Sidney Crosby gets left off of Team Canada

So, Wayne Gretzky and company played Scrooge and left poor Sidney off of Team Canada's entry into the 2006 Winter Olympics in Turin.

He may be an Olympic-sized talent, but Sidney Crosby will have to wait for his shot at the Games.

The 18-year-old Pittsburgh Penguins rookie forward was left off the 23-man roster and three-man taxi squad named Wednesday for Turin.

"There's a good chance that Sidney could be the leader of the team in 2010," Kevin Lowe, Team Canada's assistant executive director, said when asked about Crosby's omission.

"But at this time we felt that we wanted to go with proven veteran players that have won at the World Cup level, and the world championship level and the Olympics."

While Sidney wasn't saying anything, his agent was doing the talking for him:

"I understand and recognize that it's not an easy decision for the Canadian selection committee," said Pat Brisson, Crosby's agent. "Regardless of their decisions, it was going to create some kind of controversy with the talent pool."

''However, as I've said before, in my opinion Sidney thrives under pressure and could play with anyone in the world and make a difference.''

Let's have some perspective here. Sidney is only 18 and Canada has many talented forwards. Sid will have plenty of opportunities to play for Canada in the future, and Team Canada needn't have picked Crosby just for the marketing possibilities.

It's a bit of a shame that the thuggish slug Todd Bertuzzi was selected over a more deserving Crosby, but Crosby will learn that life isn't always to fair, even to Hockey Jesus.