Friday, February 15, 2002
Clarke relegated to the stands
By CHRIS STEVENSON -- SLAM! Sports
SALT LAKE CITY ÷ Four years ago, Bob Clarke wore the Maple Leaf over his heart as the general manager who put together Team Canada.
This time around he is just a fan but he is carrying the Canadian flag just as high.
"It's the Canadian in me speaking here," Clarke said recently, "but with this team and that coaching staff, I think they are going to win the gold.
"Of course, you could probably talk to some guy in the Czech Republic who's saying exactly the same thing about their team."
Clarke's Team Canada finished out of the medals in Nagano four years ago, a result that more than a few Canadians considered a disaster.
Clarke and his staff examined what happened in Nagano, but he said he doesn't think much did go wrong. The team played some great hockey before losing in a shootout to the Czech Republic and was denied a chance to play in the gold-medal game.
"We were as good as the Czechs or anybody else over there," Clarke said. "We lost in a shootout. Our attitude ÷ everybody in Canada's attitude ÷ was if we didn't win the gold, we weren't successful. We should have at least come home with a medal.
"I think if there was a mistake we made, it's that we didn't take winning the bronze medal seriously. We should have cared more. Looking back on it now, we didn't realize how important it is to win a medal in the Olympics.
"It's just that we had experienced such a letdown after losing in the shootout, it was hard to recover (Team Canada lost to Finland in the bronze-medal game). We didn't recover."
"I've talked to Kevin Lowe (Team Canada's assistant executive director) and I don't think there's any insight we could give them. They don't need any help from us. They see the same things. We didn't get beat in a hockey game. We got beat in a skills competition."
Speed on defence
As far as Clarke is concerned, the biggest advantage this version of Team Canada has over the 1998 edition is mobility on the blue line. In 1998, Team Canada had Ray Bourque, Al MacInnis, Rob Blake, Adam Foote, Chris Pronger, Eric Desjardins and Scott Stevens on defence.
All are ÷ or were ÷ great NHL defencemen, but collective speed was not be their forte. Clarke said that was a problem in generating offence in 1998. There were not enough puck-carrying defencemen with great speed.
"That's the key to breaking the trap a lot of the European teams liked to play," Clarke said.
MacInnis, Blake, Foote and Pronger are back. Newcomers Scott Niedermayer, Ed Jovanovski and Eric Brewer bring some more speed, especially Niedermayer.
Mobility
"He was holding out in 1998, so we didn't have him," Clarke said. "The other thing is Pronger is four years older. In 1998 he hadn't won the Hart Trophy and the Norris Trophy. He's taken over since then. He was a good player in 1998. He's a great player now. Jovanovski has really come on. He's a big man who can skate. We didn't have that kind of mobility."
If Clarke did have any advice for this year's edition of Team Canada, it's to have everything the same, except the outcome.
"Everything about the Olympics is so special," he said. "We narrowed everything down to just hockey and we didn't win, but everything else is so great ÷ to represent Canada, to represent your country and be part of the Olympic village and the closing ceremony.
"We just didn't get that medal. I wish we could have. But I think they will this year. I think they will get that gold this time."
2002 Games Men's Hockey Coverage
