Hockey by Denis Gibbons

Author:Denis Gibbons
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Sports & Recreation, Sociology Of Sports, Biography & Autobiography, Sports, Sports & Recreation, Hockey
ISBN: 9781525508059
Publisher: FriesenPress
Published: 2017-12-18T17:24:04.474041+00:00

Burlington goalie Phil Clancy makes friends with a Swedish tot in January 1985.

Norwegians and Swedes love to tell jokes at each other’s expense. The best one I heard in Lillehammer went like this:

“Two Swedish astronauts were sent into space. Several days later one had to leave the capsule to make some repairs. After an hour outside, he was ready to climb back in and knocked on the door. “Who’s there?” asked the second Swede!

Brian Savage, a member of Canada’s silver medal-winning team in 1994, returned to Lillehammer in February 2016 to watch his son Ryan play for the U.S. in the World Youth Olympics.

Ryan was born in Montreal but was eligible to play for the Americans because he spent most of his young life in Arizona, when his dad was with the Phoenix Coyotes. So he obtained an American passport.

Father and son had watched a replay of the gold medal game about five months before traveling to Norway.

For the first time ever the NHL shut down for two weeks and NHL pros were used at the 1998 Olympics in Nagano

The Czech Republic, also employing 12 players from its own league, surprisingly won the gold medal and the star was goalie Dominik Hasek, who stoned Canada in a shootout in the semifinals as the Czechs won 2-1.

The Czechs were hanging on for dear life in regulation time against a Canadian team that, on paper at least, was superior.

The underdogs slowed the pace of the game down enough to preserve a 1-1 tie and get the game to overtime, which Canada also dominated.

Early in the shootout Robert Reichel’s shot hit the post, but the puck still crossed the line, giving the Czechs the lead.

Meanwhile, Hasek stood firm against Theo Fleury, Ray Bourque, Joe Nieuwendyk, Eric Lindros and finally Brendan Shanahan to preserve the win. Lindros had him beaten on a backhand shot, but the puck hit the tip of Hasek’s glove and then the goalpost.

Canada had not even practised penalty shots and coach Marc Crawford had to scramble to decide which five players would take part in the shootout.

Somehow Wayne Gretzky, the NHL’s all-time scoring leader, was left off the list.

“To say the least, we’re devastated,” Gretzky said after the game. “It’s a strange feeling to play as well as we did, not lose a game and yet be going home on a shootout.”

Russia was favored to finally find a way to get Hasek off his game when the two teams clashed for gold. But once again he was brilliant as the Czechs won their only Olympic gold medal with a 1-0 victory.

It was ironic that the only goal of the game was scored by Petr Svoboda, whose last name translates literally from Czech to English as ‘freedom’. Svoboda had to defect from the former Czechoslovakia to join the Montreal Canadiens in 1984.

Czech team captain Vladimir Ruzicka stood on the top level of the podium at the medals ceremony as the sounds of the Czech national anthem Gde domov muj –Where is my home? reverberated thoughout the Big Hat Arena.

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