Swedes Won’t Be Mistaken For Jamaicans

An earthquake-stricken Ron Wilson would still look on the bright side - now you don’t have to spend money on bulldozers.

So the U.S. Olympic hockey coach dipped into the same well of blarney from which the Mighty Ducks drank, back in the franchise’s golden era a month-and-a-half, back in 1997.

“You have to start playing well in the fourth game - that’s the way the system is set up,” Wilson said in the smelly wake of the Americans’ 4-2 first-round loss to Sweden. “Those are the games that really count, when you get into the medal round.”

Theoretically, he’s right, but it loses something in application. If the U.S. could win its four-team group, it would cross over and play the worst team in the other group. If it finishes second in its group, it plays the No. 3 team in the other group.

The worst team in the other group is the Mighty Ducks of Kazakstan, a nation that is so far removed from the NHL that it thinks a luxury box is a place to put jewelry.

The No. 3 in the other group will be either Finland, with Teemu Selanne; Russia, with Sergei Fedorov and Pavel Bure, among others; or the Czech Republic, with Jaromir Jagr and the nonpareil Dominik Hasek, who shut out the Finns 3-0 Friday.

So it was a big game. How big was being measured in the second round when the U.S. teed it up against Belarus.

What we did learn was that the Americans won the World Cup in ‘96 primarily because they did not play Sweden.

We learned that a mighty rush of Star-Spangled aggression is not enough to dissipate 60 minutes of Swedish calculation.

We also observed that Peter Forsberg is the world’s best hockey player, but actually we learned that long ago.

Said the coach, Kent Forsberg, with a smile: “Peter played OK.” Twice, Forsberg ducked into the wider international lane behind the net and fed Daniel Alfredsson for goals, past American goalie Mike Richter.

Another goal came on a 2-on-1 pass from Mikael Renberg to Patric Kjellberg. Another came on a rush by Mats Sundin, who kept moving through the U.S. like a stately ocean liner.

The rest was handled by goalie Tommy Salo and an endless wave of unerring Swedish defensemen.

“They memorized us, put us to sleep,” said Adam Deadmarsh, who no doubt had to mesmerize the Lord’s Prayer as a child.

And, depending on your postgame conversation, the U.S. found itself too far from shore on the larger ice.

“I thought it was obvious from the beginning that they were having trouble with their passing on this surface,” Sundin said. “We weathered the storm in the first period (trailing only 2-1) and felt we’d be OK if we just kept plugging away.

“But it was tough on everybody physically. It may not look like it’s much bigger, but you do a lot of skating out there. I grew up on this surface, and now I’m exhausted.”

But Calle Johansson, who plays for Wilson’s Washington Capitals and knows that his coach is an old hand at D.C. spin control, brought some reality to the situation.

“We’ve got 19 guys on our team who haven’t played on this surface in 10 years,” Johnansson said with a withering smile. “So I really don’t think you can use that as an excuse.”

The Americans tried not to. They criticized their own overexuberance - or, as Johansson said, “That’s Ron Wilson hockey, coming out hard in the first period like that.”

And they were quick to praise Swedish mastery. When Mike Modano was told that the basketball Dream Team got to play Angola in 1992, the equivalent of a No. 16 seed, he just grinned. “I wish we’d been playing Jamaica,” he said.

But eventually it came back to Big Ice.

The U.S. wanted to play this game in the corners, where its size and general ornery nature would knock teeth out and pucks loose. “And every time we sent it into the corner, we got to the puck first,” said Keith Tkachuk.

It did not happen enough. Tkachuk, the slot monster from Phoenix, was disappointed by the light traffic in front of the net. Deceived by their dominance of the first period, the Americans overpassed in the neutral zone and forgot the two basic laws of offense - get to the net, or get the puck there.

“We made cross-ice passes against their trap, which is exactly what they wanted us to do,” Brett Hull said. “That wasn’t very patient on our part. But the ice surface was a factor, something we couldn’t prepare for.

“I know I always thought I was about 5 feet out of position all night. I was almost getting to the puck. I thought I was in position and I wasn’t. But our whole team was that way. We were scattered all around. We’d have a D (defenseman) with the puck, back in the zone, and nobody was there to take the pass.”

The atmosphere? Well, the Americans weren’t in the mood to gauge the historical significance. The Big Hat had been rocking anyway, whenever the Japanese played. The loudspeaker blared “Face off! Face off!” every time a period began, but otherwise it did not seem foreign at all.

And whose idea was it to bring actual New York Rangers fans to the balcony? “Hey, Salo,” they yelled, as if Salo was wearing his Islander jersey in Madison Square Garden. “Does your husband play hockey, too?”

Don’t let the undefeated U.S. women hear that talk. They might not let the men see their medals.

The following fields overflowed: CREDIT = Mark Whicker Orange County Register