Wednesday, February 20, 2002
Respect, not hate
Canada, Finland ready for quarter-final clash
By BRUCE GARRIOCH -- Ottawa Sun
SALT LAKE CITY -- Finland won't have a picture of Wayne Gretzky posted on its dressing room dart board before the big game tonight against Team Canada.
"I don't think we hate Canada," captain Teemu Selanne said. "We have a lot of respect for the Canadian team because they have unbelievable players. We know they have a lot of talent."
While most of the talk here yesterday centred on Gretzky's comments Monday that Canada was hated by the hockey world, the Canadian and Finnish teams' focus was on tonight's quarter-final (10:15).
On the Canadian side, coach Pat Quinn gave his players the day off -- only gathering them together for a team picture and signing session, followed by dinner with Canada's women's hockey team last night.
"A lot of these players haven't had a day off since the (NHL) all-star game," said Team Canada associate coach Jacques Martin. "They need the break to prepare for some big games ahead.
"We'll have (played) six games in nine days once this is over. This will give the guys a chance to spend time with their families and go see some other events. Everybody needs a break like this."
Canada got off to a rough start with a 5-2 loss to the Swedes in its opener on Friday, but the club started to take shape in a 3-2 win over Germany on Sunday and had its best performance against the Czech Republic on Monday.
Captain Mario Lemieux, who returned to the lineup after missing a game with a sore hip, led the charge against the Czechs with two goals, but the real key for the coaching staff that night was seeing everyone lift their game.
"We really believe that we've shown improvement in every game and that's important. It's not how you start this tournament, it's how you finish and we want to finish strong by winning the gold," said Martin. "We're building towards a strong finish. That's important."
The Canadians are heavily favoured going in against Finland (2-1), the country that knocked off Canada 3-2 in the 1998 bronze-medal game.
"They've got 10 guys who have 50 (career) goals or more in the NHL and we don't," said Selanne. "We have to play strong defensively and we have to try to play our game. We want to play the best we can as a group."
Goaltender Martin Brodeur, who has started the last two games, will be in Canada's net again tonight. Curtis Joseph will be the backup.
"We didn't win (against the Czechs), but in our hearts, the way we played, we felt like we won," Brodeur said.
"Against Finland, we're going to have to play well defensively. We've been criticized a lot this week, but we knew we'd have five days to get ready and now everything counts."
2002 Games Men's Hockey Coverage
