USA Today article
September 19, 2005
by Kevin Allen
Even though Team Canada boss Wayne Gretzky has said Steve Yzerman is on the 2006 Torino Olympic team if he is healthy, Yzerman’s pride prevents him from accepting that verdict.
“If I don’t play well, I don’t think I will be on the Olympic team because there are too many good players,” he said.
At 40, Yzerman is coming back for his 22nd NHL season, and it isn’t to be a role player. Yzerman has endured such high-profile health issues over the last few years — including a scary eye injury in the 2004 playoffs — that it’s easy to forget he needed radical leg surgery to save his career three years ago.
In 2003-04 he had 18 goals and 33 assists in 75 games. With Pavel Datsyuk possibly playing in Russia this season, Yzerman’s good health looks even more crucial to a Detroit Red Wings team that has lost depth because of the salary cap.
Yzerman, who will wear a visor because of his eye injury, said he is “pleasantly surprised” at how good he feels. When he went to the Canadian Olympic orientation camp, he said, he felt as if he “got around the ice pretty good.”
