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How will the Olympics affect the NHL’s finale?
By: Jimmy Smith
Unlike the All-Star Break, the Olympics offer a more competitive alternative to the skills competition and non-contact All-Star game. Although the hardest shot is always fun to watch and I love seeing expensive cameras destroyed in the accurate shot event, nothing compares to a “world war” on ice.
Now while few players are selected to their respective countries’ Olympic team, many are left back in the States or will go visit family throughout the world. It gives teams in the NHL a much-deserved break.
Team Canada and Team America’s (no not the puppets) rosters are made up of 23 NHL players. The Czech Republic, Slovakia, Russia, Sweden, and Finland also have a high concentration of NHL stars donning their home country’s colors. Unlike the NHL regular season, international greatness and nationalism are the order of the day throughout the competition. It is almost a bunch of flags skating around for international dominance.
Those chosen few, who wear their country’s colors with pride, take the games very seriously. The games are part of the most serious international competition in all of sports, the Olympics. They play hard and will often put it all on the line for their country and that is where the problem starts.
The problem, although not much of a problem, is that million-dollar players are throwing their bodies around and will often get burned out after playing so many games in such a short time. Yes, it is probably the greatest achievement for a hockey player to be chosen to his national Olympic hockey squad but injuries in the Olympic games can often ruin seasons for the teams that write the checks.
For example, during the first game for the mighty Czech Republic, Domink Hasek turned a simple pad save into a sharp stinging pain in his right leg. Now the Czech Republic has to turn to Tomas Vokoun of the Nashville Predators. The injury to Hasek, ended up being in his groin, which has been a problem for Hasek. Hasek had surgery to mend a grim groin injury before signing as a free agent with the Ottawa Senators in 2004. But think about what Senator’s owner Eugene Melnyk and head coach Bryan Murray are thinking. Something along the lines of, OH SHIT, there goes our season.
Hasek said there's "very little chance" he'll play for the Ottawa Senators when their NHL season resumes March 1st. Can the 2nd best team in the NHL rely on a backup goaltender because of the Olympics? Will the Stanley Cup elude the Ottawa Senators yet again?
Now the story is slightly different for the Music City Kitties. During the last two weeks of the regular season Voukon faced what seemed like an average of 40 to 50 shots a game. I guess facing 15-20 shots from the Germans and the Italians was rather relaxing for him. Vokoun played most of the tournament but the Czech Republic also saw the emergence of their third string goalie Milan Hnilicka of the Bili Tygri Liberec Hockey Club in the Czech hockey league. Hnilicka was drafted in 1991 by the New York Islanders but never played in the NHL for the Islanders. His first game came for the other New York team, the Rangers. He ended his NHL career with the LA Kings but then left to play for the Bili Tygri Liberec Hockey Club.
The Czech Republic also saw the greatest international player get hurt in the Olympics. Jaromir Jagr of the New York Rangers, who is also the captain of the high-powered Czech team, suffered a cut on his forehead after being checked into the boards by Finland's Jarkko Ruutu of the Vancouver Canucks.
Jagr was digging for a loose puck along the boards when Ruutu came cross-ice and slammed into his upper body, with most of the brute force being directed towards his head. Jagr lay face down for several minutes before being helped to the locker room with 7:03 gone in the second period. Jagr, the NHL’s leading scorer also suffered a groin injury comparable to his countryman, Domink Hasek. When asked about missing any time when the NHL season resumes, “I hope not, I didn't feel very well, but it's not bad, " he said. Jagr leads the NHL with 40 goals and 88 points.
Various other players were hurt for a short stint. Patrik Elias, Winger for the New Jersey Devils, suffered bruised ribs during Olympic play and headed back home to the U.S., leaving his Czech Republic team behind. Defenseman Marek Zidlicky of the Nashville Predators also gave the Czech fans another chance to wince as he was hauled down in front of the net and hyper extended his knee during a game against Italy.
Swedish defenseman Mattias Ohlund of the Vancouver Canucks was grabbed and driven to the ice during a game against Switzerland. Ohlund ended up going arms first into the boards behind the Swedish net. "He's at the hospital for some X-rays," Swede coach Bengt-Ake Gustafsson said after his team won 6-2.
Now how will all of this affect the rest of the NHL season? Will Ottawa fall from the top because of the injury to Hasek? Patrik Elias’s injury will not help the Devils, who are sitting in the middle of the Atlantic Division of the NHL’s Eastern Conference. Will the over usage of Tomas Vokoun and the minor injury to Zidlicky, hurt the Predators who are making a run at the NHL’s top team, the Detroit Red Wings? How about the cut over Jaromir Jagr’s eye and his pulled groin? Will that knock the Rangers off the mountain and give the Philadelphia Flyers, who are just three points back, a chance at the top? Or will the bruised knee of Simon Gagne hold them back? Gagne is the Flyers' leading scorer with 37 goals and 26 assists for 63 points in 51 games, can they replace that?
We will have to see, the NHL resumed on Tuesday, February 28th. Will the cup go to the team with the most talent, or to the team with the least injuries? Only time will tell, but it is fun to speculate and blame the Olympics for now.
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