Friday, February 22, 2002
Great One gets even Greater
By MARTIN HUDSON -- Calgary Sun
It's hard to imagine Wayne Gretzky becoming an even bigger hero in Canada than he already is.
Yet The Great One will be elevated to unheard-of status if his boys bring home gold on Sunday.
The 'I'm mad as hell and not going to take it anymore' rant was great and surely fired up this country.
Gold would be greater yet.
Just keep and eye on those shots from centre today, Mr. Brodeur.
Go Canada!
BITS AND PIECES:
If you want to talk about a crock of crap, what about that bogus gold medal for Stephen Bradbury of Australia? There's no way a guy who's huffing and puffing in last place should win a gold medal just because everyone else was taken out by a careless skater. And to further cast a huge shadow over short track speed skating, a Korean skater gets shafted out of the gold over what certainly appeared to be routine bumping during a race. And that Yoko Ohno guy looked to be doing a fair bit of bodywork himself in both races ... Canada's Olympic uniforms took the bronze medal in Entertainment Weekly behind Russia and Belarus. The only knock on Canada was the "Where's Waldo" scarves ... Women's hockey would be a better game if they allowed hitting. Proof of that came early in the Canada-Finland semi when the Finns were laying on the body and weren't being penalized for it ... Previews for the new movie Queen of the Damned give me the willies, knowing the star, Aaliyah, is dead in real life but is playing the undead in the movie. It doesn't quite seem right ... Memo to Martin Rucinsky: We don't consider the Czech Republic much of a threat ... Hands up if you're sick of untalented clowns competing in the Olympics? Eddie The Eagle, Eric The Eel, tropical bobsledders, et al, make a mockery of the sport they choose to 'compete' in ... All judged sports are dubious at best ... That Wild Bill Brooks sure knows how to throw a party. Thanks, Bill, and give your crew and yourself a pat on the back for all your hard work to benefit prostate cancer research ... Forget about Canada needing to develop good young hockey players, what we need is a good young play-by-play man so Bob Cole can stick to his beloved Leafs and spare the rest of Canada his Hogtown bias ... Speaking of which, thank heavens Martin Brodeur has emerged as Canada's No. 1 goalie so we're not inundated with the Cujo is God rhetoric from the centre of the universe ... Baseball spring training already? C'mon, give us a real break ... Cross country skier Beckie Scott did wonders to raise the profile of her sport with a bronze medal in Salt Lake but the team's Nordic Nudes calendar of last year is also still garnering attention. The tastefully sexy calendar, which featured a whole lot of raw talent, was featured in the pre-Olympic issue of Maxim ... U.S. hockey coach Herb Brooks got away with one with his rather offside remark about the Germans prior to their quarter-final matchup. When told the Germans expressed a great desire to take on the U.S., Herbie said: "Maybe that's why they lost the Second World War, guys. So there. I'll draw the line in the sand. And you can take that right back (to the Germans)." Nice, Herb, nice. Those kind of comments are usually reserved for the cheeky Brits ... U.S referee Stacey Livingston was a disgrace in last night's gold-medal game. Wonder which nitwit decided an American would officiate such a crucial game involing a U.S. team.
CLEARLY OFFSIDE:
Is it just me or did the medal podium following the ice dancing competition look like a metal concert in the '80s? Of course, leather-man Rob Halford wouldn't have been caught dead in some of those outfits -- at least, not in public. On the plus side, nary a sweater vest to be seen ... Russian rhythmic gymnasts Alina Kabaeva and Irina Tchachina have been suspended for failing doping tests. Now, why in the world would you need drugs to enhance your ribbon-twirling and ball-hugging performance? Drugs to stay awake to watch it, maybe ... How come Skinny Minny Miller wasn't on the Canadian short-track speed skating team? ... Hey, Tommy Salo -- DUCK!!! ... The biggest skeleton story during the Olympics was in the woods of Noble, Ga., not at Salt Lake City ... Had a great Emanuel Sandhu lookalike this week but my job and life were in jeopardy if it ever saw print ... U.S. biathlon officials are pushing for the use of automatic weapons at the next Olympics so they can sweep the medals ... See that great header for a goal by the Swedes this week? Too bad it was hockey instead of soccer, not to mention the wrong goal ... Kelley Law's almost enough to make me watch curling. Almost ... Shouldn't the Afghans be good at curling? They've sure got plenty of rocks to practice with ... Damn near got to Moulin Rouge this week but decided to watch a rerun of the nordic combined instead. True, Nicole Kidman wasn't competing but none of the Swedes and Finns were singing or prancing, either ... And finally, pretty boy Enrique Iglesias apparently was grossed out during filming of his new video with Anna Kournikova because of her bad complexion. Right, amigo, and she was undoubtedly really turned on by that 40-lb. goiter on your face.
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2002 Games Men's Hockey Coverage
