PLAN OF ATTACK : U.S. Needs to Develop National Team, Head of Amateur Hockey Group Says

Bob Johnson, executive director of USA Hockey, says he has a long-range plan to bring an Olympic gold medal back to the United States.

But there’s a hitch.

“I don’t know whether we can follow the ideal program,” Johnson said Wednesday while watching players practice for the U.S. Olympic Festival.

Johnson, who coached the U.S. Olympic team in 1976, said he and his staff chose among several plans to rebuild U.S. hockey. However, he said, he has been around long enough not to count on anything.

Part of Johnsons’ ideal plan is to have a core of about 80 players who would be evaluated at the Festival next year in Minneapolis. From that group, 23-25 players would be chosen to participate in the Goodwill Games in Seattle. The players then would continue to be evaluated and sent to international tournaments.

“We’d like to have something like a national team that is together all year-round,” Johnson said. “Chemistry is going to be the most important thing on this team, as it is on most teams.”

Johnson spoke at length about the talent pool from which the eventual Olympic team will be drawn. With international rules now allowing professional hockey players to play in the Olympics, that talent pool is significantly wider and deeper.

“Our talent pool includes everyone who is playing hockey in America,” Johnson said. “We may not get them, but that’s our talent pool.”

The fact that virtually every player in the National Hockey League is eligible for Olympic competition by no means ensures that even a few of them will compete. Take the 1988 Winter Olympics in Calgary, for example.

“We went to each team in the league and asked them to release one player (for Olympic competition),” Johnson said. “The clubs said, ‘OK, we’ll rate them from one to 10 and you can’t have any in the top 10.’ It was tough.”

Extremely tough. The U.S. team, Johnson acknowledged Wednesday, probably would have won a medal, instead of finishing seventh, if it had better goaltending. But there are only three American goaltenders in the NHL.

And why should an NHL team release a player for four weeks in the middle of the season to play in the Olympics? Some teams don’t even like to lose players for the week of the All-Star game.

Johnson, however, has a perspective that might appeal to some clubs.

“The Olympic program is the best developmental program in hockey,” he said. “Without a doubt, it’s better than junior hockey or playing in college.”

Johnson argues that if a team gives U.S. hockey a young player for two or three years, he will give them back a far more experienced, better-skilled player.

There is, however, one potential drawback.

“As soon as the guy starts playing good, the club recalls him,” Johnson said.

If anyone has a chance to negotiate with the NHL to release players, it’s Johnson, who coached for five years at Calgary.

“Relations with the league have never been better,” he said. “There is no doubt, we have to have pro players. We must.”

One possible solution to the reluctance of teams releasing players in the middle of the season is to remove ice hockey from the Winter Games and put it in the Summer Olympics.

“It’s off-season and our players will play, I know it,” Johnson said. “The Olympics is in the middle of our season. Look at basketball, they have pros now and the Olympics for them is in the off-season. I say to put basketball in the winter games, everyone looks at me like I’m crazy.”

U.S. hockey officials have not selected an Olympic coach, although Johnson said the job will be for at least three years and a high priority will be put on NHL contacts.

Johnson had an extensive collegiate coaching career and the Olympic job in 1976. He accepted the job as Olympic coach for 1984, but quit when the Calgary Flames offered to make him their coach.

Does he want to become the U.S. Olympic coach again?

“That’s the last option,” he said of his candidacy.

For now, that’s not part of the plan. But even Johnson acknowledges that that it will be tough to follow the plan.