VANCOUVER — The people here, they do the best they can to project how pleased they are to be hosting the Winter Olympics. They fill events on mountaintops and in sliding centers, they cheer short-track speedskaters and long-program figure skaters, and on Sunday, they lifted their voices when one of their own, Alex Bilodeau, became the first Canadian ever to win a gold medal on home soil.
But make no mistake about one thing:
Those events are all nice. But they ain’t hockey.
And today, when the men’s ice hockey competition begins in earnest with three matches — featuring the United States-Switzerland at 3 p.m. and Canada versus Norway at 7:30 — the people of Vancouver, and Canada at large, will officially join one of the most anticipated sporting celebrations ever planned.
“I think what you’ll see is a level of hockey you don’t often see when teams haven’t practiced a lot, because everyone wants to play their best here, in such a great hockey city, and the best hockey country, in front of so many incredible hockey fans,” said Ron Wilson, the U.S. coach who’s also the coach of the Maple Leafs. “I know the pressure is going to be foursquare on Canada, but the rest of us want to make an excellent showing, too.”
Especially since there is no guarantee that there will ever be such a star-spangled gathering of hockey talent at any future Olympics. NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman has yet to commit his players for any Olympiads beyond this one, partly because his owners have expressed frustration at having to essentially close their product down for two weeks every four years, partly because of location.
“The benefits of going to the Olympics when you’re in Salt Lake City or Vancouver, to name two cities, are way different than if you’re in Japan, Italy or Russia,” Bettman told NHL.com earlier in the season, taking a subtle jab at Sochi, Russia, host of the 2014 Games, where the time difference will make it impossible to feature games in prime TV-viewing slots. “I’m not sure that that type of exposure warrants or overcomes the difficulties.”
What awaits across the next 12 days ought to suffice, since there are two genuine superpowers in Canada and Russia who seemed destined to meet in the gold-medal game on Feb. 28, along with several others — the U.S. included, alongside Sweden — who could alter that dream scenario.
Wilson said, “We are the villains up here,” when asked about his team’s chances, and U.S. GM Brian Burke has been adamant about his team’s status as underdogs, repeatedly citing the fact that his team’s first two games are in the daytime “and then, what do you know? We play Canada right in prime time.”
Still, Jamie Langenbrunner, the captain of both the Devils and Team USA, was uncomfortable accepting the role of underdog so readily.
“I never consider myself an underdog,” he said. “I go into each game believing I can win and that I’m going to win.”
