Team Canada 2014 -- who will be on it?

Seriously, let him rest up for 3 weeks instead of going to play 10 hours away or whatever it is in Russia on the big ice.

Good fuel to impress TC as well. He's gonna come out hot

Beautiful. The less Sens that play in this, the better, especially Spezza.

Oh, and Spezza is great at faceoffs, which would help at the Olympics too. You're right though, Ev, better for the Sens to NOT have him there.

Also another notable absence is one Mr. Martin Brodeur.

NEELY wrote:Spezza is what he is and that's a player a lot of coaches don't trust as well as not being good enough to be on the top 2 lines for Team Canada.  No one in their right mind would give hard mins to Spezza on the 3rd and 4th line.  This is better for Ottawa anyways and I could care less about the Olympics.

Do you know how many active Canadian-born players have a higher PPG average than Spezza?

Answer: one.

wprager wrote:

NEELY wrote:Spezza is what he is and that's a player a lot of coaches don't trust as well as not being good enough to be on the top 2 lines for Team Canada.  No one in their right mind would give hard mins to Spezza on the 3rd and 4th line.  This is better for Ottawa anyways and I could care less about the Olympics.

Do you know how many active Canadian-born players have a higher PPG average than Spezza?  

Answer: one.

Really? Centers or all players?

wprager wrote:

NEELY wrote:Spezza is what he is and that's a player a lot of coaches don't trust as well as not being good enough to be on the top 2 lines for Team Canada.  No one in their right mind would give hard mins to Spezza on the 3rd and 4th line.  This is better for Ottawa anyways and I could care less about the Olympics.

Do you know how many active Canadian-born players have a higher PPG average than Spezza?  

Answer: one.

Do you know how little that matters?

Answer: none.

I dunno, that's pretty damn impressive.

NEELY wrote:

wprager wrote:

NEELY wrote:Spezza is what he is and that's a player a lot of coaches don't trust as well as not being good enough to be on the top 2 lines for Team Canada.  No one in their right mind would give hard mins to Spezza on the 3rd and 4th line.  This is better for Ottawa anyways and I could care less about the Olympics.

Do you know how many active Canadian-born players have a higher PPG average than Spezza?  

Answer: one.

Do you know how little that matters?  

Answer: none.

Lol answering none to that doesn't make sense. You want to say "very"

tim1_2 wrote:Spezza can't catch a break.  I'd put him on there ahead of the following: Carter, Couture, Duchene, Eberle, Getzlaf, Hall, Kunitz, Ladd, Lucic, Marchand, Neal, M Richards, Sharp, both Staals, and maybe Joe Thornton.  Holy hell, what a diddle up.

Spezza is the perfect setup man for high-end talent.  I would understand (probably) if he didn't make the final team, but to not even be on the orientation camp roster is ridiculous.

Love Spezz.. but do you put him at centre ahead of Crosby, Toews, Stamkos, Bergeron, Giroux?

If he has a great start to the season.. and one of those big centres gets an injury.. he could play his way onto the team...

He has played very well for Canada at the Worlds and the Spengler... so you never know.

I think we see a very motivated Spezza to start the season. Mostly of the loss of playing time last season.. and he wants a shot at the Olympic team... Also for the first time in a very long time... Douchebag was not selected.

Ev wrote:

NEELY wrote:

wprager wrote:

NEELY wrote:Spezza is what he is and that's a player a lot of coaches don't trust as well as not being good enough to be on the top 2 lines for Team Canada.  No one in their right mind would give hard mins to Spezza on the 3rd and 4th line.  This is better for Ottawa anyways and I could care less about the Olympics.

Do you know how many active Canadian-born players have a higher PPG average than Spezza?  

Answer: one.

Do you know how little that matters?  

Answer: none.

Lol answering none to that doesn't make sense. You want to say "very"

This is true.

Anyways no one except Sens fans care about Spezza's PPG stat. It's basically the only argument people have when talking about him and trying to convince people he is an elite player in the NHL. He isn't but he is a #1 center. That's why he will never be on an Olympic team, that's why he's always looked over. Until he can show people he can take his game to the next level and be a the go to guy on a regular basis then this is just par for the course.

Either way, better for the Sens.

Who cares about the Olympics and who cares who thinks Spezza is or isn't elite. Diddle it, he's a top line C on a powerful, young team. That's all I need personally.

Well point being is he wasn't invited for a lot of reasons and probably the most obvious one is that any team hockey Canada has ever sent to any competition in which Spezza was on that team, they lost. IMO it may be as simple as that.

And there are better top six options. Spezza shouldn't take offense to that, there are amazing Canadian players.

SpezDispenser wrote:And there are better top six options.  Spezza shouldn't take offense to that, there are amazing Canadian players.  

Spezza absolutely should be offended that he wasn't invited. We're talking about a 'camp' that has no bearing on the final roster except a formality to get the evaluation process started.

Hope he uses this rejection properly. To not even be on the radar is pathetic. And I don't believe him not having won with team Canada has anything to do with it. Where's iginla in that case?

sandysensfan wrote:

tim1_2 wrote:Spezza can't catch a break.  I'd put him on there ahead of the following: Carter, Couture, Duchene, Eberle, Getzlaf, Hall, Kunitz, Ladd, Lucic, Marchand, Neal, M Richards, Sharp, both Staals, and maybe Joe Thornton.  Holy hell, what a diddle up.

Spezza is the perfect setup man for high-end talent.  I would understand (probably) if he didn't make the final team, but to not even be on the orientation camp roster is ridiculous.

Love Spezz.. but do you put him at centre ahead of Crosby, Toews, Stamkos, Bergeron, Giroux?  

If he has a great start to the season.. and one of those big centres gets an injury.. he could play his way onto the team...

He has played very well for Canada at the Worlds and the Spengler... so you never know.

I think we see  a very motivated Spezza to start the season.  Mostly of the loss of playing time last season.. and he wants a shot at the Olympic team...  Also for the first time in a very long time... Douchebag was not selected.

As a center (creativity, passing ability, faceoffs) he is better than most of those players you mentioned. We're not talking about the Stanley Cup Finals, here. It's the Olympics, on international icel he could thrive.

Last full season, only one center had more face off wins that Spezza -- Bergeron. And Spezza has been improving in this respect over the last few years. He was 4th in the league in total points with Greening spending half the season on his wing. He could make Bobby Ryan a 40-goal man, with another 30 for Michalek, if he stays healthy. This could well be a 90 point season for him.

Michallica wrote:

SpezDispenser wrote:And there are better top six options.  Spezza shouldn't take offense to that, there are amazing Canadian players.  

Spezza absolutely should be offended that he wasn't invited.  We're talking about a 'camp' that has no bearing on the final roster except a formality to get the evaluation process started.

Hope he uses this rejection properly.  To not even be on the radar is pathetic. And I don't believe him not having won with team Canada has anything to do with it. Where's iginla in that case?

Has Chris Kunitz won anything? Silver at the Worlds. Spezza's done that too.
Logan Couture? Never played.
Duchene? Cut from the 2009 WJC, out of the medals in two Worlds.

I'd bet there are plenty more like that.

Sorry, Michallica, that was really in reply to NEELY.

Point being is they look for guys that can take their game to the next level and Spezza has never proven to be able to do that. If he could be counted on to do the right things in the top 6 he might get an invite but every time he is on Team Canada he under performs and doesn't meet expectations. Losing is just a result of that and in all honesty it's pretty easy to not invite Spezza to this camp, he has no chance of making it like a lot of other people have said before and were just called "haters".

Point is your point had no point.