Working on the preview for this weekends’ action, and had a few quotes from BU coach Jack Parker about the Olympics and international hockey. Some pretty interesting stuff if you’re into the subject, and since I don’t have a notebook or anything planned for the near future, I’ll just leave the quotes here for your reading pleasure.
By the way, Parker (like the rest of the world, really) still thinks the Canadians are the favorites to win Gold this year (note: he said this Wednesday before the boys north of the the border stomped the Russians). He added that, based on the rosters, the US has the fourth or fifth best team in Vancouver right now.
Anywho:
On former players in the Olympics:
“I feel part of their career because I coached them here. I don’t feel part of the Olympic success, but I’m ecstatic about the Olympic success. I was in my house at Gloucester when they were playing the Canadians, and when that empty netter went in, I was jumping up and down and screaming and then I realized, ‘There’s nobody here. What the hell am I doing?’
“I was really happy with how Chris Drury played. A big goal, a big blocked shot, killed every penalty, working as hard as he always does.”
“But they haven’t won anything yet. It’s a long way to get to that gold-medal game.”
Comparing Drury, Tkachuck, Amonte, etc., to the 1980 group:
“It’s a completely different thing. Those guys were NHL players for a long time and then they’re playing in the Olympics against NHL players. Before that, the team was all college players. Clark Donatelli was a captain once [in 1992] and played in two Olympics [’88 and ’92]. Scotty Young played on three Olympiads [’88, ’92, ’02]. They were all –– well Scotty played on one when it was a pro thing, too –– they all played when they were amateurs. My son-in-law, Scott Lachance, played in ’92. McEachern, Amonte –– well Amonte never played as an amateur, he only played as an NHL guy because he chose to go to the Rangers.”
“We’ve had David Sacco so I mean, we’ve had a lot of guys go as amateurs, too, so this is different. I think it’ll be interesting to see if they keep it up –– if they keep the pros in it.”
“I’ve coached the Juniors team and I’ve coached the National Team in a World Championship, but I’ve never coached an Olympic team, and now the pros are coaching the pros, and that’s the way it should be. I’m sure if they go back to amateurs again, they’ll take some amateur coaches or college coaches, but it won’t be me.”
Our press conference ended there with the US scoring at the end of the second period against the Swiss, only to have the goal disallowed –– we were chatting in front of the team’s 10×8 foot (ish) video screen, which was playing the game.
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