is, in the grand scheme of things, a pretty lucky guy. He's 23 years old, ble sed with speed and skill and, maybe, the best shot of his generation. Those supreme gifts, combined with a frighteningly strong work ethic and good health, made him the No. 1 pick in 2008, then an All-Star, then a very rich young man, then a 60-goal scorer. That's great. His life is great. What Stamkos hasn't been, though, is an Olympian. And after a potentially disastrous injury Monday that's not going to change. For the second time in four years, barring some quasi-miraculous defiance of physics and the nature of human bones, Stamkos is going to stay home for the Winter Gamesand yet again, it's not his fault. In 2010, Travis Shaw Jersey while he was in the middle of a 51-goal season, Team Canada, for whatever reason, opted to leave him off the roster for Vancouver. It seemed weird at the time; with hindsight, it seems insane. It also certainly wasn't going to happen again. Stamkos getting his shot at Sochi, where he'd place at the top end of a comically loaded group of Canadian forwards would've been as compelling as it gets. He's been open about how important playing internationally is to him, and he's such a transcendent talentand such a nice guyit was impo sible not to be excited for him. Even if you're, say, an American hockey writer. As a Canadian kid, if you dont think about that somethings wrong with you, Stamkos said at a pre s event last month. Any time you get a chance to represent your country at any stage is something you dream of as a kid. It was tough not to think of that almost immediately on Monday afternoon; when you watch something horrible happen to an athletea prospect, a star, a 39-year-old guythe first thoughts, typically, that pop into your head are more short-term. That looked horrible. Is he OK? What happened? Then the replays start, and the concerns flesh themselves out. He is not OK. He's saying "it's broken" to the trainers. Then the slightly bigger picture starts to come into focus. The Tampa Bay Lightning lost its face. The NHL lost one of its best players. Steven Stamkos has lost at least some portion of his primemaybe days, maybe weeks, almost certainly months. And he's getting screwed out of the Olympics. Again. Pittsburgh Penguins defenseman Paul Martin knows how that feels. A New Jersey Devil at the time, he made Team USA's roster for Vancouver. Then he broke his arm and watched the team lose to, yes, Canada in the gold-medal game. He still doesn't sound completely over it. "That's been my biggest disappointment as an athlete, to this point," Martin said at the Team USA orientation camp in Arlington, Va., a few months back. "It took a long time for me to accept the fact that I wasn't goingand the way that it happened made it tougher." "It was fun to watch the guys, and they did great, but obviously, selfishly, I wish I could've been there." Martin's got part of that wrong, though; it wasn't selfish. It was understandable, in spite of all the luck an elite profe sional athlete, by definition, po se ses. And Stamkos, in the absence of the biggest, luckiest stroke he's ever known, is going to find himself in the same position. Tanner Houck Jersey