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Why was Lindros captain of Team Canada in 1998?

Reindl87

Registered User
May 18, 2012
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No offence, but from an outside, non Canadian perspective, this looks like a very weird choice?
Lindros was only 24/25 years old at the time and had a very controversial character/attitude.

That Candian team featured the greatest player of all time, as well as already established all time greats such as Yzerman. Moreover the team had so many great players which very already considered as stars at the time as well as they were respected and considered as high character guys. Sakic, Shanahan, Blake, to mention just a few.

So why the hell was Lindros picked as captain for that team?
How did people feel about this choice back in the day?
 
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Reindl87 said:
So why the hell was Lindros picked as captain for that team?
How did people feel about this choice back in the day?
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Because he was view as the best canadian hockey player and flyer management with that team.

People feel he was young and giving him the C instead of Gretzky could be unnecessary distraction for the team.

Telling it a terrible decision could be a little bit of revisionist (it was after Mario passing the torch and the cup final).
 
He was perceived as the "Next one" after Lemieux's retirement. Nonetheless, Gretzky deserved the captaincy. Anyone know if 99 was offered, or did management and coaching decide to shut him out of everything except playing a regular shift?
 
Maybe the 1996 team canada loosing team was seen like the Greztky-old oilers gang, and they want to make a big change (explaining Messier absence).
 
rfournier103 said:
Probably for the same reason Sidney Crosby was picked this year instead of Jonathan Toews...
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Would have been a better comparison if Crosby was chosen as captain in 2010 than 2014 (instead of Niedermayer).

Toews is younger than Crosby.
 
rfournier103 said:
Probably for the same reason Sidney Crosby was picked this year instead of Jonathan Toews...
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That is not comparable.

Toews and Crosby differ in age by a year. Both have been captains a comparable number of years and both have had success as captains leading their team to multiple cup finals.

As for Lindros - he was on a team with the likes of Gretzky, Yzerman and Bourque. All of whom had been captains for decades and all had a reasonable amount of team success as captain - much more than Lindros.

From what I recall this was a very controversial decision and much of the sports media was questioning why Gretzky wasn't named captain (Bobby Clarke).
 
Clarke did what he felt was best for the Flyers, as opposed to Team Canada. Same reason Messier was kept off the team entirely, Clarke wanted Lindros to make it "his" team in hopes that he would blossom into a great leader and winner. Needless to say, Eric never became any sort of leader and the selection looks utterly laughable in retrospect.
 
MadLuke said:
Maybe the 1996 team canada loosing team was seen like the Greztky-old oilers gang, and they want to make a big change (explaining Messier absence).
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I read somewhere the reason Clarke didn't want Messier on the team was he wanted it to be Eric's team and he didn't feel Lindros would take that role with his child hood idol in the dressing room.
 
MadLuke said:
Maybe the 1996 team canada loosing team was seen like the Greztky-old oilers gang, and they want to make a big change (explaining Messier absence).
Click to expand...

I remember Glen Sather saying that he walked into the dressing room before the 1996 World Cup and said to the players that Gretzky is the captain "does anyone have a problem with that?" Team Canada didn't lose because Gretzky was captain in 1996. After all, Gretzky led Team Canada in scoring, followed by Coffey. But there was a feeling and it was mostly media driven that the torch needed to be past from the old Oilers to the new face of the team. This was supposed to be Kariya and Lindros. But if they let Niedermayer be the captain in 2010 over Crosby who was more established at that time than Lindros in 1998 then why wouldn't they have given the same respect to Gretzky? He was still in that room. He was no longer in 1987 or 1991 Canada Cup mode, but in the end he still finished the 1998 Olympics with one fewer point than Lindros.

When there is a guy in the dressing room with the history of Wayne Gretzky the logical thing is to give him the captaincy even if he's in a wheelchair. You just don't "pass the torch" when the Great One is still on the team. Lindros could have made 1998 "his" team by pulling a Mario Lemieux from 1987 and carrying the team to victory. He didn't. But I just felt it was a slight against Gretzky and many felt the same way at the time. We all "got" why Lindros was captain.
 
Big Phil said:
When there is a guy in the dressing room with the history of Wayne Gretzky the logical thing is to give him the captaincy even if he's in a wheelchair. You just don't "pass the torch" when the Great One is still on the team.
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Its interesting how the generations change. In 76, Clarke was the captain and Orr in a similar position to Gretzky (near the end of his career). Questionable? Maybe. In 81, Potvin was the captain which I have no problem with, but it could have gone to any number of guys on that team - Gainey, Robinson, Trottier...again though, not your best player. In 72, no captain at all according to Wiki. And of course in 84, 87, 91 and 96 Gretzky, although he shared it with Robinson in 84. So what's the big deal? Well, different generation for one. Two, every other captain of a Canada Cup team or for that matter Olympic team (when represented by professionals) had won or even captained a SC champ. Lindros just had too many things handed to him on a silver platter. And yet, Clarke who handed the reins to Lindros in 98, ended up having a feud with Lindros shortly after. Coincidence? Not.
 
Thanks guys.

So basically in Canada/North America there's the assumption that the captain of the team should be the best player/biggest star?
 
LeBlondeDemon10 said:
Its interesting how the generations change. In 76, Clarke was the captain and Orr in a similar position to Gretzky (near the end of his career). Questionable? Maybe. In 81, Potvin was the captain which I have no problem with, but it could have gone to any number of guys on that team - Gainey, Robinson, Trottier...again though, not your best player. In 72, no captain at all according to Wiki. And of course in 84, 87, 91 and 96 Gretzky, although he shared it with Robinson in 84. So what's the big deal? Well, different generation for one. Two, every other captain of a Canada Cup team or for that matter Olympic team (when represented by professionals) had won or even captained a SC champ. Lindros just had too many things handed to him on a silver platter. And yet, Clarke who handed the reins to Lindros in 98, ended up having a feud with Lindros shortly after. Coincidence? Not.
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Orr was never the captain of anything, and preferred it that way. He wouldn't have been a consideration. If you're choosing a captain for the '76 squad, it's between Clarke and Esposito, and Clarke was coming off two cups and a final at the time.
 
Kyle McMahon said:
Clarke did what he felt was best for the Flyers, as opposed to Team Canada. Same reason Messier was kept off the team entirely, Clarke wanted Lindros to make it "his" team in hopes that he would blossom into a great leader and winner. Needless to say, Eric never became any sort of leader and the selection looks utterly laughable in retrospect.
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Ding ding ding, we have a winner.
 
The reason for it was the guy in the pic below, which is a bit ironic considering what later transpired between him and the Lindros family. BTW that decision didn't make sense to anyone.

bclarke.bmp
 
Moose Head said:
The only thing that would have given canada a better chance would be a healthy kariya and Lemieux and better shoot out choices.
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To have Sakic in the SF wouldn't have hurt either.

EDIT: Beaten. By a guy with Sakic in the avatar of course.
 
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