Former Edmonton Oilers' Wayne Gretzky circles at the blue line as he watches the play during an outdoor alumni game in Edmonton, Saturday Nov. 22, 2003.ADRIAN WYLD/The Canadian Press
Any anguish that Gretzky might have felt at being shunned by the COA (very little) was more than compensated for by the response of the Japanese people when he arrived in Nagano. The crush was so great that there were serious fears for his safety.
"I've been in a lot of places, but I've never seen anything like this," said Gretzky after escaping a crowd that even surpassed anything he had encountered in his heyday with the Edmonton Oilers, when he invariably needed a police escort to leave NHL arenas.
As soon as the Canadian team started emerging from the train that had brought them from Tokyo, there was a crush of Japanese fans. But when Gretzky emerged, it was a stampede. Older observers compared it to the scenes out of A Hard Day's Night when the Beatles had to dodge mobs of screaming, hysterical fans.
Younger observers compared it to scenes they had witnessed of some of the worst sale-day crushes at big department stores.
The crowd surged in on Gretzky, who was surrounded by a phalanx of television cameramen, and it was a miracle that no one was knocked down and trampled. Finally, the police moved in and cleared a path for Gretzky, who made it to the team bus while waving to the crowd and smiling at the screaming girls.
Not long afterward, the Canadian organizers staged a news conference, and once again, their anti-Gretzky attitude came to the fore.
The event was held in an amphitheatre that was packed with media representatives from all over the world. This was their chance to hear directly from the famous hockey icon, and they weren't going to miss it.
First, the brass sat at a table and answered questions for fifteen minutes. Then three players came out and followed the same format. Gretzky wasn't one of them.
The world's media sat patiently through the management's segment, then listened fairly patiently to Yzerman, Sakic and Lindros.
There were shouts of "Where's Gretzky?"
That was not a surprise. If Clarke and friends hadn't realized before they left Canada what an international attraction Gretzky was, they should have managed to figure it out when they saw the mob scene at the train station.
But they wouldn't put him on the stage that night and give him a microphone, because to do so would suggest that he was at least Lindros's equal, a view that would run counter to their declaration that Lindros had taken over Canadian hockey's leadership reins from Gretzky.
Finally, the rest of the team was brought out onto the stage and stood well back from the apron. That was supposed to be the end of the affair, and many disgruntled journalists left. A number of us, knowing that Gretzky would accommodate us if he could, approached the stage, which had been declared strictly off-limits.
Gretzky saw me there, and without a word but with an inquisitive look and a pointed finger, asked if I wanted to come up.
I nodded affirmatively, at which point he went over to whisper in Bob Nicholson's ear. Nicholson looked over, walked to the front of the stage and said, "Wayne says if you want to come up, he'll talk to you."
I went up, a number of people followed, and Gretzky, in a move that no doubt annoyed Clarke – and infuriated the IOC officials – but delighted the media who had stuck around, answered everyone's questions. As far as I know, it was the only time in Olympic history that the media were allowed up on the stage to do an interview after a formal press conference.
Once the tournament began, Gretzky made his usual contributions. He killed penalties; he worked hard; he sparked the offence. Team Canada breezed through the qualification phase, winning all three games by a cumulative score of 12-3.
The quarter-final game against Kazakhstan posed no problems, either – a comfortable 4-1 victory.
But now there was to be serious competition. In the semi-final game, the Canadians were to face the Czech Republic.
A few days earlier, in a casual chat with the great Russian star Igor Larionov (inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame in 2008), I had suggested that there were four top teams at Nagano – Canada, Russia, the United States and Sweden.
"Don't forget the Czech Republic, Al," Larionov said.
The Czech Republic didn't seem to have an awful lot going for it.
"They've got Dominik Hasek," said Larionov. "Any time you've got Hasek, you've got a chance."
