This Is Kinder, Gentler Brooks

Herb Brooks was famous in 1980 for the stern lectures he delivered to his team of impressionable, young college kids during the seven months they prepared for the Lake Placid Games.

This time, guiding NHL professionals for 10 days at most, Brooks plans to do less talking and more listening.

“I don’t think of this being a dictatorial type of thing,” said Brooks, whose team begins play Friday against Finland at the E Center. “You try to pull it out of them, as opposed to putting it in. You try and pull it out and make it an ownership-stake type of thing for the players. Then you have a better chance of a cohesive locker room.”

If this is a different Brooks, that’s because these are decidedly different times in Olympic hockey.

The participation of NHL stars for the second time has changed the tournament structure and made a quick bonding process imperative. The six seeded teams--the U.S., Canada, Sweden, Finland, the Czech Republic and Russia--will each have only one practice before their openers. “If the U.S. is fortunate to win, it will be no miracle,” Brooks said at a news conference Monday. “We’re one of six teams that’s got a shot at it.”

Brooks is convinced the U.S. and Canada will be at a disadvantage on the Olympic ice surface, which, at 200 feet long and 100 feet wide, is 15 feet wider than NHL rinks.

“We have more of a north-south [directional] mentality,” he said. “For Europeans, it’s different. They know how to play east-west. They know about cycling the puck. They know how to come back to the puck. The Canadians and Americans will have to make that adjustment.”

Nor will the U.S. have the kind of home-continent advantage. “It’s not like going to a foreign country for anybody,” Brooks said.

As it was in the last U.S. men’s Olympic successes, goaltending is sure to be a pivotal factor for the U.S. in this tournament. Brooks said Monday he hadn’t settled on one starter and might rotate two of the three goalies on the roster before deciding which to play again.

U.S. goalies Mike Richter, Tom Barrasso and Mike Dunham have all struggled at times this season, leading Brooks to joke that he’ll leave the decision to goaltending coach Warren Strelow and say, “Don’t screw up.”

“I’m not going to sell people short, but I do recognize the great goalkeepers that are here from the other countries,” Brooks said. “I don’t want to hang our goalkeepers out there in case we don’t do it. There are other factors.

“I think if you play smart and hard and do it with some class, you should be able to sleep at night,” he said.