U.S. Room Damage Estimate Goes Up

An estimate of the damage done to three rooms in the Olympic athletes’ village by some unidentified U.S. men’s hockey players early Thursday was raised to $3,000, as the investigation continues.

Darryl Seibel, spokesman for USA Hockey, said questioning of players had begun in the U.S., with USA Hockey, the NHL and NHL Players Assn. cooperating in the effort.

However, Seibel said he didn’t anticipate a conclusion any time soon because most officials of all three organizations are still in Nagano. In addition, the investigation will be complicated because many players stayed with their families after the hockey team’s loss to the Czech Republic in the quarterfinals Wednesday night, and it has not yet been determined who was still in the village.

Ten chairs were broken, six that were thrown into a courtyard; three apartments were damaged by fire extinguishers, and a fire extinguisher was thrown from the fifth floor into a courtyard during the incident, which occurred between 2:30 and 4 a.m. Nearby athletes were disturbed, including speedskaters who had races Thursday.

“There’s not enough concrete information to determine who was involved,” Seibel said. “We will continue to investigate because we feel it is important that everything possible be done to find out who’s responsible in an effort to at least clear those who were not involved.”

U.S. forward Doug Weight said the incident has been overblown and blamed shoddy construction of the chairs for the damage.

“We’re big guys and the chairs aren’t real strong,” he told the San Jose Mercury News. “Some were broken while we were just sitting on them, playing cards. People think we were hammered and destroying furniture, but that’s not true.”

*

Vladislav Tretiak, the legendary goaltender who won three gold medals and a silver medal for the Soviet Union, is in Nagano as an assistant coach of the Russian team.

But that didn’t keep him from admiring the performance of Czech goalie Dominik Hasek in the Czechs’ 2-1 semifinal victory over Canada.

“He played fantastic,” Tretiak said. “Maybe he’s the best goalie in the world. He played very well in the shootout.”

*

Canada’s lineup for the tiebreaking shootout had several surprises, notably the inclusion of defenseman Ray Bourque and the exclusion of Wayne Gretzky, the all-time leading scorer in NHL history, and Steve Yzerman, captain of the defending Stanley Cup champion Detroit Red Wings.

Omitting Gretzky isn’t totally outlandish, because over the years he has never been good on breakaways. But Bourque, a defenseman, was far from an obvious pick.

“I’ve never been in a situation like this and yes, I was a little surprised to be selected to shoot,” Bourque said. “But I was called and did my best and wasn’t able to score.”

Said Yzerman: “I wasn’t surprised not to be there. I wouldn’t second-guess or question any of the five guys picked.”