Sunday, February 24, 2002
Hockey gold means more
By TERRY JONES -- Sun Media
SALT LAKE CITY -- In Oslo, Norway, 50 years ago, Canada won two medals. One gold in men's hockey. One bronze.
Anybody remember the bronze?
Exactly. If Canada wins the gold in men's hockey against Team USA today, is anybody going to remember the Canadian favourites who underachieved -- especially the Canadian men -- at the 2002 Salt Lake City Olympic Winter Games?
In Canada, the Olympic gold medals aren't all 24 karat. The hockey gold is more gold than any other. And this, make no mistake, is the make or break medal for Canada.
Canada left a lot of potential medals unclaimed at these Games. A lot of gold turned to silver. A lot of silver turned to bronze. And a lot of bronze turned to tin.
There have been some wonderful stories, including Clara Hughes becoming the first Canadian to win a medal at both the winter and summer Olympics. There has been Beckie Scott, Deidra Dionne and Cindy Klassen, all of whom overachieved.
But there also have been several disappointments -- from Jeremy Wotherspoon's nose-plant in the men's 500-metre speed skate through to Kevin Martin's curling miss in the final.
However, win the hockey gold medal and all this won't matter. Give Canadians a choice between winning a hockey gold medal or a truck load of multi-coloured medals from a variety of other sports and Canadians will take the hockey gold, every time. It's sad but true.
And you can make the case that this gold medal is even bigger than these Olympics, at least from the perspective of most Canadians.
"Our players have been very much a part of the Canadian Olympic team as a whole," Team Canada assistant general manager Kevin Lowe said. "I think this game is not so much about Canada at these Olympics, but about Canadian hockey.
"It's the 1972 syndrome. A guy gets the winner in this game and he's going to be Paul Henderson for the ages. I have a very strong sense of that with our players. This is our 1972. For the Americans, it's their 1980 (the American "Miracle On Ice" hockey gold medal at the Lake Placid Winter Olympics, with that team having lit the Olympic flame at these Winter Games)."
Fifty years. Today will be 50 years to the day since the Edmonton Mercury's won that gold in Oslo.
How big is today's game?
"It's the same feeling as 1987 (Canada Cup)," Mario Lemieux said.
Today is much more than a hockey game.
"Of course it is," Lemieux said. "Especially with it being Canada versus the U.S. It ranks right up there with the Stanley Cup final. I've been in lots of big games. Two Stanley Cups and the Canada Cup. This is going to be one of the biggest, if not the biggest."
Lowe played in a few of the big games Lemieux talked about.
"I think it's right there," he said, referring back to the 1987 Cup final between his Edmonton Oilers and the Philadelphia Flyers.
Said defenceman Adam Foote: "It's probably the same thing. Both this and the Stanley Cup are big. They both look the same."
Defenceman Rob Blake was a little more unsure about the comparison.
"They are very similar," he said. "And they are very different. The Stanley Cup is such a grind. You play so much hockey just to get to the seventh game of the final. None of us have been (in this situation) before. We'll never really know until it's done. We may not know until many years after it's done."
Indeed. There are a bunch of Edmonton Mercurys players from that Oslo team here in town who are going to the game today. They received almost no notice when they came home with their gold. Canada always won the Olympic hockey gold up to that point. For years they were Canada's forgotten team. It wasn't until late in their lives that they became legends.
Today, it will all probably end up in Martin Brodeur's crease. Brodeur could end up larger than life if he wins this one.
"I think it's the same thing as Game 7," he said. "It's do or die."
The biggest game of your life?
"If we win, it probably will be," he said.
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