04/20/24
February 13, 2002
Mario Lemieux recently admitted: that Olympic hockey is his number one priority right now, something that apparently did not sit particularly well with some Penguins fans. While this is a tough call, I think it makes sense for Mario. He has already won his Stanley Cups and didn't have a chance to play for Canada four years ago (and will not have a chance to do so in four years), so why not focus on something that has more meaning for him and his country? (I have a bit more to say about this and how the NHL didn't get it about Slovakia et al, but will do so as a comment to this post in the interest of saving front page space).
O Canada! Our home and native land....
posted by insomnyuk at 09:41 AM on February 13, 2002
I blame Bettman. He's only taking 12 days off of the NHL's schedule for the Olympics. He should give the NHL more time off for the Olympics, it will pique international interest in NHL hockey (because people will be seeing all these NHL stars playing) and be better for the NHL in the long run. But instead, Bettman has to be an idiot.
posted by insomnyuk at 11:15 AM on February 13, 2002
I agree that Olympic hockey is good for the NHL in the long run. Along the lines of the above comments, it seems to me that the All-Star game was totally unnecessary this year. Dropping that would have allowed the Olympic break to be extended, with more players able to join their teams in the qualifying rounds.
posted by holden at 12:04 PM on February 13, 2002
I think Mario's professional obligation to people who are paying him to play on their team trumps his desire to be in the Olympics. If he's accepting the Penguins' money, he should play in all their games. Also, he owes it to the Penguins' fans who undoubtedly got tickets to be able to see him.
posted by kirkaracha at 02:37 PM on February 13, 2002
Yeah, Bettman is a bastard for that. Mitch Album had a good piece in the Free Press about how the NHL teams are just strolling in, playing, and leaving, without enjoying the Olympics or being part of the ceremony. If he's accepting the Penguins' money, He is majority owner of the team, so technically, he is being paid his own money. He makes the league average, which is just over a million per year. Mario should not be a player and an owner. Sorry, it just doesn't sit well with me. I just hope he trades Kasparitis to the Wings before the deadline.
posted by adampsyche at 09:44 AM on February 14, 2002
On the flip side, of course, is the idea that the paying fan who only gets to go to a few games (or maybe just one game) a year should be able to see Mario play instead of taking games off to stay healthy. And another complaint is that Mario is, in some way, putting himself before the team. After all, the Penguins are in real danger of not making the playoffs (and thereby gaining important extra revenue) and every little game counts. While both of these points are valid, I think they are outweighed by the "for the good of the country" argument. This is a hard one for many of us Americans to get into, because we tend to associate much more with our local teams than with any national teams. When we do get behind national endeavors on the international stage, I think it tends to be in the individual sports. In team sports, the Dream Team is more like a video game creation freak show, and the lack of any true competition (except apparently their own apathy) makes it hard to really get behind them. As some of the Englishmen/women on this site (I am assuming there are some of you from the soccer/rugby talk) well know, your national team oftentimes has to go through some tough times to really get the whole country behind it. So I think it's good that Mario sees that duty to country sometimes outweighs duty to professional team -- one is a job, the other is a representation of his motherland in a sport that means a lot to its people. I think it's too bad some of the other NHL owners and brass didn't see this national commitment as enough of a factor to outweigh having their players for all the league games. Buffalo may have struggled without Satan and the Kings may have had a harder time getting it going offensively without Palffy, but they could have made do for four to five games tops (we're also not talking about a sport like basketball where the absence of one player can make or break a team). In Slovakia, these guys are heroes and their performance in the Olympics provides the biggest sense of sporting pride that nation has. Slovakia deserved to have its best team on the ice, not shuffling various players back and forth and in and out of Salt Lake -- with predictable results. On the broadcast of the first game between Slovakia and Germany, John Davidson said he had come to Salt Lake on a plane with Atlanta Thrashers and Slovakia forward Lubos Bartecko (who the Thrashers allowed to go to Salt Lake for the entire Olympics -- classy move, even if they are a last place team) and his father. Bartecko's father said that now that his son was playing for the country, he could die a happy man. That's what I'm talking about.