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THE MEDICINE HAT NEWS, Saturday, April 20,1996 - B13Don’t underestimate WorldsCanada is losing influence in international hockeyLast year’s bronze medal meant Canada was one of the top four teams to receive 750,000 Swiss francs ($852,750) — money which,ing from the putdo vn of then-ROY MacGREGORSoutham NewspapersThink of them as a Dancing Zam-boni.They are Team Canada 1996.And Sunday afternoon in Vienna, Austria, they will open the world hockey championships against Slovakia, trusting they will end May 5 with at least a medal and a good shot back at those who would ridicule Canadians for their diminishing skills and slipping clout in the quick-changing world of international hockey.But there is much more to this game than what will take place in the eishallen of Vienna over the next two weeks.The World Championships are themselves under some threat — and with this comes a concern that reaches as far back in hockey as the atom team in Yorkton, Sask., and even the learn-to-skate program in Malmo, Sweden.It is almost impossible for Canadians — who will barely lift their eyes from the Stanley Cup playoffs — to appreciate how big the world championships are.The television audience is approximately 10 times the size of the audience for the NHL playoffs. As many sets will be turned on in Germany to watch the German team play as there are Canadian citizens.“The numbers are mind-boggling,” says Murray Costello, the president of the Canadian Hockey Association.The profits from this two-week hockey frenzy are such that last year’s host country, Sweden, cleared a profit of $15 million, much of which went back into hockey development.The International Ice Hockey Federation (IIHF) made another $15 million from board advertising.Few in Canada realize it, but significant funding for CHA — the body responsible for hockey development in Canada — is directly tied to performance at these cham-pionships._again, goes directly into creating the players of tomorrow.It pays off twice. A good showing helps Canadian hockey. A good showing helps remind the world that Canada and hockey still Fit, hand to glove.“It lets us show our hockey face to the world,”saysCostello.This year’s entry is, as usual, composed of NHLers whose teams did not make the playoffs, as well as a handful of players from the year-long Team Canada program, many of whom later move on to professional careers.This year, the World Championships will also offer goaltendersMartin Brodeur and Curtis Joseph the opportunity to begin preparing for the upcoming World Cup, which begins in August.“This is key for them,” says Bob Nicholson, the CHA’s vice-president of hockey operations. “They’ll need the international experience.”And this year will feature PaulKariya, the Anaheim Might Ducks’ star who previously played on Canada’s 1995 world championship team and the 1994 Olympic silvermedal team.Kariya’s addition was considered crucial, not only to give the Canadian team a chance, but to remind everyone — Canada as well as the world — that there is a connection between nurturing and skill.A year after the last World Championships in Stockholm, Canadian players and officials are still sting-Swedish coach Curt Lundmark, who slammed the style of Canadianhockey by suggesting that, “Playing with Canada is like dancing with a Zamboni.”That remark became a rallying point for a team that had, until then, underperformed both in exhibition play and the championships.Challenged, they all but put theSwedes out of the gold-medal round (eventually won by Finland) and surprised everyone by dump-DJ% ing theCzech Republicfor the bronze medal.Canadian officials are hoping for similar inspiration this year but their unspoken concerns run far deeper than how the Canadian players might be motivated.Interviews with numerous Canadian hockey officials and observers over the past week reveal a profound worry over the direction the game is taking at both the professional and international level.They balk at going on the record, but they willingly express private fears that the World Championships may soon sink all but out of sight.Already hurt by the Stanley Cup playoffs, which prevent the top players from attending, the annual tournament will shortly be hit by the double whammy of the World Cupand the NHL-endorsed Olympic “Dream Teams.”Despite the television numbers and the continuing interest in Europe, the true significance of the World Championships is already believed to lie somewhere back of the World Cup, the Olympics, the Stanley Cup and perhaps even the WorldJunior Championships.Many fear that once the rabid European fans wake up to how the championships have been rendered all but meaningless elsewhere, the tournament will fade into obscurity — thereby drying up vital hockey development funds.No other tournament returns such money to hockey. The NHL gives nothing to hockey’s roots.Canada’s voice, unfortunately, has been largely silenced at the international level since 1994, when it was presumed that Canada’s Gordon Renwick would be named presidentof the IIHF.He was surprisingly defeated by unknown Swiss dentist Rene Fasel.The irony is that today Canada, still the main supplier of players for everything from the Stanley Cup playoffs to the World Championships, does not have a single representative on the IIHF.The lack of concern for development money causes a certain paranoia to rise among those who have seen the World Championship system as imperfect but important. The fact that it could vanish altogether terrifies them.They see, potentially, the end of Canada as a producer of high-grade hockey players, of Paul Kariyas.“With the American population base,” says one Canadian hockey official, “it would require only a shift of a few fractions in the sport of choice among blue-chip athletes.If they were to turn to hockey instead of baseball or whatever soon you’d have hundreds of players the quality of a Chris Chelios or a Bryan Leetch or a Pat LaFontaine.“We could conceivably find ourselves supplying only the slugs and the cornermen a few years down the road.”It is thoughts like these, and comments like the crack from last year’s Swedish coach, that drives them toward Vienna.“We need players who can dance,” says Costello. “We have to keep the dream alive.”
Newspaper Details
Medicine Hat News
Medicine Hat, Alberta, CA
Sat, Apr 20, 1996
Page 23
Full Page
Clipped by
Jason P.
USA 14 Dec 2018
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