With each passing night of the NHL season, it is becoming more difficult not to imagine Eric Staal, Sidney Crosby or Jason Spezza playing their way onto the Canadian Olympic team.
Take Tuesday night, for example.
Staal and Spezza each picked up a goal and an assist for 33 points on the season, tying them with Dany Heatley for tops amongst Canadian scorers. Sidney Crosby, meanwhile, came up with his own version of one and one, giving him nine goals in his last 10 games and 27 points overall, eighth amongst all Canadians, just two fewer than Joe Thornton and one more than Vincent Lecavalier.
You could make a case that as good as the kids' numbers have been, their play has been even more gaudy and they're showing no signs of letting up.
And yet the reality is they are in tough, if any of them are in at all, as far as the Olympics go.
In Wayne Gretzky's world, experience counts for a lot. His favourite question when evaluating players is 'what has he won?' If a player has won Olympic gold in Salt Lake and/or World Cup gold last year for Gretzky, that counts for a lot.
That counts for an awful lot.
So here's what we know.
Simon Gagne, Joe Sakic and Jarome Iginla are locks. So are Brad Richards, Lecavalier and Heatley.
Odds are the same can be said of Ryan Smyth, Kris Draper and Martin St-Louis, and for that matter, Shane Doan, Joe Thornton and, if healthy, Rick Nash.
Thornton probably deserved to be on the 1998 Olympic team but was on the wrong side of the experience ledger. Now that he's bided his time, he's on the right side.
If Nash's injury prevents him from being named, it seems Gretzky is determined to have Todd Bertuzzi on the team.
Slice it however you like, the first 12 forward positions appear to be spoken for and we haven't even mentioned Mario Lemieux or Steve Yzerman, who because of their stature in this game, especially with Gretzky, get to call their own shot. They're on the team unless they say otherwise.
If Lemieux and Yzerman do speak up and bow out gracefully, perhaps one of Staal, Spezza or Crosby gets the call.
Perhaps.
For TSN.ca, I'm Bob McKenzie.