Sending Players To The Olympics Bad Business For NHL
By John Mehno

Mike Eruzione played in as many NHL games as your grandmother did.

Jim Craig appeared in 30 games over three seasons with three different NHL teams and won 11 games. His career victory total puts him 35 behind Roberto Romano.

Yet, Eruzione and Craig are genuine hockey heroes by virtue of the key roles they played on the 1980 U.S. "Miracle on Ice" Olympic hockey team.

There will be no Eruzione or Craig-type stories at this year's Winter Games in Salt Lake City. The NHL has appropriated the games by agreeing to shut down its own season so its stars can corrupt whatever is left of the Olympic ideal.

NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman stole the idea from the NBA because that's where he steals all his ideas. Bettman was a deputy under NBA commissioner David Stern and his business pattern for the NHL has been to copy whatever the NBA does with little regard for whether it makes sense.

So while the NBA can assemble a "Dream Team" for Olympic competition, it comes during the players' summer vacation. To send players to the Olympics, the NHL must interrupt its season, then shoehorn in extra games to determine a Stanley Cup champion before the Fourth of July. The hectic pace will probably lead to injuries and worse hockey but Bettman is dazzled by the idea of being on whatever obscure cable channel NBC chooses for hockey.

If it's bad business for the NHL, it's even worse for the Olympics.

What made the 1980 team so compelling was the idea of unknowns slaying giants. A bunch of college kids, most of who were unwanted by the NHL, beat teams laden with professionals whose only job was to play hockey for their country. Sprinkle in the cold war tensions that existed at the time and it's easy to see why non-hockey fans could get hooked on the story.

What we get now is a spin-off of the NHL All-Star game – a nightly version of Us vs. Them on good nights, Them vs. Them on most of the others. The greatest concentration of interest is in Canada, where that country's inferiority complex is subject to the results of international hockey competitions.

Why should the rest of us care? We shouldn't. Are you rooting for Team USA or are you pulling for Team Canada and its captain, Mario Lemieux? (Lemieux, by the way, has been an American citizen for several years, having bid farewell to the 84-cent dollar when he established residences in Pennsylvania and Florida).

Winning the gold medal was a life-changing experience for the members of the 1980 team. Think it's going to make that big a difference to one of this year's millionaires, who will go back to competing for the Stanley Cup as soon as the games are over?

Not a chance. Loading the Olympic roster with pros makes as much sense as letting Jerome Bettis and Marshall Faulk contend for the Heisman Trophy.

To other matters. . .

o   As soon as Pitt's new basketball arena opens this fall, Duquesne's Palumbo Center will be the second-oldest major sports venue in town. The Palumbo is so old it was built without tax money.

o   A better-than-expected season certainly helped but you have to give Steelers fans credit for adapting to a whole new game day routine. Some people had been relieving themselves in the same spot for decades in the Three Rivers parking lots.

o   Hard to believe we're just coming up on the first anniversary of Three Rivers' demolition. The only visible reminder of the old place is the Gate D tower the Steelers preserved. There's more of Forbes Field still standing than Three Rivers.

o   You decide what's sillier: Dennis Miller's scripted non sequitors on Monday Night Football or a fawning newspaper column that purports to find meaning in them?

o   All things considered, Mike Williams had no problem coming back to the Pirates, especially when no real market materialized for his services.

o   Pitt coach Ben Howland's greatest accomplishment might be getting his team to play an unselfish, defensive-oriented style. Past Pitt teams have had more talent but this one knows how to play the game properly.

o   Limited funds aren't the only reason the Penguins will have a hard time getting governmental support for a new arena. Grant Street considers hockey a very distant third to football and baseball and won't jump through hoops to get the project done.

o   Wouldn't it be nice if some radio station would invest enough to do an all-sports format the right way?

o   Lanny (Hi, Friends) Frattare is about to start his 27th season as a Pirates broadcaster. This proves that longevity and impact are two entirely different issues.

(John Mehno can be reached at: jmehno@timesnet.net)