He's quick and mobile, skates like the wind even with the puck, and capable of creative plays that others don't see or can't fathom. He's among the top five scoring leaders among defensemen in the NHL. He's gotta be one of the six or seven overall best blue liners currently playing to be born and bred in Canada.

So what's left to discuss? Somebody from Hockey Canada please book a first class seat for Dan Boyle and make sure he arrives in Vancouver before the first game against Norway on Feb. 16.

Not so fast. If it was all so cut and dry, Boyle would have been wearing the Maple Leaf in Torino four years ago, and he did come close as one of three players on Canada's taxi squad. But Boyle never did get into a game, though he is grateful for the consideration. In essence, he was declared the eighth best Canadian defender behind Rob Blake, Jay Bouwmeester, Adam Foote, Bryan McCabe, Chris Pronger, Wade Redden and Robyn Regehr.

To his credit, Boyle, 33, never raised an eyebrow with a quote, never questioned the decision that left him on the sideline for five preliminary round games and one painful 2-0 shutout at the hands of Russia in the quarterfinals. Unable to defend its 2002 gold medal, Canada placed seventh in the tournament.

Four years later, Boyle is still at the op of his game, a major cog in the San Jose Sharks who's just enjoying the start of the regular season and thinking of little else as he goes about his business.

"Zero, I don't think about it at all, to be honest with you," Boyle told NHL.com of the selection process that will determine whether the 2010 Winter Olympics are in his future. "It probably did in the summer, to be honest with you, but I just want to take care of business in San Jose. If they pick me great. If they don't, hey, it's out of my hands. I can only control what I do out there. Honestly, the Olympic team is not really at the top of my list right now."

Boyle (5-11, 190) was one of 16 defensemen at Canada's Orientation Camp in July, run by a brain trust that included executive director Steve Yzerman and coaches Mike Babcock, Jacques Lemaire, Lindy Ruff and Ken Hitchcock.

The message from the staff to the players at camp was that the first three months of games during the NHL regular season would play heavily into the decision of who will make the final 23-man roster. So while Boyle is compiling 2 goal and 10 assists with a plus-1 rating in his first 12 games, he's insists he's only thinking about helping the Sharks win their first Stanley Cup, not making an Olympic team.

"I don't want this to come across wrong, but ... is Sidney Crosby not going to make the Olympic team if he has a bad start? You know he's going to be on the team, so there're a lot of players ... its not like it's my first year," Boyle said. "The management knows what a player brings to the table. Like I said, even if Sidney got off to a bad start I don't think there's any management in the world that wouldn't take him. So that's why it's important to not worry about the management and who they're going to pick. At this point, it's just about San Jose and that's why it's not crossing my mind."

When Boyle talks about the Sharks, the team he was traded to by Tampa Bay on July 4, 2008, he sounds like the most appreciative player in the game today, lauding the fans, management, teammates and the Bay area.

"I came into this team last year and obviously it's been a very good hockey team for years," he said. "The fans and the organization have been so great, and I just want to bring this Cup to them so badly. The people around me -- the trainers, the staff, the owners -- they deserve it, and I really, really want to bring this home to them."

Not even the long history of bitter playoff disappoints in San Jose spoils Boyle's attitude. He's only been a part of one, a heartbreaking six-game series loss against Anaheim last season when the Sharks were Presidents' Trophy winners and the Ducks squeaked into the postseason as a No. 8 seed. Maybe a teammate like Sharks veteran Patrick Marleau could be excused for being more downtrodden, but Boyle likes the makeup of the 2009-10 edition and feels the club is poised for better things.

"I think we strengthened our third and fourth lines a little bit. A little more balance, a little bit more of an edge back there," Boyle said. "You lose two character guys in Milan (Michalek) and Cheech (Jonathan Cheechoo) but you bring in an All-World goal scorer in Dany Heatley. That being said, we're (nine) games in and we're no where near where we'd hope to be or like to be. We're not playing well enough right not and we deserve to be at .500 because that's kind of the way we're playing right now. Even with the world-class players we have in our locker room we need to step it up a little bit and be better and sharper out there."

Boyle, his teammates and the fans expect that out of San Jose, a team that's been among the League's elite for a few seasons running. After posting 117 points last season, expectations are going to remain high, and rightfully so.

"You go out to win every game. You can't go out and say, 'hey, let's tread water here for the first 40 and we'll pick it up at the right time.' You go out to win every game and last year we just got off to such a great start. Individually, guys were on top of their game, collectively we were sharp and right now we're not. It's just ... it's probably a good thing in the end, we're being challenged early, but at the end of the day I think you need to go out and try to win every game, let the record speak for itself and hopefully you're playing your best hockey down the road."

The way Boyle sees it, taking care of the Sharks first is the only way to prove that he's Olympic worthy. It's the old adage: one thing leads to another.

"Obviously I'd like to be (in Vancouver), but it's not something I'm thinking about," Boyle emphasized.

Once before has Boyle represented his homeland in international competition. The Ottawa native competed in the 2005 World Championships in Vienna, taking home a silver medal after Canada's 3-0 loss against the Czech Republic in the title game. In nine games, Boyle posted 3 assists.

Contact Rocky Bonanno at rbonanno@nhl.com