do a better job in the first half of the season. They went a different way. That’s life. We’ll move forward, with all our focus on us getting back in the playoffs.”
KRONWALL: WE HAVEN’T SEEN THE LAST OF ALFREDSSON
Michigan Live points out the 2014 Games in Sochi, Russia, will be 41-year-old Daniel Alfredsson’s fifth Olympics.
“That’s amazing,” Red Wings and Olympic teammate Niklas Kronwall said. “To be able to play at that level where he’s at, at his age, that really amazes me. I’m sure we haven’t seen (the last) of him. It wouldn’t surprise me at all if he sticks around for another few years.”
Alfredsson thought the 2010 Olympic Games in Vancouver was his swan song.
“I tried to appreciate Vancouver because I thought that was going to be my last one, to be honest,” Alfredsson said. “The competition is great, but also everything that’s around the Olympics — the Olympic Village, all the other athletes.
“It’s pretty unique, the way it’s set up with the Village, you live with a lot of other athletes, get to see how they prepare and what they’ve gone through leading up to this. I’ve been very fortunate to be part of five (including 2014), let alone one.”
EBERLE WANTS NHL IN 2018 OLYMPICS
The Edmonton Sun supposes while you have to figure a number of the Oilers’ core players should be locks for the 2018 Olympics, there is pretty serious doubt that the pros won’t be going.
“That is scary,” said World Junior hero Jordan Eberle. “You dream of playing in that tournament and to have that opportunity taken away just because of… I don’t even know, the business side of things, that sucks. Plain and simple, it sucks.
“Playing for Team Canada is something that you dream of doing. Along with winning a Stanley Cup you dream of winning an Olympic gold medal. You watch today and it gets you excited for the next one.
“But that’s a long road ahead. We have a lot of years here to worry about this team rather than that team.”
NASH KNOWS INTENSITY LEVEL NEEDS TO RISE
The New York Post suggests Rangers winger, named to Team Canada Tuesday, was passive and ineffective, mostly on the perimeter, Monday against Columbus. He hasn’t been aggressive enough.
“You’re trying to say I’ve been spending too much time on the outside, and I have,” he said. “Sometimes in the big picture you think that you’re effective on the outside, but I have to get to the inside and I know that.
“I know what I need to do here.”
SPEZZA: FUTURE OLYMPICS LONGSHOT FOR ME
The Ottawa Sun illustrates how Senators pivot Jason Spezza was neither surprised nor disappointed to be left off Team Canada’s roster.
“I didn’t feel I had a very good first half. Not getting invited to the camp, and missing all of last year, it wasn’t really in my mind, to be honest,” he said. “I looked at the list this morning like everybody else, but I didn’t expect a call or anything.”
Spezza admitted his chances of making future Olympic rosters aren’t very good either.
“I think it’s a great thing, the Olympics, and I’m lucky I got to be a part of it in Turin, but when you’re a Canadian centremen that’s never played the wing, your odds are pretty low,” he said. “To make one of those teams ever, I’d have to be one of the top two centres on the team. I’d have to be playing lights out and coming through the front door.
“At the start of the year I used not getting invited to the camp as motivation, to have a little bit of a surge. I talked to the Hockey Canada people and they said I was still somebody they were going to look at.
“I’ve played well for my country at the world championships and stuff, but I knew going in it was a longshot for me to be even involved in that.”
FLYERS DISAPPOINTED FOR GIROUX
Reaction to Claude Giroux’s omission from Team Canada, via Philly.com, from three Flyers teammates.
Brayden Schenn : “Shocking.”
Wayne Simmonds : “I think it sucks. Over the last month and a half, to two months, with the exception of our slow start as a team, he’s (bleeping) led our team.”
Scott Hartnell: “I think everyone was disappointed. He deserves to be on that team.”
Hartnell added: “He’s turned this team around. I think he had a tough start with his hand, not having a training camp, all that stuff. When he’s felt comfortable, look where our team is at. We’re in a playoff spot now. He’s the top of our team in scoring. He’s on the penalty kill, playing in the last minute of the game. He brings everything to our team.”
USA’S KESLER PRAISES CANADA’S CROSBY
The Pittsburgh Tribune-Review believes Canucks center Ryan Kesler and St. Louis center David Backes will likely log a lot of minutes for Team USA, and both will be assigned at different times to face Canada’s Sidney Crosby.
Kesler explained that such a task isn’t easy.
“He’s one of the best players in the world,” Kesler said, “if not of all time.”
KINGS’ SUTTER ON RICHARDS, TEAM CANADA DECISION
Coach Darryl Sutter, via LA Kings Insider, on Mike Richards not making Team Canada:
“Hey, Mike’s a winner. He’s a captain. I mean, if you look at it, he’s won an Olympic gold, he’s won World Junior gold, he’s won a Stanley Cup, he’s won a Memorial Cup. Mike’s a winner and he’s a captain.
“It’s set up for the big rink over there. If you look at the centermen that they took, Mike’s not going to play ahead of the centermen, and he’s not a natural winger. It’s like asking about Jeff or Benn – it doesn’t take anything away from Mike Richards, that’s for sure. Not at all.
“Mike’s a champion. That’s what it’s about, and you can guarantee that Mike’s pulling for Canada and pulling for Jeff Carter. I mean, Jeff didn’t make it last time and Mike did. A lot of that’s based on ice surface and playing out of position. This time it’s hard to play out of position on a bigger surface.”
PREDS WILL MONITOR WEBER, JOSI
The Nashville Tennessean notices how going to the Olympics for Predators defensemen Shea Weber (Canada) and Roman Josi (Switzerland) involves several challenges, primarily the extra games while their teammates have a three-week break.
“They’re not going to get that break. And so we really have to monitor them,” Predators coach Barry Trotz said. “When they get back we’ll probably just play them in games and say, ‘forget the practices for a while here’ or something like that. They’re going to play the minutes, so I can’t say, ‘we’ll reduce the minutes.’ That’s probably not correct. We will try to give them as many days off as we can so they can be as fresh as they can.”
THEY TWEETED IT
https://twitter.com/GabeLandeskog92/status/420734530815655936
https://twitter.com/Willie_Mitch33/status/420630929715904512