It was a prophetic remark, and a warning that was not challenged by the Canadians. In their preparation for the game, they made it clear that, even though they had to be aware of the scoring prowess of Jaromir Jagr, Hasek was their primary concern.
"He's a great player," Gretzky said. "He's one of the great players in the game. He's right up there with Eric Lindros, Teemu Selanne, Peter Forsberg and Jaromir Jagr. He's good.
"One guy doesn't make a team, though. We believe in our team and we have to keep going at him. Obviously, he's a big part of their team, but so is Jagr. We have to be solid defensively and, when we get the puck, go to the net.
"We have to crash the net, do what we can. He's a good goalie, but we have to beat him."
Even though the Canadians had rolled to this point, their offensive plan left much to be desired. The team had been built with a defensive priority and an expectation, based on the 1996 World Cup result, that the United States would be the team they'd have to beat. When the tournament didn't unfold as expected, the Canadians struggled.
The Czechs weren't much better. For almost fifty minutes, the teams cautiously engaged in a tight-checking affair, and neither was able to get a goal until Jiri Slegr put the Czechs ahead with a screened shot from the point. With ten minutes remaining, Canada appeared to be in trouble, but with only 1:03 left in regulation time, Trevor Linden tied the score to send the game into overtime.
In the NHL, overtime continues in twenty-minute periods until someone scores, but under Olympic rules, there were to be thirty minutes of overtime. If neither team could get the winner – and in this game, that was the case – the result was to be determined by a shootout.
It was the situation Canada dreaded: a shootout against Dominik Hasek with a spot in the gold-medal game on the line.
It was the middle of the night in Canada. The game had started at 1 a.m. Eastern Time, but even so, much of the country was wide awake. The Canadian supporters in Nagano and those glued to their TV sets back in Canada listened to the announcement of the roll call of Canadian shooters.
Theoren Fleury. No problem. He's a shifty player with good moves.
Ray Bourque. Concern began to creep in. If a defenceman was to shoot, why not Al MacInnis, with his blazing – and goalie-intimidating – shot?
Joe Nieuwendyk. That made sense. A great player with lots of experience.
Eric Lindros. Well, of course. He had been deemed the saviour of Canadian hockey. Everyone knew he'd be there, and then Gretzky would finish.
Brendan Shanahan. What? Where was Gretzky? The greatest scorer in the history of the game, and he's not shooting?
Only the beginning of the shootout itself stilled the buzz over the decision. Fleury tried a high snap shot, but Hasek deflected it.
Robert Reichel deked Patrick Roy, and the puck hit one post, slid across the crease, hit the other post, and settled over the line. The Czechs led 1–0.
Bourque's shot was almost identical to Fleury's and was also deflected by Hasek.
Nieuwendyk deked to the right, but missed the net with his shot.
Lindros tried the left side, but hit the post.
Along the way, Vladimir Ruzicka, Pavel Patera and Jagr had been stopped by Roy. That left it all up to Shanahan. He, too, missed the net.
All five Canadian shooters had picked up the puck at centre ice and moved directly towards Hasek, even though European shooters usually skated far to the left or right on penalty shots and then came in for the shot.
This forced the goalie to come out at an angle, then skate backwards and hope that he had the right alignment.
Joe Sakic, one of only two players to beat Hasek on a penalty shot during the league's all-star skill competitions, missed the game with a sprained knee and wanted to get a message to the shooters, but he was in the upper reaches of the arena and no one had a phone.
He tried to get down to ice level, but couldn't get through the crowd.
His strategy was to start towards Hasek at speed. Hasek would come well out, but then go back quickly to counter the speed.
At that point, the shooter should slow down. Hasek would be well back in his crease, giving the shooter large open areas of net and time to pick a spot.
But without this guidance, and with a questionable lineup that saw both Gretzky and Steve Yzerman left on the bench, the exercise was a futile one for Canada.
The Czechs advanced to the gold-medal game, and Canada's Olympic dreams were shattered.