Damage by U.S. Team Downplayed by Fasel

International Ice Hockey Federation President Rene Fasel, who initially expressed dismay over $3,000 worth of damage done by an unknown number of U.S. men’s hockey players to chairs, a fire extinguisher and three rooms at the Olympic village early last Thursday, is now backpedaling.

Fasel, who originally called the incident “a real mess,” said Saturday it has been blown out of proportion.

“It’s not a big thing. These things happen,” he said. “Now the feedback I have is that it’s not so bad.

“Every year we have 2,500 players in the village. Now we have professional players and everybody made maybe a mountain about it. We cannot accept it, but if we compare to what has happened here, it’s a minor thing.”

*

Responding to comments from players who professed dislike for the tiebreaking procedure after the Czechs’ 2-1 shootout victory over Canada in the semifinals, Fasel said the shootout probably will stay and the overtime period that precedes it will remain 10 minutes long.

“The problem we face here is that we can have 20 minutes for the finals, but the [scheduling for] for the semifinals is very tight,” he said. “The other team has to warm up.

“We like the shootout. We will go with the shootout because of the skill. In Europe, we are used to this. In soccer, in the World Cup, we have it in the final. It’s part of our game. It was part of the gold-medal game at Lillehammer.”

Fasel also said he was pleased with the first appearance of NHL players representing their countries in the Games.

“I would say it was better than I expected. The caliber of play was excellent,” he said. “The work ethic of the players was very good. They can be proud.”

The NHL has not yet decided if it will repeat this experiment in 2002 at Salt Lake City. The NHL Players Assn. must agree before it can be done again.

Fasel is in favor of bringing NHL players back to the Games in 2002. “It’s the best thing we can do and it’s good for hockey,” he said.

*

Canada’s shootout against the Czech Republic was its third in Olympic play.

Canada won a shootout against Germany in the quarterfinals of the 1992 Games at Albertville and lost a shootout to Sweden in the gold-medal game of the 1994 Games at Lillehammer.

*

The intensity of games here has been so high that center Saku Koivu of Finland and the Montreal Canadiens expects players to experience a post-Olympic emotional letdown, as many did after the 1996 World Cup.

“It’s going to be different than the World Cup because after the World Cup we had a week off,” he said. “We go back and play on Wednesday. I think it’s going to take a while for players to get back to normal.”