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U.S. Hockey Team Is a Little Short-Handed
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Tuesday, February 14, 2006
TURIN, Italy, Feb. 13 -- The U.S. Olympic men's hockey team arrived on Monday -- two players, anyway. Because of a weekend snowstorm that socked the East Coast, only John Grahame and Jordan Leopold settled into the Olympic village. Their remaining 21 teammates are expected to fly in on Tuesday.
So Grahame and Leopold were becoming fast friends.
The Tampa Bay goalie and Leopold of the Calgary Flames are first-time Olympians and had never met until they walked together to a news conference. It was there the opponents in the 2004 Stanley Cup finals found about 40 reporters waiting to pepper them with questions that ranged from the weather to Wayne Gretzky and the NHL betting scandal.
Instead of sitting with three New York Islanders, three New Jersey Devils and two Philadelphia Flyers -- as expected -- they were all alone.
"I was actually kind of surprised, but it's okay," Leopold said. "We get all of the attention."
The team will practice together Tuesday night for the first time before opening the tournament against Latvia on Wednesday.
"I haven't gotten a lot of sleep in the last 24 hours, but if we were ready to play -- I'd be ready," Grahame said. "It's a switch, it happens in the playoffs. When that puck drops there is something right there. You may not have as much juice as you normally would, but you'd definitely be focused and ready to go."
With so many of the 12 competing teams filling their rosters with NHL players, the Americans aren't alone in dealing with missing large parts of their squads.
"Schedule-wise, yeah, we would have loved one more day. I think every team will tell you that," said Jim Johannson, the senior director of hockey operations. "Every country wanted their best players here, including the U.S., and that's what we have. There's been one snowstorm in the Northeast United States this year and it hit yesterday."
Four Skiers Pass Tests
Four suspended cross-country skiers passed new hemoglobin tests Monday after serving five-day suspensions.
German cross-country skier Evi Sachenbacher and two Americans -- Kikkan Randall and Leif Zimmermann -- were among the four who were retested Monday. The identity of the fourth skier was not immediately released.
Twelve in all were suspended -- eight Thursday and four more Friday. International Ski Federation officials hinted they expected most of the rest to be cleared as well.
