| Tourney Name: | Winter Olympics Men's Ice Hockey |
| Year: | 1998 |
| Size: | 200px |
| Country: | Japan |
| Dates: | 7–22 February |
| Num Teams: | 14 |
| Type: | ih |
| Winners: | Czech Republic |
| Count: | 1 |
| Second: | Russia |
| Third: | Finland |
| Fourth: | Canada |
| Games: | 35 |
| Goals: | 210 |
| Points: | 10 |
| Nextseason: | 2002 |
The men's ice hockey tournament at the 1998 Winter Olympics in Nagano, Japan, was the 19th Olympic Championship. The Czech Republic, which emerged from the dissolution of Czechoslovakia in 1993, won its first winter gold medal, becoming only the seventh nation to win Olympic ice hockey gold. The tournament, held from February 7 to February 22, was played at the Big Hat and Aqua Wing arenas.
This was the first Olympics in which the National Hockey League (NHL) took a break (17 days, from February 8 to February 24) allowing national teams to include NHL players from each country.[1] [2] Unlike basketball's Dream Team in 1992, where the players stayed in a hotel in Barcelona due to security concerns,[3] NHL players stayed in the Olympic Village due to improved security measures.[4]
The Canadian team, despite a strong start in the round robin, lost their semifinal match against the Czech Republic in a shootout. Team Finland defeated Canada in the bronze medal game. In the final, the Czech Republic beat Russia 1–0 to win the gold medal, as goaltender Dominik Hašek shutout the Russian squad.[5]
See main article: Ice hockey at the 1998 Winter Olympics – Men's team rosters.
See main article: Ice hockey at the 1998 Winter Olympics – Men's qualification.
All times are local (UTC+9).
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Team Canada was the oldest team in the tournament, with an average age of 30 years. Team Kazakhstan was the youngest, averaging 26 years and 11 months. The gold medal-winning Czech Republic team averaged 27 years and 2 months. The tournament average was 28 years and 1 month.[6]
| Rank | Player | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 5 | 4 | 6 | 10 | 8 | |
| 2 | 6 | 2 | 8 | 10 | 4 | |
| 3 | 6 | 9 | 0 | 9 | 2 | |
| 4 | 7 | 3 | 6 | 9 | 2 | |
| 5 | 4 | 5 | 2 | 7 | 4 | |
| 6 | 7 | 4 | 3 | 7 | 6 | |
| 7 | 4 | 5 | 1 | 6 | 8 | |
| 8 | 6 | 4 | 2 | 6 | 2 | |
| 9 | 6 | 3 | 3 | 6 | 0 | |
| 10 | 6 | 2 | 4 | 6 | 4 | |
| 11 | 6 | 1 | 5 | 6 | 8 | |
Several of general manager Bobby Clarke's selections for Team Canada were controversial. Eric Lindros was named captain over longtime leaders such as Wayne Gretzky, Steve Yzerman, and Ray Bourque (Clarke at the time was general manager of Lindros's NHL team, the Philadelphia Flyers).[7] Rob Zamuner was a surprise pick, while Mark Messier, Adam Oates, Ron Francis, Doug Gilmour and Scott Niedermayer were omitted.[8] Japanese fans were disappointed when their adopted hero, Paul Kariya, a Canadian of Japanese heritage and one of Canada's best stars, failed to make the Games due to a head injury sustained from a crosscheck by Gary Suter during regular season NHL play.[9] [10] [11]
Memorably, during the shootout in their semifinal match against the Czech Republic, Canadian coach Marc Crawford opted to have defenceman Ray Bourque shoot in the shootout instead of high-scoring forwards Wayne Gretzky and Steve Yzerman. Hockey commentators alternatively criticized Crawford's decision (Bourque, like the other four Canadian shooters, failed to score) or praised it on the grounds that Bourque was one of hockey's most accurate shooters at the time and Gretzky had always been surprisingly mediocre on breakaways.[12] [13]
Swedish player Ulf Samuelsson was discovered to have applied for American citizenship. Under Swedish law at the time, when one acquires a foreign passport, their citizenship is annulled. Samuelsson was ejected after having played the first game against Belarus, although Sweden kept their points from the win. The Czech National Olympic Committee felt that Sweden should lose the points and filed a protest with the Court of Arbitration for Sport, which was rejected.[14] [15]
The United States team, loaded with 17 NHL stars, was eliminated in the first game of the knockout round, and responded by trashing their rooms in the Olympic Village. Three apartments were vandalized, ten chairs were broken and three fire extinguishers were emptied. Six of those chairs and one fire extinguisher were thrown down five stories into a courtyard.[16]
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