Hockey

Boston Bruins forward Marc Savard faced another setback in his quest to make the 2010 Canadian Olympic men's hockey team.

A broken left foot has caused the Bruins to place Savard on long-term injured reserve. He is expected to miss four to six weeks, a large portion of the time that Hockey Canada will be watching NHL games to select players for its Olympic squad.

Hockey Canada surprised many by leaving the 32-year-old Ottawa native off its 46-man Canadian Olympic orientation camp roster this past August. But after voicing his disappointment in not being invited, Savard was off to a big start this season. He leads Boston in scoring with four goals and three assists in seven games.

"Savard wasn't even invited to the camp, and now the tryout period for him will have come and gone, so that's going to really have a tremendous effect on his chances," said Olympic hockey analyst Pierre McGuire. "I thought he should have been invited to the camp, as I see him as being the unbelievable specialist that you may want to have, especially for the powerplay as a 13th forward. But they didn't even invite him to the camp."

Savard has been the Bruins' top scorer for the last three seasons. In 2008-09, he had 25 goals and 63 assists for 88 points in 82 games and didn't miss a single game.

Savard's Bruins' teammate Milan Lucic is in a similar situation. The physical forward will miss a few weeks due to a broken right index finger which required surgery. Lucic, who did attend the orientation camp, will be off Team Canada's radar for a while as well.

"I think Milan knows that the camp was an amazing experience and that there was a huge learning curve for him, and now that he's out, it's not going to be very easy for him," said McGuire. "Especially when you compound that with the great start so many guys are having."

Canada has such depth offensively, McGuire doesn't think it would hurt Hockey Canada's chances of icing a strong team if Lucic and Savard can't rebound quickly when they return in four-to-six weeks, cutting it close to Hockey Canada naming its team in late December.

"Canada is so deep, I don't think it will be a big issue. A lot of the offensive players they've been looking at are off to really good starts, and some of the physical guys, especially Brenden Morrow, Ryan Smyth and Shane Doan have had real good starts."