Saturday, August 25, 2001
Canada drawing up plans for faceoffs
By LANCE HORNBY -- Toronto Sun
When Canada's best hockey team goes west in two weeks it better learn to be fast on the draw.
International hockey's quick faceoff rule will be in effect at the 2002 Olympic Games in Salt Lake City and the 34 NHL stars going to Calgary, Sept. 4-7, will be getting a crash course.
"It takes some getting used to and it's definitely one thing we want them to understand," Canadian Hockey Association president Bob Nicholson said. "The rule was introduced at the last world junior tournament and by the time the world hockey championships were through (in May in Hamburg, Germany), I thought our guys had it down pretty good."
Instead of the posturing that takes place in the faceoff dot in an NHL game and the delay when a centre is tossed, international refs simply blow their whistle, count down a few seconds and the linesman drops the puck -- ready or not.
One surprised Canadian centre was off talking to his defenceman when the puck dropped in a game in Hamburg.
"It really speeds up things," Nicholson said. "There are some (European) games that get done in as little as two hours, five minutes."
While all six men on a side will have to check their positioning on the draws to avoid getting burned, Team Canada centres such as Mario Lemieux, Eric Lindros, Steve Yzerman and Joe Sakic will face the biggest adjustment.
Nicholson didn't dispute team captain Lemieux's prediction that the actual ice time during the camp will be limited to an hour or so, with more emphasis on getting to know each other off the ice. Expect more swings with golf clubs than hockey sticks.
"We won't put them through a lot of stuff on the ice," Nicholson said. "Mainly, it's to get used to being on the international ice sheet (Father David Bauer Arena has the same dimensions of Salt Lake's facilities).
"Right now, we have about three different agendas of preparation and we're trying to pare down to one. I'm in direct contact with (executive director) Wayne Gretzky all the time about that."
2002 Games Men's Hockey Coverage
