Granato says team doesn’t need miracle
GANGNEUNG, South Korea – It’s not that Tony Granato doesn’t appreciate the 1980 U.S. Olympic hockey team. He was 15 when Team USA shocked the world and won the gold medal in Lake Placid, N.Y., and like most Americans he was spellbound by the ragtag collection of college players, their hard-driving coach and their “Miracle on Ice.”
“It was the inspiration for me to try to do something with the game of hockey,” he said.
As head coach of Team USA at the
Pyeongchang Olympics, however, Granato hasn’t even mentioned 1980 to his players and has no plans to show them the movie “Miracle.” What happened 38 years ago, as great as it was, has no bearing on what will happen in this tournament.
“To win, we don’t need a miracle,” he said. “We need to be our best and play our best.”
It was a strong statement by Granato, the University of Wisconsin men’s coach who was an Olympian himself in 1988 and had a long and distinguished career playing and coaching in the National Hockey League.
Gary D’Amato caught up with Granato after Team USA’s introductory news conference Monday:
Q: It’s interesting that you won’t bring up the 1980 team to your players. Can you elaborate?
A: “We won’t talk about it. It gets brought up by friends: ‘Hey, it would be great …’ It’s a whole different kind of format. At that time they were a bunch of college kids. The U.S. hadn’t had a history for a while of having success in international play. They had played the Russians two weeks before and lost 10-1 and didn’t touch the puck. They needed a miracle. Our team is different. It’s a whole different era. We’ve got way more depth and we’ve had way more success recently in international play.”
Q: You’ve had four practices. How does the team look?”
A: “We’re good. Everybody’s good. It’s been fun. Obviously, the energy is good. They’re going to be Olympians in two days. The practices have been at an unreal pace. It’s exciting for everybody. It’s exciting for the coaches to get back on the ice and be with this group. We finally get to drop the puck in a couple days.”
Q: You’ve done everything in hockey, but this is special. Are you going to be nervous that first game?
A: “Excited. You’re excited to get it going and under way. We’re confident in this whole process. It’s been a real challenge the last three weeks without Jimmy (Johannson, Team USA’s general manager who died Jan. 21). That’s been the hardest part. That’s the part that hurts the most, is he’s not here to share this experience with us. This is his whole project, his whole team, his whole plan.”
Q: I see you’re wearing a button with “J.J.” on it.
A: “It’s his team. He’s the one that picked the coaches, he’s the one that was part of organizing the talent pool that was available to us, he was the person that communicated with all of us on pulling this whole thing together. His confidence in us, his confidence in USA Hockey and the depth that we have from a player pool was inspiring to me. His belief in the fact that, hey, we’re doing this and we’re going there to win. It’s hard to not have him here with us.”
Q: Most people consider the Americans underdogs. How do you look at it?
A: “We don’t expect to be the favorites going into the tournament. We don’t expect to beat teams by five goals when the puck drops but we expect to compete and give ourselves a chance to win every night. If you do that and you’re the best team for a short time, it gives you a chance to win a medal.”
Q: There was a question in the press conference about some people writing off your team. You answered it calmly but it must have bothered you.
A: “I think the question alluded to the fact that there’s no Patrick Kane on the team, there’s no Jonathan Quick in the net and there’s no Ryan Suter on defense. Who are these guys? Well, I’m pretty happy with the guys that we have. I know who they are and hopefully … the kids that are watching back home will say, ‘I can’t wait to turn on the next game because I like watching that guy fly down the wing and put one top shelf. And I want to watch Jordan Greenway again because he’s going to be in the NHL for the next 15 years.’ ”
Q: Without NHL players, isn’t there a bit of mystery about the teams in the Olympic tournament?
A: “There’s a lot of unknowns. There’s not a whole lot of information on a lot of players so you’ve got to search for it and dig down and find information about players. So there’s a lot of excitement just based on that. All I know is there’s going to be a ton of skill on the ice. It’s going to be exciting hockey.”
Q. Can you make some assumptions based on national styles of play?
A: “Yes, absolutely. Certain countries pride themselves on playing a certain way. When we see Sweden play their first game, when we see the Russians play their first game, you’re going to know kind of how they’re going to play. They’re not going to change game to game. Once you put together a game plan you don’t adjust much from the style of play, especially in a short tournament like this.
Q. Which team is the favorite to win gold?
A: “The Russian team will be the favorite. Pavel Datsyuk and Ilya Kovalchuk are two of the big names that have played in the NHL for a long time. They’re superstars. They played in Olympic competition, world competition. They’ve got a team that has the most experience and the most players with elite status.”
Q: What does Bobby Butler of the Milwaukee Admirals bring to your team?
A: “He’s been outstanding. He gives us a player we can add to our lineup that I think is consistent as far as knowing what to expect. He’s a very predictable player in the standpoint that you know what you’re going to get out of him. He’s solid defensively, he can add something offensively to our lineup, he can kill penalties, he can play on the power play, he can move up and down your lineup. I just think he’s a solid two-way player.”
Q: You open against Slovenia on Wednesday. How much pressure is there to get the tournament started with a victory?
A: “It’s an opportunity that we want to make the most of. We’ll do our best to play our best out of the gate and whatever happens that night, we’ll get ready to play our second night against Slovakia. It’s a short tournament and you want to get better as the tournament goes along. I don’t think there’s pressure. We want to go into the game confident and take advantage of the opportunity that we have.”