NOTEBOOK

To inspire the U.S. Olympic hockey team Monday against Italy, Jack Blatherwick, the strength and conditioning coach, assembled a five-minute tape of Dan Jansen winning the gold medal in the 1,000-meter speedskating race here four days after Jansen had slipped and lost a medal chance in the 500.

The ploy was a success.

“The video put tears in my eyes, I know that,” said Peter Ferraro, who scored twice in a 7-1 romp that got the Americans into the medal round. “It helped me in (Monday’s) game and I hope for the rest of the tournament.”

Blatherwick, however, was reluctant to take credit.

“I saw that, somehow, they identified with his spirit and respected him for the way he competed in the 500,” he said. “To them, he was a hero for that, when to the media, he was a failure. I typed up a letter to him so the kids could tell him that. They kind of adopted him. So when he won the 1,000, I just put the tape together for them.”

Blatherwick was in the editing room again Tuesday, in preparation for today’s quarterfinal game against Finland, but he wasn’t producing a Jansen sequel.

“It’ll be a bunch of good plays we’ve made over the course of the tournament,” he said. “Grinding, hard-working plays CBS might not call highlights, but we think they’re the kind of plays we have to make to win.”

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When Curt Lindstrom took over as coach of Finland’s national team, he faced more problems than anticipated.

He knew he had to bolster the confidence of the players, who have long felt inferior to their Swedish counterparts, but he soon discovered that he had to deal with a drinking problem, too. Alcohol abuse is widespread among the general population in Finland, including its athletes, notably the ski jumpers.

“We are all understanding now our responsibility to the country,” said Lindstrom, who is in his second season as Finland’s coach. “I told them they are all representing Finland and they must be ambassadors. Now we can take two beers without any problems.”

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Although he coaches Finland, Lindstrom is Swedish. He coached the Swedish national team to second place in the 1986 World Championships and to the world title in 1987. He later went to Switzerland, then took a year off to run his family business, a betting parlor in Stockholm.

“When they asked me (to take the coaching job), I couldn’t say no,” he said. “It was an honor for a Swede to go to Finland and take over the national team. At first some people had reservations but they have since welcomed me with open arms.”