For Sidney Crosby, being on the list of those invited to Team Canada's Olympic orientation camp Aug. 24-27 in Calgary was a formality. There is virtually no chance the popular and prolific center will be left off the final roster of his country's team for the 2010 Winter Games in Vancouver in February.

For a couple of his Penguins teammates, strong play in their recent run to the Stanley Cup championship helped earn them a spot among the 46 players headed to the minicamp.

Steve Yzerman, executive director of the Canadian Olympic team, said as much yesterday after camp invitations were sent out. As vice president of the NHL Detroit Red Wings, he was impressed with goaltender Marc-Andre Fleury and center Jordan Staal as he watched them help lift the Penguins past Detroit in the Stanley Cup final.

Crosby, 21, Fleury, 24, and Staal, 20, are aiming for their first Olympics experience.

"After looking at the [camp] list, it looks like they're bringing in guys with different roles -- guys who have put a lot of points up or who have played different roles on their respective teams," said Crosby, who has had success with Team Canada in the World Junior Championships and the World Championships as well as in the NHL.

In 2006, at 18, Crosby became the youngest player to lead the World Championships in scoring with eight goals and 16 points in nine games, just months after he was passed up for the Olympics that year. Now he is a potential candidate to captain Team Canada.

"Anybody who grows up in Canada and knows how big the sport is, it's a pride thing," he said of the Games. "Especially with the Olympics being in Canada, hockey's going to be center stage."

Crosby is getting daily treatment on a left knee injury he received in Game 7 of the final, but he began working out Wednesday and will "make sure I skate a bit before I go [to the Olympic camp] and I'm in shape."

Staal shares the same position as Crosby but has a different role. Staal is a solid two-way player with size and reach who can be matched against opponents' top lines and kill penalties. He likes the makeup of the camp roster, one that indicates Canada has changed direction some.

In 2006, the team -- then headed by Wayne Gretzky and Pat Quinn -- fielded criticism for sticking with an older roster heavy with players who had been on the gold-medal 2002 team.

"Just look at our team," Staal said of the Penguins. "We have a lot of young players who really stepped up. And around the league, you see the same thing.

"That's maybe the approach Canada is going to take."

Staal will be joined in Calgary by older brothers Eric, a center with Carolina, and Marc, a defenseman with the New York Rangers.

"It's just a great honor to be a part of it. There's a lot of great hockey players from Canada who will be there," Jordan Staal said. "But to be able to go with two of my own brothers is special."

It just worked out that way.

"From our perspective it's coincidence that they are brothers," Yzerman said. "In our eyes, they're big, strong skilled players who can make the team."

Yzerman saw Staal play well defensively in the final as well as score two huge goals, one short-handed in Game 4 and the opening goal in Game 6. Staal previously played for Team Canada in the 2007 World Championships, with two assists and a plus-minus rating of plus-4 in nine games as an 18-year-old.

As for Fleury, in the Stanley Cup final he came back from an off night, in which he was pulled in Game 5, to allow just one Red Wings goal in each of Games 6 and 7.

"I got to watch him play last year in the playoffs," Yzerman said of Fleury after the Penguins and Red Wing met in the final two years in a row. "This year, after watching the playoffs, I thought he took his game to another level.

"The more times we can see these players in critical situations and they perform well, it only enhances their opportunity of making the team."

Fleury faces tough goaltending competition.

Also invited to the camp are three-time Olympian Martin Brodeur of New Jersey, 2006 Olympian Roberto Luongo of Vancouver, 2008-09 NHL rookie of the year Steve Mason of Columbus and 2006 Stanley Cup champion Cam Ward of Carolina. Among those left off the camp list was two-time Stanley Cup champion Chris Osgood of Detroit.

Fleury had good showings on two silver-medal teams at the World Junior Championships, going 4-1 with a 1.57 goals-against average and being named the tournament's top goaltender in 2003, and going 4-1 with a 1.81 goals-against average the next year.

In 2004, though, he inadvertently put an attempted clearing pass off Team Canada defenseman Braydon Coburn and into his own net late in a tied gold-medal game, helping the United States to win.