No NHL? It’s still ‘game on’ for Olympic hockey
GANGNUENG, SOUTH KOREA >> It was a miracle — on thin ice.
A hockey game broke out the other night at the lukewarm Pyeongchang Games where, for the first time in two decades, the NHL stayed home.
The day special counsel Robert Mueller indicted 13 Russian nationals for allegedly interfering in the 2016 U.S. presidential election, the world’s pre-eminent superpowers brought intensity to the Winter Olympics.
A relic of Cold War politics on ice injected drama into a starless tournament some predicted would have little significance while the world’s best players plowed through the late winter months of the drawn-out NHL season.
Then colorful flags appeared in the arena with organized cheering sections and a knowledgeable audience that knew its blue line from the bottom line. The charged at-
mosphere at Gangneung Hockey Centre on Saturday night provided a counterpoint to the notion that Olympic hockey was dead the moment NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman decided in April against allowing the league’s players to represent their countries in South Korea.
“That’s pretty darn good hockey,” said U.S. forward Brian O’Neill, who plays in Russia’s highly regarded Kontinental Hockey League, or KHL.
U.S. coach Tony Granato likened the play to a heated NHL game.
But many saw the fightfilled preliminary-round matchup as a novelty with a U.S. roster of minor leaguers and college players, as well as former NHL star Brian Gionta.
“A sport that is trying to grow is making a mistake not playing on a stage where people who usually watch hockey are watching,” said George Geiger, a fan who works in Korea for the U.S. government.
In 1998, NHL officials hailed the introduction of hockey stars at the Nagano Games as a wedge into global expansion. The move followed basketball’s Dream Team concept when NBA stars played in the 1992 Barcelona Olympics.
But after five Olympic tournaments, NHL executives didn’t want to disrupt the season for 17 days. Mostly, it had to do with money.
Bettman said sending the league’s stars to a far-flung locale didn’t make business sense. He also cited player safety as another issue, but few talked much about health concerns when the Winter Olympics were held in North America in 2002 and 2010.
Perhaps more relevant was the fact the International Olympic Committee declined to pay insurance and travel costs for NHL players. With games broadcast at odd hours because of the big timezone
difference, hockey leaders figured they can do a better job of creating an international fan base outside the Olympic umbrella.
Many NHL stars, though, have publicly lamented the league’s decision, perhaps none more than Washington Capitals star Alex Ovechkin. In September he released a statement that concluded, “It sucks that will we not be there.”
None of the NHL’s reasons mattered when the relatively inexperienced Americans played the Russians or, technically, Olympic Athletes from Russia, as they are known at these Winter Olympics as a result of punishment for a government-orchestrated drug program.
In what felt like an NHL playoff game, the United States lost 4-0. Before the game, Jon Anderson of Atlanta pranced around the stands in red, white and blue-striped PJs like a dancing bear of a man. He wasn’t about to let a dearth of NHL stars spoil his Olympics.
“A lot is lost but the spirit is still there,” he said.
While the combined North and South Korean women’s team has attracted a lot of fascination, devoted fans say they have plenty to follow without the big names.
At least Russia brought two familiar stars to NHL faithful — 2014 Olympians Pavel Datsyuk and Ilya Kovalchuk, who now play in the Russian league.
Datsyuk is a former Detroit Red Wings star who had a 15-year NHL career. Kovalchuk, 34, is the seventh-highest scoring Russian after 11 seasons in the league.
There’s more. Granato isn’t the only familiar name to San Jose hockey fans participating in the Olympic tournament.
Germany is coached by former Sharks star Marco Sturm, who played eight seasons in San Jose.
Jeremy Roenick could be seen in the NBC broadcasting booth for the Sweden-Germany game last
week. Roenick was a popular Sharks player from 2008-09.
The same game Roenick helped broadcast felt eerily like walking into the Shark Tank.
That booming PA voice … could it really be?
“Here, you’re putting on a show and entertaining crowds for both teams,” said Danny Miller, the Sharks, 49ers and Earthquakes public address announcer. “No matter what team scores, I have to tell myself, ‘Hey, the home team just scored.’ ”
The man behind the curtain at the Olympic tournament is Steve Maroni, director of events presentation at SAP Center.
Maroni, 47, is working his fifth Olympics. Miller, 44, is at his second.
They have tried to infuse the same enthusiasm as they would for the Bay Area sports teams they serve.
But the starting point isn’t the same. Koreans embrace baseball and soccer foremost. They loved figure skating when Kim Yuna won the gold medal in Vancouver and silver in Sochi. They also are wild about short-track speedskating because of Olympic success.
But hockey?
“It’s not like Torino and Vancouver where there are a lot of hockey fans,” Maroni said. “The entertainment from pregame and intermission, we have everything from opera singers to rappers to a former American Idol participant.”
Miller’s announcements are translated into Korean by Park Seong, who is the PA announcer for the Daemyung Killer Whales, one of three Korean teams in the eightclub Asia League Ice Hockey.
Former San Jose coach Kevin Constantine has traded the Sharks for the Whales, who he started coaching last year.
Two Asia League fans marched into the arena Saturday wearing jerseys for the Anyang Halla, two-time reigning champions.
Moon Hyun-jung and her son Kim Taeyang are
a rarity. The league averages fewer than 1,000 fans per game, according to the International Ice Hockey Federation.
“It’s kind of a bummer we cannot see them,” Moon said of the NHL stars. “It’s one chance in a lifetime for us.”
But Ryan Gonzales has been enjoying the dearth of stars. He has worked for the Colorado Avalanche for a decade and is the Avs and Denver Nuggets video editor and producer.
“I don’t think anything is lost, it’s just different,” said Gonzales, 34. “The Koreans haven’t seen it before. They wouldn’t know them anyway. They think it is wonderful.”
But the arena didn’t feel energetic when Sweden defeated Germany 1-0 at 6,000-seat Kwandong Hockey Centre. The place was only half-filled although reportedly sold out. Some of the empty seats had obstructed views so it’s understandable if fans — even new ones — didn’t want to spend the first day of the Lunar New Year craning their necks to watch.
Hockey officials have created an animated instructional video that is shown before games to teach Koreans the game.
All the talk about the devaluation of play doesn’t change anything for the participants trying to win medals.
“These kids grow up with two things on their mind playing hockey: winning the Stanley Cup or winning a gold medal for their country,” Miller said. “If they can’t win a Stanley Cup because they’re not in the NHL, this is not second place.”
O’Neill, the U.S. forward, could not agree more. He had his NHL minute, playing 22 games with the New Jersey Devils.
“Obviously everyone would like to see the NHL play,” he said after the Russia game. “They’re the best players in the world. The world deserves to see them showcase their talent but at the same time we’re going to take advantage of the opportunity we’re given.”