Schneider Still Up for Spot on U.S. Team

Defenseman Mathieu Schneider is still under consideration for a spot on the U.S. Olympic team but will be at a disadvantage because he is injured and not playing, a Team USA executive said.

Schneider, the Kings’ leading scorer at the time, underwent surgery Nov. 15 to repair a hernia and torn abdominal muscle and is not expected back in the lineup until early January. The 23-man Olympic rosters must be submitted Dec. 22.

“We’re definitely looking at him,” Larry Pleau, general manager of the St. Louis Blues and assistant general manager of Team USA, said of Schneider, who played on the U.S. team at Nagano, Japan, in 1998. “But putting guys on who are injured is going to be tough. We’ll have to wait and see....

“It’s pretty tough to determine. You can’t watch him play anymore. I mean, you know him pretty well, but you’d like to know how he’s playing at that time.”

Schneider participated in an Olympic orientation camp in early September at Colorado Springs, Colo., as did teammates Adam Deadmarsh, Aaron Miller and Bryan Smolinski. Team USA has eight roster spots open.

“They’re in the running,” Pleau said of the King contingent. “We wish we could take them all. All those guys have definitely been thought of, talked about--and will continue to be.”

The Kings’ sub-.500 record, Pleau said, will not be a factor.

“You’re trying to look at the individual,” he said, “and what he can do for the team and how does he fit in with the mix that we have there already.”

King captain Mattias Norstrom will play for Sweden in the Salt Lake City Games in February. Ziggy Palffy will play for Slovakia if it makes it out of the preliminary round and Jere Karalahti is still under consideration for the Finnish team.

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Jason Allison, who had one point in his first four games with the Kings after a six-week holdout with the Boston Bruins, has 12 in his last 10.

“Certainly his level has come up and that was to be expected,” Coach Andy Murray said. “Some people didn’t like it that I said he was half a player [after he arrived from Boston], but he wasn’t there.

“And now he’s moving up every day, and that was our plan--that he would get better every day. He can be a dominant player.”