Net pain for Canada
Injury might ice Brodeur
By BRUCE GARRIOCH, Ottawa Sun
TORONTO -- Pat Quinn had a rather simple message for Roberto Luongo as Team Canada's practice wrapped up yesterday. "Be ready to play," Luongo was told.
Martin Brodeur's status was up in the air yesterday at the Air Canada Centre, as it remained possible a jammed wrist could keep Canada's No. 1 goaltender out of tonight's semi-final against the Czech Republic.
Brodeur only stayed on the ice at the ACC yesterday for 20 minutes of Team Canada's practice. But he told the media he'd wait until today to make a final decision.
"I'm just going to have to wait and see," said Brodeur who, it was worth noting, leaned on his ailing left hand as he spoke. "I've got time on my hands. I'm going to rest it and hopefully everything will be fine and I'll be ready to go.
"It's a little tender right now. Definitely, it's not 100% and it's a little sore. But I'm going to have to see how much improvement it makes and then decide if I'm able to play with a little bit of pain. Hopefully, I'll be fine."
Brodeur suffered the injury when he caught a shot from the point with three minutes left in Canada's 5-0 shutout of Slovakia in Wednesday's quarter-final.
Though an MRI done Thursday was negative, Brodeur has ligament damage and that's why Canadian team officials want to be careful. Executive director Wayne Gretzky told reporters it will be up to Brodeur to decide if he's ready or not.
"Ultimately, this has to be (Brodeur's) decision," said Gretzky. "We made a decision as a group when we met (yesterday) morning that we should tell Roberto Luongo to be ready because we didn't want to say (Brodeur) was going to play and then not have him be in there.
"If (Brodeur) can't play, then we know Luongo can do the job."
"That's what I'm here for," said Luongo, who's backstopped Canada to a pair of world championships. "That's why I've got to be ready."
Quinn still expects Brodeur to play against the Czechs. "If it improves as much (last night) as it did (in the last 24 hours), then it should be fine," he said.
bruce.garrioch@ott.sunpub.com
