Did politics or favouritism lead to Sam Bennett being left off Team Canada's roster?

There is enough pressure on Jon Cooper to win gold at Milan in February: He didn’t need any more of it now.

But one decision made by the Team Canada brass at Wednesday’s unveiling of the Canadian Olympic roster focuses clearly on the Canadian coach.

His player in Tampa, Anthony Cirelli, was among the 25 players named to the Canadian Olympic team. Conn Smythe Trophy winner, Sam Bennett, from the rival two-time Stanley Cup champion Florida Panthers, was surprisingly left off the Canadian roster.

Bennett is the kind of player who can change a game or a series, as proven in the playoffs the past two seasons. Cirelli is the kind of player who can help bring home a one-goal victory late in a game, if need be.

The decision here — if it was only between Cirelli and Bennett — came down to coaching comfort by Cooper and probably management comfort from GM Doug Armstrong’s assistant, Julien Brisebois.

There are no Florida coaches or management involved with this version of Team Canada.

These Olympic games will be close

If Cooper learned anything from his experience coaching in the 4 Nations Face-off tournament earlier this year, it was how close the games were against the United States, Sweden and Finland. Team Canada needed overtime to beat the Americans in the final and was almost defeated on an Auston Matthews scoring chance. It needed overtime to beat Sweden in the round-robin, while the Finns pulled their goalie in the game against Canada. That’s how close the games were.

“International hockey has changed,” said Cooper in an interview just a few days ago, before the Team Canada roster was announced. “It used to be Canada would start the Olympics on third base and every one else was starting from first base. Now, there are like six countries starting on third base. The competition is that close. I expect the games to be close, the way the 4 Nations games were close.”

That’s what makes Cooper so happy to have Connor McDavid and Nathan MacKinnon at the top of his roster. Team Canada has weapons no other Olympic team can match.

He has the two most explosive players in the world on his first two Canadian lines. There is so much depth and strength in Canadian talent in the NHL that Armstrong can pick an Olympic team and leave off three 45-point scorers in less than half a season — Mark Scheifele, Wyatt Johnston and Connor Bedard — and also leave off Bennett, who after a slow start, has 20 points in his past 17 games.

And scoring isn’t what Bennett does best, even though he’s posted 27 playoff goals the past three seasons and one in the 4 Nations last February.

‘Build the best team’

“What we’ve tried to do is build the best team,” said Armstrong. “Not the best collection of players. “

A best team that begins up front with the ultra-motivated McDavid and MacKinnon leading the lineup, with captain Sidney Crosby able to show off his two gold medals and with the exceptional youngster, Macklin Celebrini all able to break open games.

“We didn’t build a team to beat the Americans.,” said Cooper, who has heard so much about the Canadian-American rivalry heading into the Olympics. “We’re building a team that can win the Olympics, and to do that you have to beat all sorts of teams.

“I love the fact we have McDavid and MacKinnon. We’re going to be in a lot of tight games. Having game-breakers like them gives you, as a coach, a feeling of comfort you might not otherwise have.

“When you’re in a close game, you want one of those guys on your bench and one of them on the ice.”

The additions to the 4 Nations roster make Canada stronger all around. They added big Tom Wilson, skilled Nick Suzuki and the terrific faceoff man, Bo Horvat, to take the spots that Seth Jarvis and Travis Konecny had in February. That deepens the Canadian lineup up front.

Eight defencemen all returning

The eight defencemen who played in the 4 Nations were the eight named on Wednesday. If there were surprising picks at all, they were Thomas Harley, Travis Sanheim and Colton Parayko, all chosen ahead of rookie Matthew Schaefer and offensive stalwarts Jakob Chychrun and the erratic Evan Bouchard.

Armstrong has a certain affinity for the way in which Parayko and Sanheim play.

“I like those kind of players,” said Armstrong. Playing against them is “like swimming in seaweed.”

The biggest Canadian concern remains goaltending, which puts pressure on Cooper to have Team Canada play exceedingly tight defensively. Jordan Binnington, who played for Team Canada at 4 Nations, is having a rather dreadful season in St. Louis. Cooper has a certain confidence in Binnington, but what else is he going to say?

Last season, Connor Hellebuyck won the Hart Trophy and the Vezina Trophy but lost the 4 Nations final to Binnington. Now, it’s likely Binnington’s net to start, with Logan Thompson or Darcy Kuemper as the backup.

When Canada won the gold medal in 2002, it started with Curtis Joseph in goal and ended up with Martin Brodeur playing the majority of the games. In 2014, the most recent  time there were NHL players at the Games, Carey Price was spectacular.

“Our goaltender gave us everything he had in the 4 Nations and that was a big part of the reason why we won the tournament,” said Cooper of Binnington, who currently ranks 40th in wins in the NHL, 54th in goals against average and 58th in save percentage, but will likely start Game 1 for Canada. The numbers are not good.

Which may be a reason why Cirelli is on Team Canada and Bennett is not. Both play 18 minutes a game in the NHL. Cirelli has been scored against 20 times this season; Bennett 31 times.

One goal against can be difference between winning or losing an Olympic medal.

ssimmons@postmedia.com