Team Canada in 2002 Roster Controversy

I'm having a hard time remembering so does anyone recall if there were any notable omissions at the time from the Olympic Gold-medal winning Team Canada in 2002? And were there any players that made the team that people maybe thought they shouldn't have?

I know in hindsight, there were probably no mistakes to the roster based on the result of the tournament, but what I'm asking is...at the time the roster was announced, were there any players that people thought should and shouldn't have been on the team?

I'm having a hard time remembering so does anyone recall if there were any notable omissions at the time from the Olympic Gold-medal winning Team Canada in 2002? And were there any players that made the team that people maybe thought they shouldn't have?

I know in hindsight, there were probably no mistakes to the roster based on the result of the tournament, but what I'm asking is...at the time the roster was announced, were there any players that people thought should and shouldn't have been on the team?

The one huge omission that everyone forgets about is that Patrick Roy declined the invite. Since we won and Brodeur played well it didn't make a difference in the end.
Some other controversial descissions were to take Lindros and Fleury over Joe Thornton or Keith Primeau and also Belfour over Burke.
S. Stevens, Desjardins and Redden didn't make the team although many thought they would.

I think Ray Bourque was also playing at the time, I think if you watch Gold Rush, after the official naming of the team, when Kevin Lowe is being interviewed he mentions Ray Bourques name.

I think Ray Bourque was also playing at the time, I think if you watch Gold Rush, after the official naming of the team, when Kevin Lowe is being interviewed he mentions Ray Bourques name.

Ray Bourque retired in after the 2001 playoffs.

I remember Roy declining to play before they actually even announced the team (although he was a shoe-in to make it). He said that he wanted to focus on the Avalanche, as up to that point, the only year the Avalanche didn't make at least the conference finals was 1998, the same year Roy was the starter for Canada in the Nagano Olympics. But I also remember the rumours that the real reason Roy didn't wanna play in 2002 was because he was upset that Team Canada management were not 100% sure that Roy would be starting over Brodeur or Joseph.

Roy wanted to be the guaranteed starter and not sit on the bench. Canada wasn't ready to do that and they went with the rotation, I believe it was. Brodeur, Joseph and....Belfour or was it Luongo by then?

Roy wanted to be the guaranteed starter and not sit on the bench. Canada wasn't ready to do that and they went with the rotation, I believe it was. Brodeur, Joseph and....Belfour or was it Luongo by then?

eddie.

Roy wanted to be the guaranteed starter and not sit on the bench. Canada wasn't ready to do that and they went with the rotation, I believe it was. Brodeur, Joseph and....Belfour or was it Luongo by then?

I don't know if Roy ever stated whether or not he would have played if they had offered him the starters job, but you may be right.

In my opinion the starters job was Joseph's to lose, and thanks to a 5-2 loss to Sweden, he lost it. I don't think he and Pat Quinn were buddies after that and the next season Curtis left for Detroit.

I'm pretty sure Iginla was a last minute addition to the evaluation camp. Good thing they made that choice.

In goal, Belfour over Burke was a bit of a surprise, not that it mattered at all.

On defense, I remember a little bit of controversy over picking Brewer and Jovanovski over steady, more experienced players like Desjardins, Stevens, and Redden, but nothing significant. I also recall Derek Morris's name getting thrown around a lot as a possibility for the 7th d-man role, which obviously never came to fruition.

Up-front, I don't think there was any real controversy. There was some debate as to whether Gagne was good enough, and whether Lindros/Fleury were still playing at a high-enough level. Obviously they got the job done. I think the only real serious contenders were Thornton, who may have been seen as a little too unproven / inexperienced at that point, and Primeau. Primeau being left-off was a bit odd given that he was on the '96 World Cup team and the '98 Olympic team, and was still playing good at that point in his career. But, there was probably a lot more controversy around him when he was left off the '04 World Cup team.

I think a more interesting question would be surrounding the '98 Olympic team - how could that team have been improved upon with the players available at the time?

As far as 98 goes, the only real omission was Kariya... courtesy of Gary Suter. Everybody else was in place, but it wouldn't have made a difference. Nobody could score on Hasek that year.

As far as 98 goes, the only real omission was Kariya... courtesy of Gary Suter. Everybody else was in place, but it wouldn't have made a difference. Nobody could score on Hasek that year.

Another notable omission was Mark Messier. By the time the team was announced in December, he still had not proven himself to be the total failure that he would ultimatley be while in Vancouver. There was a lot of talk about leaving him off while including someone like Rob Zamuner. Though I highly doubt having Messier in Japan would have done anything to improve Canada.

A common complaint about the '98 team was of course omitting Messier and putting in Rob Zamuner. That was discussed in Canadian media a lot during the 2-3 months from the roster announcement to the actual tournament. I don't remember anything about Zamuner...what kind of player was he and how did he make this team?

Back then, I remember thinking that Mark Recchi should have made the team before Zamuner or Messier. Recchi did end up on the team in the middle of the tournament, filling in for an injured Joe Sakic.

In 2002 to be honest the team was almost perfectly chosen. With the exception of Joe Thornton there wasnt any notable omission. Yeah I know Roy backed out, but it was HIS doing so I don't count it.

Think about it, the roster was pretty set:
Goal: Brodeur, Joseph and Belfour. I like Burke, but there was never a time in his life that he played at the same level as the other three

Defense: Pronger, Blake, Niedermayer, MacInnis, Jovanovski, Brewer, Foote
No problems here IMO. Wow, look at that defense though. 3 of them will be in the HHOF, MacInnis is already there. Maybe Redden could be taken over Brewer but that's it. Remember, Brewer was a very good rushing defenseman at that time. He was also on Edmonton, as was Kevin Lowe who helped pick the team

Offense: Lemieux, Sakic, Kariya, Yzerman, Iginla, Gagne, Lindros, Peca, Nieuwendyk, Shanahan, Nolan, Fleury, Smyth.

Seriously who do you take off of that team? There are surefire HHOFers there (Lemieux, Sakic, Yzerman, Iginla, Shanahan) and a few who are borderline (Lindros, Fleury, Nieuwy, Kariya). Primeau was a good player then but he wouldn't have fit in with that team, there wasn't a place for him IMO.

Plus Thornton if you remember had his breakout year and so did Bertuzzi. If the Olympics were at the end of the 2002 season both would be on the team and maybe a guy like Nolan wouldn't.

Both Sakic and Kariya were absent from that game against the czech republic, no question those two guys could have had a huge bearing on that tournament and game in particular, especially in a shoot-out situation.

What team at those games wouldn't have been very adversely affected losing their two top offensive stars? How would the czechs have fared without Jagr and so on?

Do they still win gold?

it's questionable for sure.

everyone forgets that about 98 Team Canada.

with those 2 players in the lineup we could easily be talking about a Canada Nagano victory.

People should keep that in mind, they are the only team to have had to play those games without it's 2 best offensive players and still came within a hair of going to the Gold medal game.

As far as 98 goes, the only real omission was Kariya... courtesy of Gary Suter. Everybody else was in place, but it wouldn't have made a difference. Nobody could score on Hasek that year.