Spezza
With center Joe Sakic retiring from active duty with the Colorado Avalanche and fellow pivot Ryan Getzlaf of Anaheim undergoing offseason surgery, Hockey Canada needed to add at least one more forward to its roster for its National Men’s Team orientation camp Aug. 24-28 in Calgary.
And Hockey Canada selected … Ottawa center Jason Spezza, not Boston Bruins playmaker Marc Savard.
Savard was also snubbed when the initial roster was released in late June. The camp will be held as a way for officials to evaluate players for this winter’s Olympic Games in Vancouver.
Here are the numbers for Spezza and Savard over the last three seasons:
Savard: 238 GP, 62-200-262, plus-9
Spezza: 225 GP, 100-152-252, plus-31
Savard, of course, emerged as a solid penalty-killer last season in addition to his offensive prowess. And since joining the Bruins, Savard has hardly had the chance to play with gifted wings that can compare to Spezza’s teammates Daniel Alfredsson and Dany Heatley.
As of now, the only Bruins player scheduled to attend the Canadian camp is winger Milan Lucic.
Digger is exactly right. This has as much to do with Savard’s lack of desire to play for Team Canada in the past, as it does with Team Canada’s ridiculous depth at center. I don’t he would have made the team anyways, but if he had suited up for Canada at prior events, he’d at least have been invited.
I’m generally happy for players I root for to be invited to All-Star games and the like, but in this instance, I’d prefer all the Bruins forego the honor and spend the Olympic break on a beach in the Bahamas.
[...] The Bruins Blog: Another Olympic snub for center Savard. I was thinking perhaps it was faceoff % but they were both in the 50% range last season. [...]
I was under the impression that Mark Sarvard turned down requests to play for team Canada in years past. If this is true it would explain why they are not interested in him now.