Nagano ´98
Nagano 98 was the biggest success story of the Czech hockey. The route to the gold
was not an easy one. You might remember the inspiring final goal by our defenceman Peter Svoboda from a blue line.
We made the final only after the most stressful game with Canada. We have retaing the most beautiful memories about it, but how about Canada?
You can read about the Canadian side in our next articles, that were published in Canada right after its defeat. There papers belong to the category of sports memorabilia, that you could have seen in the previous article. You will see the name of the story and its link ODKAZ na predchozi.
Thes papers are sealed in plastic to protect the from its aging, they contain comments of the players, sports writers and game analysis.
The papers also contain large color photos of the decisive moments. They also have prognosis and bets of the final outcome with Russia.
Rewritten, photo No.1:
NAGANO 1998 - G1 DAY15
Shot down
The finger-pointing begins as Canada comes to grips with the bitter taste of Olympic defeat.
Scotty Bowman
„For me, it would have been awfully tough not to pick Wayne Gretzky as one of those five shooters.“
Canada´s Count:5 – gold medals, 5 – silver medals, 4 – bronze medals
 On the second picture you see the most famous hockey players, wayne Gretzsky
with his head down. It was his last Olympic Games where he took part as a player.
I might not be far from the true and I do not mean it with no respect. This photo might please every Czech hockey fan and many might enjoy hanging it above their beds.
Rewritten, photo No.2:
Team Canada: What went wrong
Down and out ... A dejected Wayne Gretzky skates off teh ice after the Czechs bounced Team Canada 2 – 1in a suden-death shootout yesterday, eliminating the Canadians from the gold-medal match.
 Rewritten, photo No.3: (G4):
NHLs Olympic disaster
Chris Stevenson – at the Olympics
Nagano – It wasn´t supposed to be like this.
The XVIII Winter OG were supposed to be the showcase of showcases for the NHL and its stars, a springboard to new markets and greater riches.
But this morning, with an ongoing investigation of the American NHLers´ trashing of their quarters and the prospect of a gold-medal game nobody in America cares about, it´s hard to dismiss the feeling these Games have beeen a disaster for the NHL.
Compromise
It started with the ridiculous controversy over the citizenship of Ulf Samuelsson, the Swede with U.S. passport who was kicked out of tournament.
Because the NHL is associated with the Olympic tournament, it was hit of some of the egg from that one, though it was hardly the NHL´s fault Samuelsson didn´t know for which country he was eligible to play. As Finnish defenceman Jyrki Lumme put it, the guy is Swedish and has always played for Sweden and he should have been allowed to play for Sweden in Nagano.
The decision to kick out Samuelsson but allow Sweden to keep its points was a ridiculous compromise. Under the rules, goofy as they are, the Swedes used an ineligible player , but were not penalized. Again, the NHL had less to do with the decision than the TV executives,
but the public perception is that nobody in the tournament knows what exactly the score is.
The greatest harm to the NHL´s reputation to come out of this fortnight, however, has been the behavior of the U.S players who broke chairs, threw a fire extinguisher from the fifth floor into the common area below and caused damage to three apartments with five extinguishers.
Hockey players, apart from the occasional drunk-driving charge, have avoided most of the legal entanglements such as drug and weapons Charles that have become daily news for baseball, basketball and football players.
Hráči NHL měli většinou reputaci u lidí z malých městeček, konzervativní v jejich přesvědčení a vychování, nezkaženi hrubým jednaním, zkaženého chování a poměrů, které jindy vidíme u jiných profesionalních sportů, ci jiných vedoucích tříd.
Tato špatná situace v olympijské vesnici však vše změnila.
NHLers have enjoyed the wholesome reputation of mostly small-town people , conservative in both upbringing and nature, free of the boorish, spoiled behaviour and attitude of pro sports´ other ruling classes.
The messy situation in the athletes´ village changes that. With the party-hardy Americans failing to advance past the quarter-final (they were, in the words of one U.S. reporter: „Beaten by a hot bartender“) and the Canadian now on the sidelines , the outcome of the investigation into who is responsible for the trashing of the accommodations becomes the big story for the U.S reporters in Japan.
Culprits
The next step will be the naming of the culprits and that, rather then who wins the gold medal, will be the story that resonates from these Games.
Tonight´s gold-medal game may bring Prague and Moscow to a standstill , but will not be the great American showcase for the NHL the league´s thinkers envisioned. The irony is that have not watched the NHL game at these Olympic, anyway.
The clutch-and-grab tactics that are embranced as a legal tactic at home have been almost non-existent here.
The hockey school of the former east bloc nations, which just happen to be meeting in tomorrow´s gold-medal game, haughtily eschews something as stifling as the trap.
They play a more wide open, flowing game, but still bring an edge and defensive commitment , which makes their games emotional and entertaining.
The game makes no concessions to television, so there are none of those TV timeouts that leave everybody in the NHL buildings sitting around, looking at each other while they are bombarded with high-decibel rock music and insipid advertising.
The surprising return to form of the Russian and Czech teams has made for some very entertaining hockey.
It hasn´t lacked in any aspect of the game, which is evident when you see even Segrei Fedorov handing out solid body-checks.
The truth of the matter is that hockey has been promoted at Nagano. But it is highly questionable if NHL hockey has been promoted.
In fact, it just might turn out this Olympic experience has served only to point out the deficiencies of the NHL game.
Next, You will also see another newspaper articles about Nagano 98,
all written from a Canadian perspective.
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Welcome to the server about Jaromir Jagr 
Original canadian newspaper from Toronto, published during Olympic games in nagano 1998. They have beeb published just after the memorable hockey game between Canada and Czech Republic. These stories by Canadian hockey writers are from Canadian perspective, dealing with the loss. They are very interesting, never seen or read here.