I'm not disagreeing with the fact that Getzlaf and Perry were bubble before the season and fully commit that Carter and Richards are bubble at the moment and that Bergeron and Staal are currently not playing up to their standards. It's no secret that making Canada as a forward is extremely difficult and a few months of up or down play can seriously influence your standing with the team. It has happened at pretty much every Olympics. You even agreed with me that there were only really four locks for this team anyways. How many other countries would debate about leaving the reigning Art Ross winner off the team? Being a bubble player means you are one of ~15-20 guys banging it out for 8-10 spots.
I do agree that age is a legitimate factor but this year there is a dearth of talent from Canada that should be providing that leadership group in their 30's. If you take a look at the drafts from say 1990 to 2000 it isn't the best for Canada. Some of the top players from those draft years Heatley, Lecavalier, Richards, Marleau, Thornton, Iginla, Doan, Smyth, Kariya, Lindros.
That isn't a spectacular group of forwards. If they had have remained healthy Kariya and Lindros could have been something special, but that is moot. I think this helps explain the lack of 30+ year olds on this year's and the last Olympics roster. Even go back and look at 2002 and 2006 rosters. 2002 had a bunch of guys in their mid-late 30s and 2006 had a group of forwards that were mainly of this bad generation. This is typically how these cycles go. We are experiencing a massive influx of talented Canadian forwards which has been going on since 2003 and is expected to continue into the near future. If it does, remains to be seen. Don't get me wrong I hope all the best for players such as Hall(22), Eberle(23), Nuge(20), Kane(22), O'Reilly(22), Mackinnon(18). Hopefully they can be as good as the guys from this 2003 group but they aren't there yet and they may not get there.
I get the whole skating argument, but you should also look at if the type of skater will translate to the bigger ice. Hall is very much a north-south skater, same with Kane. Does this really make them better options on bigger ice? I don't know, but I'm sure we will find out at some point.
) still with the team in 2018 as without any of the 80's born defensemen that D would be insanely young and without any type of a veteran leader. Few coaches would ice a backend like that regardless of their skill level. 
