SOCHI, Russia – It has been said that you learn more about a person in bad times than in good. Well, Canadians know an awful lot about the kind of character Martin St. Louis possesses before he’s even skated a shift at these Olympics.
The presence of the 38-year-old in Sochi should be considered one of the top feel-good stories of the entire men’s tournament. Not only is he the oldest player to crack Team Canada’s roster since NHLers started going to the Games in 1998, he did so after demonstrating the type of class that is worthy of an Olympian. It was only a month ago that St. Louis was left devastated by Steve Yzerman’s decision to exclude him from the original 25-man roster. He was so upset, in fact, that he declined to speak before a game in Winnipeg that day and then went out and scored twice to lead Tampa Bay to a victory over the Jets. Afterwards, he delivered a short statement—the only words he would speak publicly on the subject prior to being named as injury replacement for Steven Stamkos on Thursday. “I’m happy we got the win,” he said. “For Team Canada, you can’t imagine how I feel. I’m extremely disappointed and I’ll just leave it at that.”
As it turns out, it was best that he did. The only talking that needed to be done was with his play, and St. Louis wound up scoring eight goals in seven games following the Jan. 7 announcement. A young Lightning team has benefitted greatly from his leadership while surviving half a season without Stamkos and you’d have to think that Canada will reap the same kind of rewards now. You really can’t have enough players with experience in high-pressure situations. Whether St. Louis ends up playing alongside Sidney Crosby on the first line—and don’t rule out that possibility—or seeing limited minutes as a depth forward, his presence here could be powerful.
He instantly becomes another player that the leadership group of Crosby, Jonathan Toews and Shea Weber can rely on. He will work hard and play disciplined. There won’t be anyone, anywhere, who questions his commitment to the cause. And while Canada has 11 returnees from the gold medal-winning squad in Vancouver, Chris Pronger and Scott Niedermayer aren’t among them. Those two greybeards provided a steadying presence during that event. It’s not much of a stretch to see St. Louis acting in a similar vein now. In fact, a recurring issue that came up as the management group debated players behind closed doors was whether they had enough of that element.
In the big picture, this almost feels like a wrong has been righted. It’s awful that it had to come at the expense of Stamkos—or any player for that matter—but there was an unsettling feeling about seeing St. Louis overlooked from the start. He had been the top-scoring player in the NHL since the Vancouver Games and was still drawing motivation after being left off that team. It has been a recurring theme during his unlikely career, being passed over, but surely the man has shown more than enough at this point to put an end to it.
Less than an hour after the team was unveiled, I asked Yzerman directly about why he felt confident that his relationship with St. Louis could survive the snubbing. The Tampa GM replied that he couldn’t guarantee that it would and hoped St. Louis would stay with Lightning and help them to greater success. “There’s not much I can say—I can’t apologize,” Yzerman said. “We’ve got to make these decisions.” Surely, the conversation they had on this topic after Stamkos was ruled out on Wednesday night went a long way to helping everyone move forward. That includes Team Canada. A number of players from the team expressed their support after St. Louis was announced as an injury replacement.
St. Louis will never truly be able to replace Stamkos—no one could reasonably be asked to do such a thing—but the good news is that he only has to be himself to be plenty good enough. “There’s no question that we feel bad for Steven and bad for the country, but on we move and find that next best solution,” Canadian coaching consultant Ralph Krueger said Thursday at the Bolshoy Ice Dome.
With all due respect to the other candidates, they couldn’t have made a better choice.