Top Oilers insider goes on heated rant against Team Canada roster decisions
Photo credit: Edmonton Oilers YouTube
Top Oilers insider Bob Stauffer went on a passionate rant against Team Canada playing favourites when selecting their Olympic roster.
Connor McDavid was the only Oiler to be selected to the Olympic roster, with Canada clearly snubbing Evan Bouchard. Despite being one of the most effective NHL defender, Canada's management allowed personal bias to get in the way of their decisions.
Oilers insider Bob Stauffer rips Team Canada roster decisions for favouritism and bias
Speaking on a recent edition of OilersNow, Stauffer went off on Canada's decision to leave Bouchard off the roster for clearly worse defenceman. Not only that, but they left off key players from the 4 Nations roster - and also used the 4 Nations as reason their defence shouldn't change. It's an incongruent belief from Canada's brass.
You're worried about Bouchard, except come crunch time in the playoffs the last three years, he's elevated at the toughest moments.
'Well you know, he wasn't any good in October or November.' Well sorry, you got lots of other defenceman. By the way, Devon Toews - not the same. Theodore has been hurt all year.
Who's Colton Parayko's GM? Who's Harley's GM? Colton Parayko hasn't scored a goal, he's like minus 7 on the season.
I'm saying there's some other guys that were allowed to have a bad start to the year.
- Bob Stauffer
'Well you know, he wasn't any good in October or November.' Well sorry, you got lots of other defenceman. By the way, Devon Toews - not the same. Theodore has been hurt all year.
Who's Colton Parayko's GM? Who's Harley's GM? Colton Parayko hasn't scored a goal, he's like minus 7 on the season.
I'm saying there's some other guys that were allowed to have a bad start to the year.
- Bob Stauffer
There was much more that Stauffer touched on, also including the decision to leave off Sam Bennett - which the Oilers insider full on called «petty».
The decision-makers of Team Canada being the GMs of the St. Louis Blues, Dallas Stars, and Tampa Bay Lightning clearly prioritized their own players in the roster, even if they were having bad years. Jordan Binnington is the biggest example, who's been one of the worst goalies in the NHL this season. There were better players available than Anthony Cirelli and Brandon Hagel, too.
As Stauffer and Rishaug put it, there were certain players on the roster that had «backing» and protection from their poor starts. One has to wonder if Bouchard was on Tampa Bay, maybe he'd have made the team.
It's hard to argue that it looks like the GMs picking Canada's roster were extremely preferential to players on their own teams.
Canada still has a great roster and are the favourites to win Gold, but they clearly did not select the most talented roster possible.
Also read on Edmonton Hockey Daily :
Tkachuk and Barkov ripped by NHL fans for breaking the code at Winter Classic
Tkachuk and Barkov ripped by NHL fans for breaking the code at Winter Classic
| POLL | ||
JANVIER 4 | 767 ANSWERS Top Oilers insider goes on heated rant against Team Canada roster decisions Do you think some Olympic roster decisions from Canada were biased? | ||
| Yes | 681 | 88.8 % |
| No | 86 | 11.2 % |
| List of polls | ||