Jamie Benn, Lindy Ruff, and Ryan Miller were the first three people that I thought of on Monday when Team Canada announced its men's hockey Olympic invitation camp.
It blew my mind that Benn, one of the NHL's under-appreciated young stars, wasn't included on the Team Canada invitation list. Benn was a glaring omission from the invitation list. he was snubbed for such questionable selections as Brad Marchand, Milan Lucic, and Chris Kunitz. Good players all, however not great players. The 200 by 100 ice surface in Sochi, Russia is better suited for thoroughbreds like Benn, not plow horses like Lucic. Marchand and Kunits can skate, however, they are secondary, not primary play makers. Benn has represented Canada at international tournaments recently at the IIHF World Juniors and at the IIHF World Championships. He's no stranger to the bigger ice and the bright lights.
I think Benn got jammed.
It reminded me of 2006, when Ryan Miller was stiffed off the Torino Olympics roster. It hurts my head to think of the idiocy of then USA GM Don Waddell to leave Miller of the roster for such American "luminaries" as John Grahame, Robert Esche, Rick DiPietro. I still get the dry heaves when I think about the lunacy of leaving Miller off the 2006 Olympic team roster. Miller, the consummate pro, took the snub personally and made a vow to himself and his teammates to "punish" those teams that Grahame, Esche, and DiPietro played for each and every time the Sabres played them head to head. Hell hath no fury like a Ryan Miller scorned. Miller would later win the Olympics MVP at the Vancouver games when he back stopped Team USA, in virtuoso fashion, to the silver medal in the two week "all-in" men's hockey tourney. Miller was one Sidney Crosby "Golden Goal" away from being an Olympic gold medal champion.
Were he not bumped off the 2006 squad in such demoralizing fashion, perhaps Miller would have handled the 2010 opportunity differently. Perhaps Miller's chip on his shoulder from 2006-2010 was the best thing that ever happened to the Sabres goalie, as in that time frame, he went out on a mission to probve that he indeed belonged in the conversation of the NHLs upper echelon tenders.
As his head coach and mentor, Lindy Ruff knew this and he stoked Miller's fire and pumped his tires in the aftermath of Miller's Olympic omission. Ruff knew how good Miller was, and he earned to trips to the Eastern Conference Finals with Miller as his goalie. Ruff and Sabres goalie coach Jim Corsi were committed to making Miller the best goalie that he could be. It worked.
I believe that in life, you have to lose before you can win.
Ruff does, too. Miller would concur. Now Benn has to deal with the rejection and turn it into fuel for his personal internal fire.
Ruff , the newly minted head coach of the Dallas Stars, will be Mike Babcock's right hand man on the Canada bench. The two men coached together on the 2010 gold medal winning team. You better believe that Ruff is going to draw on his Miller experience to get Benn's head straight and to use it as a motivator the moment that training camp opens. If I'm Ruff, I'm placing a photograph of Team Canada GM Steve Yzerman in Benn's locker with a caption that reads: "This guy doesn't think that you are good enough to play in the Olympics".
The 6'4 and 215 pound power forward is about to go off.
Being omitted from Canada’s 47-man camp roster is a slap in the face, in my opinion. You mean to tell me that Benn isn't one of the 25 best forwards in the NHL who hails from Canada? Please.
Coach Ruff to the emotional rescue.
“His name was definitely in all the talks,” Ruff said. “You can take that and let it motivate yourself. You can say I am going to use these three months and put myself on the map, and make them make a hard decision. The ball is in Jamie’s court. He’s going to have to outplay some players that are maybe ahead of him and use that as a tool to motivate himself. I’d like to put him in the best position possible to do that.
Source: Stars Inside Edge
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Look out NHL. Here comes a motivated, angry, and focused-like-a-laserbeam Jamie Benn.
P.S- Don't be at all surprised if Ruff and his GM Jim Nill are patiently waiting to try to recruit Miller to Dallas.
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