I love the Winter Olympics.
No, that was not a typo.
I really love the Winter Olympics.
The Summer Games are great, but Salt Lake City is the place to be if you want to see sports at its finest. Where else can you see a mohawked Finn grab big air, pull off an inverted frontside 720, finish a disappointing seventh, yet leave the day's snowboarding competition with a smile because he saw a couple of sick runs in the nice weather? What about the luger from Bermuda who followed the trail blazed by the Jamaican bobsled team into the ice-cold Rice-Eccles Olympic Stadium wearing a pair of shorts? Best of all, no Nikes.
But beyond all the Kass-a-rolls and triple-salchow, double-toe-loop combinations lies the star of this year's Olympics: round two of the men's ice hockey Dream Team tournament, which begins tomorrow.
Canada may be smarting over "Skategate," but if the Gretzky-assembled roster of future Hall-of-Famers don't leave Salt Lake with the men's ice hockey gold, the proverbial animal feces will hit the fan.
For Americans unfamiliar with what this would mean to our neighbors in the great white north, imagine the original men's basketball Dream Team losing the gold medal to, well, anybody.
The Canadians, however, will have to travel a much tougher road than Jordan and Co. did in 1992. With NHL stars littering the rosters of Russia, the Czech Republic, Sweden, Finland and even the United States, Canada's 50-year gold medal drought in hockey probably will remain intact.
Canada undoubtedly possesses the most skill of any team in the tournament. Mario Lemieux, Paul Kariya and Joe Sakic lead a high-flying attack that makes the 1980s Edmonton Oilers look slow. If the offense doesn't score a knockout blow, the Chris Pronger and Rob Blake-led defense will hit you hard and make sure you're down for the count.
Canada's biggest problem, however, may be keeping the puck out of its own net.
I'm not expecting goalies Curtis Joseph, Martin Brodeur or Ed Belfour to suffer an Olympic-sized meltdown in Salt Lake, but none of the three have been their usual, lights-out self. This season, Brodeur barely cracks the top 10 in goals against average with a 2.25 GAA, followed by Joseph at No. 11. Belfour clocks in at a dismal 25th. The trio has even worse save percentages, with CuJo's .904 the highest-ranked mark at No. 27.
Canada, however, did not pick the wrong men to mind the nets. Brodeur, Joseph and Belfour are seasoned NHL veterans who perform best under pressure. Canada's biggest blunder was not anointing Patrick Roy the starter at the very beginning of the selection process. While Brodeur, Joseph and Belfour have three Stanley Cups between them, Roy has four to himself. You want a pressure performer? Roy was named the playoff MVP three times and his 507 wins are tops in league history. What about this season, you say? Roy's 1.98 GAA leads the league and his .922 save percentage ranks fourth.
But for some reason, Gretzky and the rest of the Canadian selection committee balked at naming Roy to the team when the first rosters were submitted and stated that they would hold an open competition for the starting job. Roy pulled out because he said he needed the rest. He was getting old and the NHL season was long. Besides, he wanted his fifth Stanley Cup more than a gold medal.
Yeah, right.
Arguably the best goaltender to play the game, Roy probably felt slighted by the committee's delay on the goaltending decision despite naming Lemieux team captain. Would Michael Jordan have accepted a spot on the Dream Team had he been left off the original roster?
Roy's decision to withdraw leaves Canada in a bind. A team can have all the offensive talent in the world, but if it runs into a hot goalie, they won't score many goals. Good goaltending always will beat good offense, especially in a single-game elimination tournament. Just look at the first round of play: Germany advanced into the second round of tournament play solely because goaltender Marc Seliger stopped 83 of 86 shots while the heavily favored Swiss faltered because NHL netminder David Aebischer proved unsteady in net.
Right now, Canada may have the best offense, but its goaltending pales in comparison to that of Russia and the Czech Republic. Dominic Hasek can backstop the Czech to the gold because he did it in Nagano four years ago. Russian goalie Nikolai Khabibulin has been standing on his head for the lowly Tampa Bay Lightning this season and is second in the league in save percentage. Both teams may be a step below the Canadians in terms of overall depth, but both are a step above in goaltending. As a result, both are better bets to win the gold than Team Canada.
So here are my picks: Russia wins the gold, Canada settles for the silver and the Czech Republic goes home with the bronze.
As for Team USA, maybe they should stick to snowboarding.
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