Posted on 02/23/2006 6:25:28 AM PST by Hat-Trick
Modano goal: whine, not win
TURIN - Old. Slow. Small. Team USA was all of that, even before it took the ice against Finland. Then as Peter Laviolette watched his once-great generation of American hockey players go about its sad business of losing an Olympic hockey quarterfinal, 4-3, the coach came up with his own adjective: Disinterested.
This was something he hadn't counted on, so Laviolette called timeout midway through the first period and screamed at his players that if they didn't find a modicum of passion out there, "We're done."
His face was flushed. His tongue was sharp. But on the anniversary of the Miracle on Ice, this was as close to Herb Brooks as Laviolette would get. His players didn't really pay much attention, until there were 12 minutes left in the game and the cause was fairly hopeless.
Laviolette tried a bunch of different players, benched some of the guys who pass as stars, and watched it all go down the drain. The Americans peppered the net in those final moments, and as usual couldn't score.
Then it was done, left to the participants to justify how it was possible for such a large nation with vast regions of frigid winters and fresh water lakes could go 1-4-1 in an Olympic tournament, beating only Kazakhstan and drawing with Latvia along the way.
It turns out, fortunately, that the Americans are very good at explaining failure, far better than they are at playing hockey. Laviolette persisted that the team didn't try hard enough all tournament long.
"We were standing instead of skating," he said. "We were on our heels and they were on their toes."
Mike Modano, assistant captain, said it was because the team didn't have a charter flight and the players' wives weren't taken care of properly. Believe it or not, he seemed to really mean it.
Then, as a final dart aimed at the coach who had just benched him, Modano suggested the Americans may have lost because Laviolette called his inspirational timeout.
"We could have used (the timeout) at the end of the game, give the guys some rest," Modano said. "A little composure, a little less panic. There was 50 minutes left in the game."
It wouldn't be Team USA if the Americans didn't exit with a complete absence of grace, and so Modano filled a very real need as team knucklehead. He said USA Hockey required change, top to bottom, that it was the bureaucrats' fault, and that the players had not really lost this tournament.
"I don't think we're far off at all," said Modano, who had a total of two goals and no assists in the tournament, with a minus-one rating. "The talent is there, the personality is there. The hockey part was OK. We played pretty good hockey."
This sort of self-delusion was just the ticket out of Turin, so that the Americans can now return to the NHL believing they were brilliant and merely sabotaged by travel agents and stand-on-your-head goaltenders.
If only everybody was honest about his own shortcomings, it would become difficult to assign such specific blame to an effort so terribly doomed from the start.
These Winter Games are a 'tweener. This generation of American players is too old now, too resentful. The next generation of juniors is too young.
If you are looking for historical precedent, then consider the U.S. national soccer team's World Cup disaster of 1998 in France, also pockmarked by bad performances and dissension from players who had seen their best days. Four years later, with the right coach and a new group of players, the U.S. made a serious World Cup run in Korea.
The same probably will happen for Team USA, which will surely be revived by Vancouver 2010. For hockey nations not quite as deep as Canada or Russia, down cycles are inevitable.
This was nobody's fault, really. Don Waddell, the general manager, didn't exactly have his pick of Peter Forsberg or Jaromir Jagr. Laviolette is the victim here, the guy who comes off unfairly as a failure.
The only real shame is that U.S. hockey players never know how to leave the building without sacking the joint, figuratively or literally. Modano went after U.S. Hockey yesterday, blamed officials for forcing him to buy his own airline tickets. Then he went after Laviolette, because the coach didn't play him down the stretch.
The players here became so fed up with losing, they forgot to try to win.
Batten down the dorm furniture. We'll always have Kazakhstan.
Originally published on February 23, 2006
Ha! Typical forward bluster . . .
As a goalie, have you seen anyone spectacular in net this Olympics? In the games I've seen (about 12 I think), I haven't seen a single goalie that is standing on his head.
Nabokov looks decent, as does Niittymaki, but I haven't seen any of them steal a game. Maybe Gerber in that Canada game, but the Swiss are out so it makes little difference.
>Everytime someone mentions the name "Roy" it will be >followed with "but Brodeur..."
I thought it would be followed by "the asswhupping laid
on him by Vernie..."
Yes, Vokoun has been awesome for the Czechs. Not many "SportsCenter" moments, but he's been way above the norm, I think.
While Brodeur is probably going to pass all of Roy's records (if you compare their stats on a career year by career year basis Brodeur is generally better) when they went head-to-head for all the marbles Roy won. That'll be the thing that keeps Roy's legend bigger, winning the Stanley Cup when their teams faced each other (admittedly neither played particularly well that series, but 4 wins is 4 wins).
Major flaw in french Canadian goaltenders: they're tempermental, opinionated, fiesty, acrobatic, athletic, mentally tough.
But they fight like girls.
Best open field tackle I've ever seen. NFL coaches should show that footage in training camp.
Can't argue about that. But in the same way that Roy stopped people talking about Ranford and Fuhr, Brodeur will stop people talking about Roy.
Until the next phenom comes along, that's just a fact of life.
But the newer generation of Euro goalies is every bit as good, and, dare I say it?, more accustomed to the faster game (as it evolves in the NHL) than their North American counterparts.
Definitely, but that's largely a part of the nature of sports, the current guy always gets more talk than the not current guy. One thing that'll keep Roy talked about is the fact that Marty idolizes him. I've always wondered how much of Marty's so-so performance in that Stanley Cup was because the only autographed jerseys he owns are Roy and Borque, not accusing him of tanking it but I do think there was a certain part of his heart that wasn't in the game that series.
Very little to do with it (the idolization thing), Colorado just outplayed the Devs in all aspects of the game that year.
I seriously believe there's way too much psychology given as a reason for losing, as applied to sports. You just go out and play the game. Some days you're golden, some days you're not. Had they played 14 games in that series instead of 7, would the result have been different? Hard to say.
Like they say in the NFL, "on any given Sunday..."
Maybe, but here is another way to look at it. Take each position in the NHL: goalie, defenseman, left wing, center, and right wing. Now, think of the top 10 players at each position. How many USA players make any of these lists? Well, maybe Mike Modano at center, and (as much as I like Mike) even that is debatable. Maybe Keith Tchachuk (when healthy and in shape) at one of the other forward positions. But who else? Right now the top players in the NHL are either Canadian or European, not American.
Figures. I think he is the only goalie I haven't seen play.
Fine,My Mortal Enemy. Revel in the glow, for now.
I certainly don't need to remind you of the long list of Flyer's goalies that have folded in the past. I'm sure you have them indellibly carved into your grey matter.
One similarity between Bobby Clarke and Mike Milbury: they don't know squat about goaltending talent, and it's always been their Achilles Heel.
Oh, by the way, neither of our teams is getting past Carolina this year.
Make an effort to see this kid, Vokoun. He's almost superhuman. And now Nashville might actually have a team to play in front of him.
I thought Lunqvist (sp?) played spectacularly for the Swedes against the Americans in that 2-1 game, but quite honestly, I haven't been watching too closely.
Right up there with Brett Hull, IMO.
Wasn't her name 'Sloane'?
Oh I've seen Vokoun play quite a bit in the NHL (Center Ice rocks), just not yet in this tourney.
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