With Quinn, Penner's scoring has returned By PAUL FRIESEN, SUN MEDIA

Let’s cut right to the chase. Yes, Dustin Penner has noticed.

People are suggesting the big winger from Winkler be considered for a spot on the Canadian Olympic team.

And, yeah, the 27-year-old thinks that’s pretty cool.

“It’s a dream playing for your own country,” Penner was saying from Edmonton Wednesday. “It’s flattering. Who knows if anything will materialize, but it’s definitely a 180 from before training camp and last year.”

If playing for Team Canada is the dream, last year was the nightmare.

You’re probably familiar with the story by now, how Penner’s production in his second year with the Oilers tailed off, and how he feuded with then-head coach Craig MacTavish, winding up so deep in MacTavish’s doghouse you couldn’t have got him out with a fresh ham bone.

If you listened to MacTavish, Penner was lazy. Unwilling to pay the price.

A fresh start, though, not only in his own mind but with new bench boss Pat Quinn, has unleashed the talent that got Penner to the NHL in the first place, and which produced 29- and 23-goal seasons.

With 12 goals and 23 points through 22 games, Penner was tied for ninth in the NHL scoring race Wednesday, ahead of most of the 46 players tabbed as potential Olympians by Hockey Canada brass.

“Getting a new coach was good for me just because me and Craig didn’t really get along,” Penner said. “It wasn’t personal. I mean, maybe it got a bit personal in the media. But I think it was more professional than anything.

“Whenever you’re playing more the game becomes a lot more fun. Things tend to come easier. It’s nice to have the start I’ve had.”

Of course, his start alone doesn’t mean Penner has a chance of cracking the world’s toughest hockey roster. It’s not like he’s obsessing about it, either.

“You try not to get too focused on that,” he said.

No, overcoming one massive hurdle in a season should be enough.

But Penner knows, from personal experience, that few things are impossible.

“It’s a steep hill to climb to make that team,” he said. “But who knows? With my career path you can never really count anything as a definite no.”

People have made that mistake with Penner before.

As a teenager, he couldn’t crack the lineup of the MJHL’s Winkler Flyers, remember?

He wound up at a junior college in Bottineau, N.D., not exactly a breeding ground for NHLers, and nobody thought to draft him.

But the Anaheim Ducks did sign him as a free agent in 2004, and as a pro Penner proved the ultimate late bloomer, growing into a 6-foot-4, 245-pounder with a knack for finding the net.

Next thing he knew he was winning a Stanley Cup in his first full season.

Then came the five-year, $21-million, free-agent offer from Edmonton, followed soon by the crash.

Too much, too soon, perhaps?

“No,” was Penner’s emphatic response. “It was meant to happen. I’m grateful for the amount of success I had when I had it, because I hadn’t had a lot to that point.

“I learned more about myself. It’s hard enough to get here, but even harder to stay. It helped shape my mental game.”

As did the public criticism that rained down on him in Edmonton last year.

“I learned about it the quickest way someone could — I got a lot of it early, and the amount of it was pretty intense,” he said. “When you’re the focal point of media attention, you tend to understand how what you say can be interpreted by people around you, fans and coaches and players.”

Best of all, he learned how to keep it from burying him.

“The ability to be resilient to it.”

All of which, I’m thinking, could come in handy during a high-pressure Olympic tournament.

If Penner were to get that call, he admits he’d be speechless.

And if not...

“Nothing changes, really.”

Not quite true.

Because where Penner is concerned, it already has.