Crosby out, Bertuzzi in as Canada announces hockey team

TORONTO (Reuters) – Rookie sensation Sidney Crosby was left
off Canada’s Olympic hockey team while controversial forward
Todd Bertuzzi was selected to make the trip to Turin as the
defending gold medallists unveiled their Winter Games lineup on
Wednesday.

Suspended for 17 months for a brutal on-ice attack that
left Colorado Avalanche’s Steve Moore with a broken neck,
Bertuzzi’s inclusion on the Olympic squad was one of the few
mild surprises as Canada opted for a mostly experienced lineup
to defend the title it won in Salt Lake City.

The makeup of Canada’s men’s team had been the subject of
national debate for weeks leading up to the announcement that
was carried live on the country’s three sports networks.

That debate is sure to continue among hockey-mad Canadians
in the final weeks leading up to Turin with Crosby, the most
hyped rookie since Wayne Gretzky, being overlooked despite a
superb debut season and a personal endorsement from Pittsburgh
Penguins Hall of Fame captain and owner Mario Lemieux, who made
the 18-year-old the number one pick in this year’s NHL draft.

“It’s never an easy task,” said Kevin Lowe, Team Canada’s
assistant executive director, while making the announcement at
Vancouver’s GM Place. “We talked this morning and there’s a
good chance that it could be Sidney leading this team in 2010.

“But this time we wanted to go with proven veteran
players.”

Lemieux, who captained Canada to gold four years ago, was
among those left off the squad having ruled himself out after
being admitted to hospital earlier this month with an irregular
heartbeat.

TEN HOLDOVERS

The 23-member team will include 10 holdovers from the 2002
Olympics, where Canada ended a 50-year gold medal drought with
a win over the United States in the final.

Goaltender Martin Brodeur, defencemen Rob Blake, Adam
Foote, Ed Jovanovski, Scott Niedermayer and Chris Pronger, and
forwards Simon Gagne, Jarome Iginla, Joe Sakic and Ryan Smyth
will form the nucleus of the squad.

Problems could lie ahead for Canada’s management team even
before they arrive in Turin.

A story in the Toronto Globe and Mail on Wednesday, said
that the Canadian Olympic Committee (COC), which has final say
in all team selections, was disturbed at the possibility having
Bertuzzi, Shane Doan and Dany Heatley being named to the men’s
squad and could keep all three from playing at the Olympics.

According to the Globe and Mail report, the COC has
concerns about Bertuzzi’s attack on Moore that led to the power
forward pleading guilty to assault causing bodily harm in a
British Columbia court and one-year probation.

Heatley has also had well publicized brushes with law,
pleading guilty to multiple charges in a vehicular homicide
case stemming from a car crash that resulted in the death of
his then Atlanta Thrashers team mate Dan Snyder.

Doan has recently come under the microscope for allegedly
uttering a racial slur at a French referee at the end of a game
between his Phoenix Coyotes and Montreal Canadiens.

Much of the festive mood surrounding the ceremony was
diluted by the absence of Gretzky, the man widely regarded as
the architect of Canada’s win in Salt Lake City and the 2004
World Cup.

Gretzky was unable to attend the announcement, the ‘Great
One’ remaining at his family home in Brantford, Ontario,
following the death of his mother Phyllis on Monday.