Sunday, February 17, 2002
Brodeur finally earns an Olympic start
By BRUCE GARRIOCH -- Team Sun
SALT LAKE CITY -- Goaltender Curtis Joseph stood in the bowels of the E Center last night kicking his feet, hoping to get another opportunity.
Not far away, Martin Brodeur was all smiles.
While starting Joseph in two consecutive games never was in the plans, it was believed to be the way coach Pat Quinn was leaning, but tonight it will be Brodeur in the net as Canada faces Germany in Provo, Utah.
"It's going to be great for me to get a chance to play for Canada in the Olympics," Brodeur said. "I've had a long wait for this and I'm looking forward to the chance to play. Hopefully, I can go in there and play well.
"The thing you want to do is play well enough that you're going to get another chance. Hopefully, I'm going to play well and then I'll get another chance to play against the Czechs (tomorrow), but we'll see."
Nobody wanted to point the finger at Joseph for the 5-2 loss to Sweden because Canada was horrible defensively, but the decision to start Brodeur represented a bit of a surprise because observers thought he would play the Czechs.
"It was pretty much fixed that (Brodeur was going to play Game 2)," Quinn said. "The key decision will be the third game."
Still, Joseph didn't look happy following a light workout at a suburban arena. He came into this tournament wanting to be the man for Canada and there was little he could do as everybody collapsed in front of him.
"As an athlete you always want to have the opportunity to battle back and hopefully I'm going to get the chance to help this team win," Joseph said.
"As a goalie you want to play as well as you can and not let your teammates down. You can never be happy as a goalie when you give up five goals."
But Wayne Gretzky came to Joseph's defence.
"We didn't lose the game because of our goaltender ... I don't care who was in the net," Gretzky said. "We were not going to beat that team with the chances they had. It was a tough situation for our goalie to be in. I'm still not concerned about the goaltending being our weak link."
Still, the players will try to give him more support by getting back to North American-style hockey.
RED-LINE FEVER
The Canadians practised yesterday as if the red line existed. Everybody knows it doesn't in this tournament.
"I think what we can't try to do is change our style overnight," assistant captain Mike Peca said.
"We have to get back to playing the kind of hockey we've learned and play more of our style. I think we got caught up in this whole thing about no red line and it really hurt us."
2002 Games Men's Hockey Coverage
