It's an off day for Olympic ice hockey in Torino today (good news if you're Teemu Selanne's dentist), which means there's plenty of time for reporters all over North America to asses exactly what's wrong with the national programs in the U.S. and Canada.
We'll start with Team USA. Here's Tom Powers from the St. Paul Pioneer Press:
Feb. 22 is the most significant day in U.S. hockey history. Not because of anything that happened Wednesday in the U.S.-Finland game. Instead, Feb. 22 marks the anniversary of the Miracle on Ice game vs. the Soviet Union at Lake Placid, N.Y."I wouldn't have even known that," said Pete Laviolette, coach of the U.S. men's hockey team. "We're kind of out of the loop with the news. I haven't seen anything that's been going on in 10 days."
Well, it occurs to me that he should have known that. Any American coach who stands behind the bench during an Olympic hockey game probably should have that date tattooed on his chest.
It's another example of how Olympic hockey in general and Team USA in particular are messed up.
That view is shared by ESPN.com's E.J. Hradek (subscription required):
In the end, maybe USA Hockey should just shut down the program and start pumping that cash into the many youth programs around the country.Right now, there are more kids playing hockey in the United States than ever before. Still, the next Modano is nowhere to be found. That tells me something is wrong.
With all due respect to Hradek, I think that's un fair. Sure, more kids play hockey in the U.S. than ever before, but it's safe to say that the vast majority of our top athletes don't get anywhere near a sniff of hockey. Despite growing roots in the Sunbelt (Cornell's starting goaltender is a Dallas Stars fan from Texas), hockey is still a regional sport in the U.S. Like it or not, that's going to hurt our national program.
But it was this line from Hradek that spun me around:
In operation since the late 1990s, the program has produced several good hockey players. Of course, those players -- like DiPietro or young Predators defenseman Ryan Suter -- might have developed just fine in their own local environments. Almost 10 years into the program, however, it has yet to produce anyone even close to Crosby or Ovechkin.
That's a cheap shot. No matter how much money USA Hockey spends on player development, there is never a guarantee that it will produce a player like Ovechkin or Crosby. Players like that are born not made, and Hradek knows it.
Granted, USA Hockey might have to make some administrative changes, something Mike Modano, who was benched for the third period of yesterday's loss to Finland, decided to talk about in the locker room after the game:
"I've been with USA Hockey a long time," said Modano, who's played in the system since 1988, "and it's time some things probably changed."His specific complaints: Players having to take care of flights, tickets, hotels, everything for family members. Normally they don't have to, and it shouldn't have been a factor now.
Many of us who remember February 1980 and Lake Placid grew up with the same dream: Maybe one day I could be lucky enough to represent my country and wear the Team USA sweater. For an American hockey fan like myself, I can't think of a greater honor.
So when you lose while wearing that sweater, you suck it up and take some responsibility, not complain about the fact that your agent might have to learn how to use Expedia. Save that stuff for behind closed doors, and take a lesson from Allen Iverson (funny, I know) who after the U.S. was knocked out of contention for the basketball gold in Athens in 2004 stepped up and didn't make any excuses for poor play.
Better yet, take a lesson from guys on Team Canada like Joe Sakic, Jarome Iginla and Wayne Gretzky. Men who faced the music and made it clear they were willing to shoulder the blame themselves.
Up in Canada, some folks think it might be time for Gretzky to step aside. They'd be wrong. Here's the Globe and Mail's Eric Duhatschek from an online chat he did yesterday:
under his stewardship, the team ended a 50-year gold medal drought in 2002 in Salt Lake City and then went on to win the 2004 World Cup. Gretzky is stubborn; that's one thing we've learned from watching him over the years. He took some heat back in 2002 for his team's selections
