A ticket to Vancouver would leave Capitals defenceman overjoyed

Mike Green is a bubble boy, in terms of his chances of being named to the Canadian Olympic men’s hockey team roster.

So the question was simple: what would it mean to him if executive Steve Yzerman selects him to play at the 2010 Vancouver Games? “It would be the happiest day of my life,” the dynamic Washington Capitals defenceman said.

And if Green could have an audience with Yzerman, what would the candidate say to his potential boss? “That I care more than anyone else,” Green replied.

There is little doubt that Green cares. Ask any teammate or official associated with the Capitals on which player takes losses the hardest and the answer is easy, “Mike Green.”

If Green is not selected for the Canadian team, he will no doubt take the snub hard. But he shouldn’t. There is room for only a few offensive defencemen and despite his statistics, Green is no shoo-in. So if the likes of Chris Pronger, Shea Weber, Jay Bouwmeester and Duncan Keith, Robyn Regehr and Drew Doughty are in the mix as the team’s two-way blue-liners, Scott Niedermayer, Dan Boyle, Dion Phaneuf and Green are trying to make the Canadian roster as production providers from the back end.

“He’s right there,” Capitals veteran centre Brendan Morrison said. “It depends on what they are looking for in building the team. If they’re looking for a guy who can carry the mail, carry the puck out of his own end, can skate the puck out of trouble, can make a good first pass, is good at transition and running a power play, than he’s your guy.

“His offensive instincts are the best I’ve seen from a player in the back end. If he’s not the top offensive defenceman in the league, he’s top-three for sure.”

Green’s chances of wearing the Canadian sweater in Vancouver took a hit in the playoffs last spring. His play was erratic, but he also was suffering from a serious shoulder injury from a crunching, board-loosening hit from Pronger in a game last November. He wound up missing 14 games, but still felt the effects of the ailment the rest of the season.

Has Green rebounded from the poor post-season performance? It appears so. As most NHL teams begin the second-quarter of play, there is Green tied for the league-lead among defencemen with Toronto’s Tomas Kaberle at 24 points in 23 games.

“I’m not going to change the way I play because my job, first and foremost, is to play for the Washington Capitals and help us win games,” Green said. “But obviously, playing for Canada has been in the back of my mind.”

Those closer to Green believe that playing for Canada is on his mind more than he’s letting on. They say that he’s been checking the lists of the prognosticators and that he knows which people have scratched him from their forecasts.

Bittersweet international experiences

The 24-year-old Green hails from Calgary. But he had not even reached his third birthday the last time the Olympics were in his hometown in 1988. He does, however, remember hunkering down to watch Canada’s gold-medal final and celebrating the triumph with family in their Calgary home.

He also recalls the sting of being among the final cuts for the 2005 Canadian junior team, when head coach Brent Sutter put together rock-solid and gold-medal winning blue-line of Cam Barker, Shawn Belle, Braydon Coburn, Dion Phaneuf, Brent Seabrook, Danny Syvret and Shea Weber.

Green finally received a chance to play for Canada at the 2008 world championships. He and his teammates lost a heartbreaker, 5-4 in overtime to Russia. But Green was named to the tournament all-star team with four goals and 12 points in nine games.

“You want to be there [in Vancouver], all the game’s best players will be there,” Green concluded. “You dream of playing for Canada as a kid.”

-By Tim Wharnsby, CBC Sports

Scoring machine

No defenceman has been more prolific in terms of scoring goals and piling up points from the blue-line position than Green has over the past two-plus seasons.

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