Friday, December 14, 2001
The name Games
Eight Team Canada players are known and 15 will be added tomorrow, but the Olympic speculation doesn't end there.
By JIM KERNAGHAN -- London Free Press
It ain't the Oscars. But while awaiting tomorrow's roster announcement for Canada's Olympic Hockey Team is as suspenseful as waiting for a Don King superlative, there is an element of drama to it.
Executive director Wayne Gretzky won't have many surprises during his matinee address at the Hockey Hall of Fame. It's the players who won't be named, those who could well be called upon in the event of injuries before the Feb. 8-24 Games, who are less predicable after the 23-man roster is revealed.
It's like being pretty sure of the major winners at the Academy Awards and having to wait to see who cops the documentary, musical score and animated feature hardware later.
We know eight of the 23 already. Forwards Mario Lemieux, Joe Sakic, Paul Kariya, Owen Nolan and Steve Yzerman, along with defencemen Rob Blake, Chris Pronger and Scott Niedermayer, were early selections.
You wouldn't be far off 100 per cent if you predicted Brendan Shanahan, Eric Lindros, Theoren Fleury, Jarome Iginla, Mike Peca, Simon Gagne, Joe Nieuwendyk and Ryan Smyth as forward additions. An inside track led Detroit coach Scotty Bowman to say Shanahan is a definite and Edmonton GM Kevin Lowe, Gretzky's Olympic assistant, has indicated Smyth, despite recovering from a broken ankle, will be on the team.
Likewise the defence and goaltending. Adam Foote and Al MacInnis, Eric Brewer and Derek Morris are consensus additions for the blue line and the goaltending appears a foregone conclusion, with Curtis Joseph, Martin Brodeur and, with Patrick Roy's withdrawal and his own superlative play and extensive international experience, Sean Burke.
Selecting a Team Canada is not that onerous a chore. Unlike a country making a soccer selection from hundreds of its nationals performing around the world, hockey's elite is smaller and concentrated in one league. Gretzky and staff know precisely which defencemen play most against the best forwards, which forwards perform consistently at a high level in all circumstances, which goaltenders can be counted on in the big game.
Into that go the variables, such as larger ice surface, rules differences, officiating peculiarities and which players from the initial long list are best-suited.
While we can pretty well arrive at a very close approximation of the team to be named tomorrow, the team we won't know is that group of potential injury replacements. You won't have to look far for one.
St. Thomas native Joe Thornton, if he already hasn't been named (in place of Nieu-wendyk or speedy Gagne), certainly is one. He can bump and bang, score, create scoring and do it from centre or wing.
If experience is a factor, Luc Robitaille or even Vince Damphousse cannot be overlooked. You could even see Eric Daze or Yannick Perreault filling a spot successfully.
Defensive standbys have to include Wade Redden and Ed Jovanovski. It's not likely a goaltending replacement will be needed but there are at least eight you could go with, including Londoner Jeff Hackett.
You know this much, based upon preparations to date: this team will be better prepared for all eventualities than a 1998 team that was completely flustered when it came to a critical penalty shootout against the Czech Republic during the National Hockey League's first major Olympic presence. Gretzky, for whom preparation was a watch-word during his playing career, has given all indications this team will be given every chance to win.
His intent is to ice a team without club team or personal agendas, a group of individuals who will have to submerge egos, ice time and roles to the common good. Head coach Pat Quinn has to make it stick.
At the Academy Awards mentioned earlier, success means millions for a movie along with future roles and directorial opportunities. The guys named tomorrow are about something else.
Not unlike most Canadians, they see an Olympic hockey medal, preferably a gold one, as an achievement of great significance.
After tomorrow, everyone will be interested in the well-being of players chosen. Especially that little team whose names we don't know, the group from which might come the last-minute replacement who so often brings surprising impact with him.
Make no mistake about it, gold medals are hard to come by in a compact tournament and whoever is on the Canadian team is in tough. It's part of the allure. They wouldn't have it any other way.
2002 Games Men's Hockey Coverage
