Was It Worth It?
Posted: Wed February 25, 1998
Continued from previous page
The Americans left their marks on the Olympics after bowing out
to Hasek and the Czechs 4-1 in the quarterfinals. According to
the Nagano Olympic Organizing Committee (NAOC), the marks were
about $3,000 worth. The vandalism in three apartments occupied
by U.S. players in the Olympic Village, the NAOC said, included
an eight-inch hole in a door as well as damage to one desk, two
beds (one smashed into two pieces) three fire extinguishers (one
tossed over a fifth-floor balcony) and 10 folding chairs (three
tossed over the balcony), although contrary to initial reports,
none of those chairs beat U.S. goalie Mike Richter through the
five hole. The USOC initially estimated the damage to be about
$1,000, a figure that the NHL officials agreed with. Three
thousand? One thousand? What's the difference?
John LeClair and the U.S. offense fell short, with only nine goals.
DAVID E. KLUTHO
|
USA Hockey, the USOC and the NHL all said they were
investigating the vandalism. But more reprehensible than the
rowdiness, which provided an unwanted 4 a.m. wake-up call for
some American speed skaters who were competing that day, was the
need for an investigation. The failure of the sleuthing to
quickly uncover the evildoers—Keith Tkachuk of the Phoenix
Coyotes was a primary suspect, according to a highly placed
hockey source—or of any perpetrator to own up to the vandalism
prolonged the discussion of an incident that tarred all the
American players, their country, their league, their sport. Come
now, gentlemen. You all couldn't have been chipping golf balls
on the lawn while waiting for the limo driver when this
unfortunate business occurred.
Even before the U.S.'s abrupt quarterfinal exit and Tkachuk's
memorable assessment after that match that the games were "the
biggest waste ever," the Americans were not doing themselves
proud. They skipped the U.S. women's gold medal hockey game
against Canada (three players showed up for the middle of the
match) because of a team dinner—the Canadian men attended en
masse—and while they did take in some of the sights, they
weren't exactly overrunning the curling venue. There is a gaijin
hangout in Nagano named Thirtys that offered bad pizza and a
terrific view of U.S. captain Chris Chelios and Brett Hull at 5
a.m. after the 5-2 win over Belarus on Feb. 14, the Americans'
lone victory. (The U.S. was outscored by a combined 12-4 in its
other games, against Sweden, Canada and the Czech Republic.)
Hull said the evening was an aberration. "Eight nights out of
the 10," Hull said after the loss to Canada, "I've been in bed
by eight."
"A.m. or p.m.?" wondered Steve Yzerman, one of Canada's
alternate captains.
Despite having only 11 NHL players, the Czechs won the gold for the first time, thanks to Hasek.
DAVID E. KLUTHO
|
This was no time to be an American, especially for Samuelsson.
He was kicked out of the tournament when a reporter for a
Stockholm newspaper, Svenska Dagbladet, discovered that
Samuelsson had obtained a U.S. passport three years ago, which,
under a Swedish law, obliges him to renounce his Swedish
citizenship. Samuelsson, the chippy New York Rangers defenseman,
is used to breaking the rules only on the ice, and he cried when
the International Ice Hockey Federation said he was ineligible.
Samuelsson, who arrived with what he assumed was a valid Swedish
passport—with an expiration date of Aug. 23, 1998—left Japan
flashing that same passport to officials at Tokyo's Narita
Airport. The stunned Swedes then meekly bowed out 2-1 to the
eventual bronze medalist, Finland.
"For anybody to suggest this was a good or bad thing because of
how the United States or Canada fared, if your view was that
this was all about having the U.S. win a gold medal, you didn't
believe us when we said this was going to be a dream tournament
and not a Dream Team," Bettman said. "You can't do something of
this magnitude, you can't try to make the game grow, if your
objective is to simply focus on one team winning."
Was it worth it? Well, remember the Czechs piling on Hasek after
the final horn on Sunday and ponder the euphoria that wreathed
Hasek's face when Samaranch hung a gold medal around his neck.
Then imagine the sight of 70,000 people in Prague's Wenceslas
Square watching that game on a giant screen and the throngs that
greeted the Czech players' charter flight when it landed for a
brief celebration before whisking some of them back to their
night jobs in the NHL. Tell them it wasn't worth it.
Issue date: March 2, 1998
|
