Saturday, February 16, 2002
Uh, oh Canada!
By BRUCE GARRIOCH -- Ottawa Sun
SALT LAKE CITY -- Wayne Gretzky could only shake his head and wonder what in the world had happened.
In living rooms across Canada, fans were doing the same.
It was supposed to be a meaningless opening night of the Olympic Games tournament, but what materialized from Team Canada was a horrible effort which resulted in a shocking 5-2 loss to Sweden at the E Center.
"We have to take this as a lesson because we got hammered," said Canadian coach Pat Quinn. "If we don't learn from this lesson, we'll be going home Thursday. We started out saying we had three games and five days to pull things together, I don't want to be knee-jerk yet.
"We've got a lot of good offensive players and we've got a situation where we're going to have to ask them to do some work they maybe don't do in the NHL."
Trying to make up for a fourth-place finish in 1998 in Nagano, the Canadians wouldn't have scripted it this way.
While defenceman Rob Blake opened the scoring by beating Swedish goalie Tommy Salo through the five-hole at 2:37 of the first period, the fun stopped there for Canada. Mats Sundin scored his first of two goals and the rout was on.
Sundin led the attack with two goals and an assist, while Ottawa's Daniel Alfredsson picked up two assists as the Swedes had a four-goal second period. Eric Brewer also scored for Canada.
"I wouldn't say it's shocking. I would say it's more disappointing," said Rangers centre Eric Lindros, who had a goal called back in the third period because Michael Peca was in the crease. "But I don't think there's any reason to panic. We've got time. We need to have a good practice, then go forward from there."
Still, this was the worst loss at the Olympics for Canada since a 5-0 loss to Russia in 1988. It was obvious the Swedes were used to the big ice and the Canadians couldn't shut them down.
"They knew how to use it and we were having our difficulties," said Peca. "We did a pretty solid job in the first, but with no red line, they were making some passes that were like football. They were going for the long bombs and we couldn't stop them."
Canada faces Germany tomorrow.
"Look, if we'd won this game we'd still be in the same position that we are right now: We wouldn't have won a thing," said assistant captain Steve Yzerman. "We got away from playing our game and we've got adjustments to make."
The real stuff doesn't begin until Wednesday when the medal round starts, but this game served as a stern warning.
"It was embarrassing to have a period like the second period," said Paul Kariya. "Every time we put on a Canadian jersey there's a lot of pressure because we're expected to win."
And give a better effort.
2002 Games Men's Hockey Coverage
