Canada Tries Belarus on for Size

Eric Lindros needed all of 30 seconds to tell the world what kind of hockey game he and his Canadian teammates intended to play Friday.

From his first shift, when Lindros used his 6-foot-4, 236-pound body as a battering ram to flatten two Belarus players, through the final minutes of Canada’s Olympic opener, Lindros was a one-man wrecking crew. In every zone, in every stage of the game, Lindros came at the valiant but overwhelmed Belarussians and wore them down--as he and they knew he would.

“That’s part of Canadian hockey, to go out there and be physical,” said Lindros, Canada’s captain. “One thing we had going for us was our size and ability, and we wanted to keep them on their heels.”

By playing a big game, Lindros got Canada off to a successful start. The only player on Canada’s roster with previous Olympic experience, he helped calm his teammates’ pregame jitters and boosted them to a 5-0 victory before a crowd of 9,960 at Big Hat with two goals and a variety of thumping hits.

“Eric is a great player and he played very well tonight,” said Belarus Coach Anatoli Varivonchik, whose team won its preliminary-round group and got the dubious honor of becoming cannon fodder for the major hockey powers and NHL stars. “It was really very hard to stop all the offensive lines of Canada. They have all the greatest players, and Eric was the real leader of the team.”

Said Marc Crawford, Canada’s coach: “I think Eric was our most physical forward, and his play was exactly what we needed. Eric was a force out there.”

He was a force inside the locker room too. Although Canada’s players have countless Stanley Cup championships and individual awards among them, they were humbled by the prospect of making their Olympic debut. Lindros, who won a silver medal in 1992 at Albertville, was amused.

“Everybody in the room was feeling like they were heading into a peewee tournament and had butterflies,” Lindros said. “I don’t think many people slept [Friday] afternoon. There were a lot of guys gripping their sticks real tight, and the guys were excited to go out and perform. Now, having one game under our belt will loosen guys up.”

Theoren Fleury helped ease their anxiety when he scored a short-handed goal at 7:55, finishing off a two-on-one with Keith Primeau. Defenseman Ray Bourque, in deep on the left side, converted a pass from Rod Brind’Amour at 14:34 for a 2-0 lead that goaltender Patrick Roy preserved with a deft glove save on Aleksandr Galchenyuk in the final minute of the period.

Canada padded its lead in the second period, when Al MacInnis’ long slap shot was deflected past goaltender Andre Mezin by one of Mezin’s teammates at 4:38 and Lindros shoveled in a shot off a scramble around the net at 17:44. Lindros’ second goal, set up on a nice pass from Philadelphia teammate Brind’Amour at 12:57 of the third period, merely emphasized Canada’s superiority.

“This is the first time we play at a level like this. We don’t have too much experience in games like this,” said left wing Vladimir Tsyplakov of Belarus and the Kings. “Everybody played good for Canada, and we made a couple of mistakes that cost us goals.”

As good as the Canadians were Friday, they anticipated having to rise to a higher level Saturday against Sweden, which won its opener against the U.S., 4-2. “The Americans and Swedes probably had a little tougher battle,” said Wayne Gretzky, an Olympic rookie at 37, “and [Saturday] is going to be a much tougher game for us, it’s as simple as that. The Americans are great, but the Swedes are good too. No one team is a clear cut above here.”

But Lindros, if he plays as he did Friday, can make a big difference. “Ultimately talent, even in a tremendous team system, comes to the forefront and Eric is a premier player,” Gretzky said. “He’s a phenomenal player, and he’s really determined to get the gold medal here.”