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speakup

HALIFAX - The year was 1999 and Dany Heatley had a decision to make.

He wasn't invited to the evaluation camp for Canada's world junior team when the German federation called and tried to convince him to join their program instead.

"We asked the question years ago when Dany wasn't at the U-20," German GM Franz Reindl said Friday. "He was not selected. We talked. We tried. We negotiated.

"He was 18 years old and was not the biggest thing. Of course we tried."

Heatley ended up holding on to his Canadian eligibility and has been more than rewarded for that decision. He wore the Maple Leaf at the the next two world junior tournaments, the 2006 Olympics and is currently playing in his fifth IIHF World Hockey Championship.

It's interesting to consider how differently things might have turned out. Heatley was born in the German town of Freiburg while his father Murray was playing pro hockey there and holds a passport from that country.

Had he made a different choice almost a decade ago, Heatley could easily be playing for the other side when Canada faces Germany today at the world hockey championships here (TSN, 4:30 p.m. AT).

"My dad played over there a lot of years and my mom's from there," said Heatley. "I have some family I'm sure that will be watching the game.

"It's always fun definitely to play that team." The German connections continue for the family. Heatley's younger brother Mark will play for a second division team in Munich next season after spending two years at the University of Toronto.

Murray Heatley arrived in Halifax on Friday along with roughly 60 other family members of the Canadian team. They'll all be at the Metro Centre on Saturday afternoon, when Murray will have a chance to chat with his former teammate Reindl.

They played together with Riessersee for three seasons and won the German League title in 1978.

"Murray Heatley was a hot shark," said Reindl. "He was really dangerous. He scored like hell."

He didn't quite have the size of his famous six-foot-three son and never made it to the NHL.

Dany Heatley hasn't see any old footage from his dad's playing days but is still able to offer a scouting report. "I play with him oldtimers in the summer so I get a feel for his game from that," he said. "He's still good. He can still score goals."

Like father, like son.

Heatley leads the tournament with six goals and 10 points in four games. He found instant chemistry on the top line with Rick Nash and Ryan Getzlaf - three big guys that Canadian head coach Ken Hitchcock believes are pretty much unstoppable together.

"Every game is different, but you're not going to shut it down totally. They're competitive. They're not going to get discouraged because somebody's playing them hard,'' said Hitchcock of his big unit.