Patrice Bergeron snubbed from World Championships.
Team Canada has announced its roster for the World Championships and for some baffling reason, Boston Bruins forward Patrice Bergeron isn’t on the list. It doesn’t make sense to me. It’s not like Bergeron is the best two-way forward in the National Hockey League, or a Stanley Cup Champion, or an Olympic gold medalist for Canada. (Oh, wait a second…)
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Bergeron told the media that he was informed by now ex-general manager Peter Chiarelli that Team Canada (who Chiarelli is not a member of this year) was looking for a younger line up for this year’s World Championships. He shared this with media on the same day that he found out he received his fourth straight nomination for the Selke Trophy. Here are the forwards selected by Team Canada for this year’s Worlds which start on May 1st.
Matt Duchene – Colorado Avalanche, Cody Eakin – Dallas Stars, Jordan Eberle – Edmonton Oilers, Tyler Ennis – Buffalo Sabres, Claude Giroux – Philadelphia Flyers, Taylor Hall – Edmonton Oilers, Nathan MacKinnon – Colorado Avalanche, Ryan Nugent-Hopkins – Edmonton Oilers, Ryan O’Rielly – Colorado Avalanche, Tyler Seguin – Dallas Stars, Jason Spezza – Dallas Stars, Tyler Toffoli – Los Angeles Kings.
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You have to admit there is a certain level of irony in ex-GM Peter Chiarelli telling Bergeron that’s he’s too old to play in international competition. (It’s also baffling how an amazing twenty-nine year old Bergeron was snubbed, but a thirty-one year old Jason Spezza got the nod for team Canada.) Had Zdeno Chara‘s ankle not been broken, the thirty-seven year old Slovakian would be on the ice happily representing his country.
Well at least it gives Bergeron the summer off to rest. Still, it seems a terrible injustice to take away Bergeron’s last chance to win his home country another piece of hardware. It would make sense for Canada to bring a player of Bergeron’s status and ability to Worlds. Canada has not won the gold since 2007, and has failed to medal since 2009. Maybe they’ll have better luck this year, but they’ve assembled a lot of players who don’t really understand what the word ‘backcheck’ is. We’ll see how it goes for the Bergeron-less Team Canada next week.