How sad. How truly, truly sad. An opportunity to spread the exciting and steadily-growing sport of hockey to all corners of the world just passed us by. Well, maybe not, but the United States will certainly have nothing to do with it.
Here's the concept. Allow NHL stars to compete in this year's Olympics thereby raising the level of play and drawing the world's attention. Then, sit back and watch as the drama of the 1996 World Cup of Hockey unfolds once again. As a result, watch interest spark around the world, TV contracts abound, and overall American interest in hockey skyrockets. Any questions?
Yeah, here's one. What do you do when the major piece to the puzzle, the "Dream Team" that stunned Canada and the rest of the world in 1996, decides to play and act like a bunch of uncoordinated Dennis Rodmans on skates? My advice, figure out someway to divert attention away from the debacle. Maybe have CBS work in coverage of the Psi Upsilon keg jump (kudos to Dave Mace '98) or the human dog-sled race from Dartmouth's Winter Carnival. At least then American hockey fans could pretend this whole embarrassment never happened.
In case you are not conscious of life outside of Hanover, let me give you some background. Here are some of the NHL stars that anchored the United States lineup in Nagano: Brett Hull, Pat LaFontaine, Jeremy Roenick, Chris Chelios, John LeClair and Mike Richter. And this is an extremely limited list of some of the so-called "big names."
People, these are some great hockey players. Sports analysts were comparing them to the NBA Dream Team which coasted to the gold in 1992. And, it would be one thing if you could say they suffered from not ever playing together, but this is the exact same team that beat Slovakia, 9-3, Russia, 5-2, and Canada, 5-3, in round robin play during the 1996 World Cup of Hockey.
Nagano was supposed to be a coronation. A crowning moment for the NHL, which had players on six different teams, and a "golden" moment for the United States. Well, CBS can scratch any plans for another dreamy documentary on the men's team. In place of that, I think CBS should find a way to get the characters of "South Park" to verbally rip them to shreds on primetime TV. Maybe then CBS and the NHL can get the American ratings they were hoping to get from airing hockey.
Well, maybe that will never happen, but, the American players are providing us with some good material in the meantime. For instance, after the U.S. was bounced from the games by the Czech Republic, frustration abounded. American forward Keith Tkachuk said, "We deserved to lose." Then, referring to the notion that the team was never prepared mentally or physically, he complained that the whole effort was worthless saying, "This was the biggest waste of time, ever." John LeClair echoed his sentiments by saying, "I don't see how anybody can go home and say we gave it our best shot."
Don't you worry John LeClair, nobody is saying that. What people will say is that the U.S. players talked way too much, they partied way too much, and they cared far too little. Other U.S. athletes were interviewed as having said that every time they got in an elevator late at night, American hockey players were there, reeking of alcohol. A day didn't pass without the report of a good U.S. bar story, from Gary Suter's late-night confrontation with a Canadian fan to Jeremy Roenick's "Dance Fever" exhibition at a local club called the "Pink Elephant."
Ah, now this is model Olympic behavior bringing forth the essence of the games at its finest. Do I hear people crying for the return of amateurs? I think so ...
Arriving in Nagano expecting to ride to the gold medal hurt the U.S. team from the start. These professional athletes wanted to live it up, talk it and take home the championship. In the end, they only accomplished two out of three. On the other side of the puck, the Women's National Team displayed an eye-opening contrast. In a classy, gritty and determined performance they coasted to the first ever Olympic gold medal in their sport. Yep, they were the favorites coming to Nagano. But did they act like it? No. Instead, they did what every "professional" athlete should already know to do. They let their performance on the ice do the talking. We can only hope that future American hockey stars were taking notes. Otherwise, we're headed for a disaster in 2002.
