Saturday, February 9, 2002
Team Canada puts four on its 'A' list
By BRUCE GARRIOCH -- Ottawa Sun
SALT LAKE CITY -- There will be no shortage of leadership in the Team Canada dressing room.
A week before the Olympic opener against Sweden, Canadian GM Wayne Gretzky decided to spread the letters around, naming Steve Yzerman, Joe Sakic, Michael Peca and Chris Pronger as assistants to captain Mario Lemieux.
Noticeable by his absence was New York Rangers centre Eric Lindros. The captain in Nagano in 1998 under the Bobby Clarke regime didn't even get a mention -- a clear signal that this team has gone in a different direction.
While four assistant captains might seem excessive in a short tourney, Gretzky wanted to have Yzerman and Sakic as veterans, Peca represents players who work hard, and Pronger will be the club's leader on defence.
"What we're going to do is move the 'A's' around," said Team Canada associate coach Jacques Martin yesterday. "We didn't have a whole lot of discussion about it because we feel like we've got good leadership.
"To me, guys like Yzerman and Sakic were natural choices because what they've done through the years. Peca has always been seen as a guy who works hard, and Pronger is a natural for the people we have on the blue line."
All four of the players selected to work with Lemieux are captains of their respective teams. Yzerman is considered by some to be the best leader in the game, while Sakic, Peca and Pronger have all earned accolades.
Of the 20 skaters named to Team Canada, seven of the players are captains of their NHL teams, while another 11 are assistants. Martin said the urgency required in the battle for the gold means the club is going to need all hands on deck.
"I don't think anybody is going to have to look very far in that room to find good leadership," said Martin. "We've got a lot of guys who know what it takes in tough situations and that's why we selected them.
"When we looked at our roster, we wanted people who understood what it took to win because that's what you need during such a short tournament. These guys know the difficulties involved in all of this."
Gretzky and CHA head Bob Nicholson, along with coaches Ken Hitchcock and Wayne Fleming, arrived in Salt Lake yesterday. They will begin scouting the pre-tournament games, including today's Slovakia-Germany matchup at the E Center.
The rest of the staff won't get here until the NHL schedule wraps up next week. Team Canada is supposed to skate here Wednesday, but Martin said he only expects five or six players to be on the ice for the first practice.
"We're all focused on our NHL teams, but we're all pretty excited about getting this going," said Martin. "You know once this tournament starts it's going to go pretty quick because we'll play six games in 10 days."
NO POSITIVE TEST:
There was a minor firestorm yesterday when rumours circulating out of Toronto indicated a Canadian hockey player tested positive for a banned substance. Team Canada spokesman Brad Pascall said he heard the rumour, investigated it and found no substance to it. "We checked it out with the COA, NHL and our medical staff," he said. "We immediately found out there were no Canadian athletes, and therefore no Canadian hockey players. I've let people know that we're very disappointed that rumours like these would get reported in the first place."
2002 Games Men's Hockey Coverage
