Fret not, the 'underdog' statement made by Brian Burke regarding the US men's hockey team was directed at the under-pressure-to-win Steve Yzerman.
There's a sense among Canadians that winning men's hockey Olympic gold on Canadian soil will be, if not easy, certainly inevitable. After all, Canada produces enough talent to ice the world's two best teams and since the Olympics are in Vancouver, the home-country advantage will provide an overwhelming boost.
Or so the theory goes.
I have a few problems with those 'theories going'.
The first comes in the form of a question: if Canada is so talented that it could easily produce the two best teams in the world then what happened in Turin 2006? That's the year the defending gold medal country finished seventh. No gold, no silver, no bronze. Perhaps that was the year Team 2 should have received its chance?
Second: Listen to Steve Yzerman. The newly minted head of Canada's Olympic Hockey operations last week went to great lengths to shoot down the theory of home-country advantage, noting that the best hockey-playing teams in the world come to the Olympics with one goal in mind. He said every team comes to play and it doesn't matter to them if the games are in Sweden, Russia, the U.S. or Brian Burke's backyard.
In fact, the pressure to win on home soil (see the U.S, falling to Canada at Salt Lake City in 2002) can be so huge that it can actually be the biggest disadvantage a good team can face and if the players don't feel it right away, you can bet their opponents will try and bring the message home to them as early and as often as possible.
Consider the remarks from Burke -- who is not only the general manager of the Toronto Maple Leafs, but also happens to be heading up the U.S. operations for the 2010 games.
In press statements largely overlooked in Canada (and largely because they were delivered the same day Hockey Canada made Yzerman available) Burke went to great lengths to portray his U.S. team as the underdog while ramping up the pressure on Yzerman and Team Canada.
"I predict we (Team USA) will be the smallest and youngest team in the tournament," Burke said in downplaying what could be a faster and marginally better squad than the USA team that went to Turin and played worse than Canada. "And I predict that not one cent is going to be bet on Team USA in Vegas. But we're going there to win anyhow."
Nice Brian, what is next, have the team practice with "Underdog" instead of "USA" across the front of their sweaters?
But Burke, who never makes a statement for which he hasn't thought out its overall impact (are you reading this Vesa Toskala and Nik Antropov), wasn't finished. He then tried to put Yzerman and Canada under more pressure than land beneath The Columbia Icefield.
"There will be a glacier of pressure on Team Canada," he said. "I was in Vancouver (as GM of the Canucks) when these Games were awarded," he added. "The moment that envelope was opened and Vancouver was announced, an enormous amount of pressure immediately was dropped on the Canadian hockey team."
And so before any players are selected, any coaches are named, even before any cost overruns are presented to the taxpaying public, the games have begun.
Burke might as well have said: "Hello Canada. Feeling any heat yet?"
Instead he dropped this little ditty: "I don't mind going in on an underdog role."
Pardon me while I, as you readers like to write, LoL.
Now to be fair, the American squad will be young and inexperienced. Their most recent golden era, a time dominated by the likes of Mike Modano, Brett Hull, Keith Tkachuk, Bill Guerin, Chris Chelios, Brian Leetch, Doug Weight and a handful of goalies who failed to become the next Mike Richter, is largely over. But America will not come to Vancouver with a remake of Herb Brooks' college kids, either.
The U.S. has some talent, maybe not enough to be considered a Games favourite along the lines of Canada, Russia, Sweden or Finland, but it will come with a team that could cause problems.
The team likely will be small up front what with a top six of Patrick Kane (Chicago), Zach Parise (New Jersey), Paul Stastny (Colorado) Phil Kessel (Boston), Scott Gomez (New York) and Dustin Brown (Los Angeles).
They might well be small beyond that as well if you consider Chris Drury (New York), Brian Gionta (New Jersey) and David Booth (Florida) as having a better than even chance of making the squad, but Burke has made it clear that he will back up his smaller players with larger ones, perhaps opening the door for Paul Gaustad (Buffalo), Ryan Kesler (Vancouver) and veteran Jamie Langenbrunner (New Jersey) getting a look-see.
A quick aside here: Anyone notice how much stock New Jersey general manager Lou Lamoriello puts on U.S.-born players?
The U.S. won't embarrass themselves on the blueline what with Ryan Suter (Nashville), Brian Rafalski (Detroit), Mike Komisarek (Montreal), Ryan Whitney (Pittsburgh) and perhaps Jack Johnson (Los Angeles) and Erik Johnson (St. Louis) if he's fully recovered from his knee problems. Then there is Paul Martin (New Jersey and why not rename this squad Team Devils) or Jan-Michael Liles.
In goal, Team USA should be far better with Tim Thomas (Boston), Ryan Millar (Buffalo) and maybe the up-and-coming Jonathan Quick (Los Angeles) rather than the Turin trio of Rick DiPietro (New York Islanders), Robert Esche (then of the Philadelphia Flyers) and John Grahame (then playing out of a suitcase).
Will it be a team as good as Canada? In a word, no. But funny things happen in the Olympics where the pressure to succeed is huge and the room for mistakes is largely non-existent.
Both Burke and Yzerman know the stakes; they also know that a lot can happen before a team comes together and a lot more can happen once it arrives.
And both, recognizing their respective positions, are trying to influence that even though there is still a year to go.
