by By STEPHEN HARRIS , The Boston Herald

There will be 46 players on hand for the four-day camp in Calgary in late-August, including Bruins winger Milan Lucic, who continues his remarkable rags-to-riches tale as the kid who could barely make a junior team four years ago, but now personifies the ideal NHL power forward.

Of those 46 players, 15 are centers. The Bruins' Marc Savard is not among them.

There are 16 defensemen. Not one is Bruin Dennis Wideman.

Canadian Olympic Team executive director Steve Yzerman said during a conference call that one reason Savard was not invited was because over the years Savard has turned down several requests to play for Canada in the World Championships.

That, and the team apparently just didn't want him, despite the fact Savard may be the finest passer in the game and one of the best power play set-up guys.

``At the end of the day we wanted to bring in different types of players,'' Yzerman said. ``Not necessarily guys who were leading their teams in scoring, but guys who can fill different roles. That's why Marc's not on the list.''

Savard was not available for comment, according to the Bruins .

Savard, who had 25-63-88 totals last season and a plus-25 while earning rave reviews league-wide for his hard work, leadership and sound three-zone play, was left off a list that includes:

** Dallas' Brenden Morrow, who played just 18 games because of injuries, with 5-10-15 and a minus-4.

** Colorado's Joe Sakic, who turns 40 in four days and appeared in only 15 games last season, with 2-10-12 and a minus-6.

** St. Louis' Andy McDonald, who played 46 games and had 15-29-44 and minus-13.

** Pittsburgh's No. 3 center, Jordan Staal (22-27-49, plus-5).

** Tampa Bay's Vincent Lecavalier, who had his poorest season since 2003-04, with 29-38-67 and a minus-9.

** San Jose's Joe Thornton, who had fewer points (86) and a worse plus/minus (plus-16) than Savard and was again vilified for his big-game failures.

Savard had a better plus/minus than any player on the list, and more points than all but two - Pittsburgh's Sidney Crosby (103) and Anaheim's Ryan Getzlaf (91). Savard led a team that finished second in the overall standings, was first in goals-against and second in goals scored.

It's hard to see how he didn't even warrant a tryout, and the same is true for Wideman, who was thought to have put himself into the picture for Team Canada after posting 13-37-50 and a plus-32 last season. Consider a few of the players who did get tabbed:

** Anaheim's Francois Beauchemin, who played 20 games, with 4-1-5 and a minus-3.

** Calgary's Robyn Regehr, who had 0-8-8 and a plus-10.

** New York Ranger Marc Staal (3-12-15, minus-7).

** Nashville's Dan Hamhuis (3-23-26, minus-4).

Obviously the job of an NHL defenseman involved far more than just scoring points. But keep in mind that Wideman got more ice time than all but five of the 16 invited defensemen, outscored 12 of them and had a better plus/minus than all except Chicago's Duncan Keith (plus-33).

Lucic was one of only 10 wingers named, although some of the centermen could switch to the wing. But this bodes well for Lucic's chances to make Team Canada and enjoy the once-in-a-lifetime opportunity of playing in the Games in his hometown.

Americans Phil Kessel and Tim Thomas were invited to Team USA's camp, and other B's also could earn slots on European teams. Kessel is recovering from shoulder surgery and will have to earn an Olympic spot quickly with some strong play upon his expected return in November. And Vezina Trophy winner Thomas is widely regarded as the Yanks' likely No. 1 netminder.

- sharris@bostonherald.com

Copyright 2009 Boston Herald Inc.
	Terms & Conditions     Privacy Copyright © 2009 LexisNexis, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.