Sunday, March 3, 2002
Big Irishman finds pot of gold
By GEORGE GROSS -- Corporate Sports Editor
Hollywood scriptwriters would probably call it The Way The Half-Century War Was Won.
Patrick Quinn, head coach of the gold-medal-winning Team Canada men's hockey squad at the Salt Lake City Olympics simply referred to it as 'Mission Possible' for a group of superbly talented and dedicated shinny warriors.
There were some of those who whined before the Olympics that Quinn had no international experience, no system and that, in general, he was a bad choice. After the Games, of course, these naysayers couldn't line up fast enough to kiss Quinn's butt.
I had an opportunity to talk to the big Irishman whom I have known since the day he knocked Bobby Orr cold right under the press box in Boston Garden some three decades ago. He couldn't show me an Olympic gold medal from Salt Lake City because coaches don't get them. However, he filled me in with some compelling facts on how the team had triumphed.
"Wayne Gretzky made the decision to appoint me coach of Team Canada and I'm glad he did," said Quinn. "Scotty Bowman is a great coach, but I'm happy Wayne picked me.
"The tough part for us coaches was to short-cut the team-building, something that takes normally a year. We only had a few short days to do it in."
The big guns -- Mario Lemieux, Steve Yzerman and Joe Sakic -- immediately bought into the coaches' plan and began spreading the gospel among the players in the dressing room.
"We had continuous meetings with the players and used the time for player orientation," big Patrick said. "By the time we played the Czechs, we had nearly every player on board and we knew the composition of the lines."
What was the coaches' toughest call, I asked.
"Goaltending was the hardest decision," Quinn replied. "Before every game we tried to figure out if we had the right guy playing. (Martin) Brodeur had a tough game against Germany when our team relaxed too soon, but fortunately he bounced back and made some big saves.
"It was a very tough decision to play Brodeur over Cujo (Curtis Joseph) in the rest of the games. We (coaches and management) discussed it, but the final decision was mine, no matter how difficult it was. I love Cujo. He's one of the best people I have ever met, but Brodeur came through for us when it counted."
I also asked about his highs and lows of the tournament.
"I'd be a liar if I said I never thought of failure," he said. "I did, but not for long. I had to get it out of my mind quickly so I could tell the players with conviction that we would succeed.
"The high point was the team's determination and acceptance of the coaching advice. We were accused of playing stupid hockey by dumping the puck, but in the final, the U.S. team dumped the puck more than we did.
"Our players felt all the way that we would win the gold. The (most tense) game was against Finland. After that one our players loosened up. In Nagano in 1998 they tell me our players were afraid of losing. Here all of them believed we'd win."
In typical Quinn fashion, Canada's coach told the players after the final: "If we played them for 100 hours, I know they couldn't beat us because we had a united, classy, talented and determined team."
Indeed, they enjoyed each other so much they didn't want to leave the dressing room after the game.
They are Canada's heroes.
GROSSLY ABBREVIATED: Washington Capitals ace Jaromir Jagr is spreading his business wings to Slovakia. After opening 'Jagr' bars in the Czech Republic, Jagr's business associates talked him into opening bars in Piestany, a well known health resort in Slovakia, and in Kosice, a hockey-conscious city in Eastern Slovakia ... Brazilian soccer is bemoaning the death of legendary superstar Vava, who scored two goals in Brazil's 1958 World Cup triumph in Stockholm. It was the year a 17-year-old Pele made his debut for Brazil as part of the fabulous forward quintet of Garrincha, Didi, Vava, Pele and Zagallo. Vava, born Edvaldo Izidio Netto, died of heart failure at 67.
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2002 Games Men's Hockey Coverage
