WARMING THE BENCH: Jumbo Joe. Olympics? No.

This Friday in Salt Lake City, the men’s Canadian hockey team will play its first game in the 2002 Olympics. The team consists of some of the best talents in the NHL as selected by Wayne Gretzky. Paul Kariya will be playing in the game, along with Mario Lemieux and Eric Lindros, among others.

But while these players will all be in Utah trying to bring Canada its first gold medal since 1952, Joe Thornton will be at home watching his countrymen. One would think that The Great One wouldn’t be capable of overlooking such an obvious selection, but apparently even Gretzky makes mistakes.

Joe Thornton was selected by the Bruins as the No. 1 overall pick in the 1997 NHL entry draft and came to the Bruins with a lot of potential and even more expectations. Bobby Orr, a Boston Bruins legend who revolutionized the sport of hockey, championed Thornton and promised the Boston fans they were getting a very special player.

Thornton’s first season with the Bruins was pretty unexceptional. He missed a chunk of games due to injuries and finished up the season with just seven points in 55 games. Thornton, however, was still just an 18-year-old kid, and the Bruins management believed that with more experience would come more success.

Thornton made steady improvements over the next few seasons. In the 1998-99 season, Thornton racked up 41 points, a 34-point increase from his rookie campaign. He also bulked up his slender frame, a move that paid off big, as he missed just one game due to injury.

A year later, Joe broke out. He became only the second player in Bruins history to lead the team in points, goals, assists and penalty minutes. He also put together another healthy season and again missed just one game for an injury.

Last season Joe Thornton had career highs in goals and assists, and he scored more than 30 goals for the first time in his young career. He finished the season with 71 points, a number he will most certainly surpass this season.

Entering last night’s game he had already scored 60 points (as of Tuesday night) with still more than 20 games left in the season. He is among the league leaders in points and assists and he has propelled the Bruins to a phenomenal season.

Unfortunately, Thornton’s talent and hard work has gone unnoticed by Wayne Gretzky. Gretzky stocked team Canada with a lot of good forwards, but their numbers don’t match the ones that Thornton has posted. Paul Kariya put up 101 points in the 1998-99 season, but since then his production has dipped steadily each year due in part to injuries and more recently due to his split with Teemu Selanne. This season he has scored only 41 points and he is a -14 to Thornton’s +10.

Mario Lemieux is a feel-good story with his great comeback; however, he has battled injuries this season and played in only 22 games, registering 29 points. His lifetime selection for the all-star game obviously extends to Olympic play as well.

Both Eric Lindros and Michael Peca sat out the entire 2000-01 season, and neither can compete with Thornton’s points. Never mind the fact that Canada is embracing Peca after he chose money before his team and his sport last year. Peca is obviously on the team for his defensive contributions; however, what one would lose in defensive capabilities in Thornton, they’d more than make up for with his offense.

Since it’s obviously not his numbers, one might make the argument that it was Thornton’s youth that kept him off the Olympic squad. Thornton, however, is not a rookie. He is only 24, but this is his fifth NHL season. Jerome Iginla only has one more year of experience than Thornton, and Simon Gagne is actually younger. If Wayne Gretzky was looking for age then he would have selected 39-year-old Adam Oates, who is keeping Thornton from leading the league in assists.

So why no Joe in Salt Lake City? Who knows? There are a lot of great Canadian-born players, but Thornton more than holds his own. Maybe Gretzky stopped paying attention to the Bruins like many people in New England after Jeremy Jacobs stripped the once proud franchise down to a pathetic cellar-dweller in order to turn a profit. Maybe he wanted someone with more playoff experience. Or maybe the Great One simply made a great blunder.

Canada has a great shot at the gold with or without Joe Thornton on the roster. That doesn’t change the fact that while some of the Canadian players are going for the gold in Salt Lake City, a more deserving player is going for the remote to watch the games on TV.