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Great choice Battling 'cronyism' may be chief among Gretzky's tasks
On Wednesday, the Canadian Hockey Association confirmed that Wayne Gretzky will lead Canada’s men’s hockey team into the Salt Lake City Games. CNNSI.com spoke to Sports Illustrated senior hockey writer Michael Farber about the announcement and what it means for Team Canada. Farber: Wayne Gretzky was named the executive director, essentially the general manager. His assistant is Kevin Lowe, with Pat Quinn as the head coach. Quinn’s assistants, or associate coaches, are Ken Hitchcock, Jacques Martin and Wayne Fleming. CNNSI.com: How far-reaching will Gretzky’s powers be? Farber: Gretzky’s powers are essentially supreme. In conjunction with Quinn, this is going to be his team. CNNSI.com: Is Gretzky, who has no player-personnel experience, the best choice for such a job? Farber: No one has Canada’s best interests at heart more than Wayne Gretzky. The only stumbling block is that Gretzky has made a lot of friends in the game and he might have to look over one or two of them when he, Quinn and the others sit down to draft the roster. CNNSI.com: Gretzky is also taking over a team that has underachieved in terms of medals won at the Olympics, especially in the most recent experience (in Nagano in 1998). Farber: The disappointment was palpable. In fact it colored the entire North American experience toward the Olympics. If Canada had beaten the Czech Republic in the shootout, the Nagano Games would have been remembered in North America as one of the greatest games ever played. Instead that game is mostly remembered as the one in which Crawford didn’t use Gretzky in the shootout. There was a sourness about the entire Olympic experience in North America that was unfortunate because most of the hockey was compelling. If Canada had won a gold medal, the feeling would have been much different. Part of the problem with the Canadian Olympic team at the Nagano Games is that some people were feathering their own nests. The most obvious was Bob Clarke, who overlooked such obvious candidates as Gretzky, Ray Bourque and Steve Yzerman as captain of the team to choose his own captain, Eric Lindros. Lindros was just not ready for it at the time. But Gretzky has always been at his best wearing a maple leaf on his chest. He is an inspired choice because he’s so close to his playing days, and players are often the best judges of talent. CNNSI.com: There was also a healthy goaltending controversy in Nagano. Won’t Gretzky, a guy associated with Patrick Roy’s NHL generation more than Martin Brodeur’s or Curtis Joseph’s, have to make some difficult positions there? Farber: Then Colorado -- and current Vancouver -- coach Marc Crawford went the whole way with Roy, a decision that only backfired in the bronze-medal game against Finland, when he should have done as his predecessors had and said: If we can't win a hockey gold we’re not going to want any kind of medal. If Gretzky had to choose today, both Brodeur and Joseph would be obvious choices, but it is a difficult position and so much can happen in the intervening 14 months. CNNSI.com: You mentioned that this is an inspired choice, but is it a good choice? Farber: I think in Nagano Canada had a bunch of older players, including Gretzky and Bourque, and clearly the time has come for a change. The key players this time around will be guys like Chris Pronger. Wayne realized that fact and that Canada was kind of caught at the end of an era there. I doubt you’ll see Ray Bourque, but there will still be veterans like Scott Stevens and Rob Blake. CNNSI.com: Is there concern that Gretzky, who toured Europe with some of his best friends in hockey and whose connection to Mike Barnett is undeniable, could be swayed by his acquaintances? Farber: I think the cronyism and feathering the nest would be of more concern if Gretzky didn’t fully understand his role as, beyond Celine Dion, probably the most famous Canadian in the world. This shouldn’t be a problem assuming he doesn’t fall prey to taking care of his players -- and I don’t think he will. CNNSI.com: Will this at all interfere with Gretzky’s bid to join the Phoenix Coyotes as a hockey executive and part owner? Farber: No more than it will affect Pat Quinn and his job as coach of the Toronto Maple Leafs. So no. CNNSI.com: Let’s move to the coaching staff. Is Quinn a good choice? Farber: Quinn is an excellent choice. He has a presence behind the bench and a certain stature in the game. His blunt yet familiar style is perfect for a tournament in which teams will have virtually no preparation time. He also favors an up-tempo style and if Gretzky and Lowe make the transition to a younger group of players, as I suspect he will, they will fit well into Quinn’s system. CNNSI.com: Any notable omissions from this staff? Farber: The one omision from the coaching staff is Joel Quenneville of St. Louis. Martin would deserve a spot whether he spoke French or not, but in an officially bilingual country, a Francophone is indispensable. Considering Hockey Canada needed a presence on the staff, Fleming was a given. The only other spot would have been Hitchcock’s. But Hitchcock can wave around a Stanley Cup ring, a luxury Quenneville doesn’t have. Sports Illustrated senior writer Michael Farber covers the NHL and appears
regularly on CNN/Sports Illustrated.
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