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URL:    http://www.montrealgazette.com/PAGES/990119/2195073.html
Date:	Tue, 19 Jan 1999 10:18:54 -0500

Tuesday 19 January 1999

- Column - Dave Stubbs -

No self-pity for this Team Canada
Women's hockey squad got down to business after gold-medal loss at
Nagano

[27]DAVE STUBBS
The Gazette

JOHN MAHONEY, GAZETTE / Canadian women's hockey coach Daniele
Sauvageau (centre) is flanked by players: Caroline Ouellette, Kim St.
Pierre, Isabelle Chartrand, Mai-Lau Le, France St-Louis, Nancy Drolet
and Danielle Goyette.

The Canadian women's hockey program took the time of roughly one
Zamboni tour of a rink to feel sorry for itself after the Olympic
Winter Games last February. Then it got down to work, the results of
which will be on display here Friday when Team Canada faces Finland in
an exhibition game at the Maurice Richard Arena.

There was a generous gnashing of teeth, gazing at navels and pointing
of fingers when Team Canada lost the gold-medal game to the United
States in Nagano, the first time the women had taken their impressive
act onto the high-profile Olympic stage.

But their effort was beyond reproach, and they did not embarrass like
the Canadian men, an underachieving National Hockey League alleged
dream team that failed to win a medal of any hue. Certainly, there was
nothing the women had to be ashamed of, and while the country was
still debating why Wayne Gretzky was shut out from the shootout, the
Canadian women quietly were sketching a blueprint for their future.

Ultimately, the contract of controversial, sometimes firebrand head
coach Shannon Miller was not renewed, and she was replaced last June
by Montrealer Daniele Sauvageau, her assistant in Nagano, who brings
considerable experience and much-needed poise to the post.

"We were at work again almost a week after the Olympics," Sauvageau
said at a press conference yesterday. "Then we had camps in May in
Calgary, Montreal, Toronto and Halifax, getting us right back into the
evaluation process."

Today, the rookie head coach likes what she sees in the distinctive
Canadian jerseys. She and her staff will take a more critical look at
its talent this week during a four-game exhibition tour against the
spirited Finns, the bronze medalists in Nagano, with matches tomorrow
and Thursday in Oshawa and Renfrew, Ont., before the series arrives
here Friday and wraps up Sunday in Drummondville.

Sauvageau has 27 players to consider for the roster for the fifth
women's world championship, scheduled in Espoo, Finland from March
8-14. Gone from the Nagano squad are goalie Manon Rheaume and forward
Stacy Wilson, a four-time world champion. But among the returning
veterans are forwards Cassie Campbell, Danielle Goyette, France
St-Louis and Hayley Wickenheiser and rearguards Therese Brisson and
Geraldine Heaney.

The well-deep talent pool says much about the encouraging growth of
women's hockey in this country, yet it also presents management with a
dilemma.

"The thing is, the people we won't take on Team Canada could probabl.
play for any other national team in the world," said Sauvageau, an MU.
police sergeant when she's not coaching.

"We know what all of these players can do individually. This week, we
want to see how well they can play together. We'll assign each player a
role and see who can play better with who. From there, we'll name the
team (at the end of the month).

"After the 1997 world championship we saw a tremendous increase in
depth in Canada," she added. "Now we can talk about probably 60
players who are ready to be developed at this level, a lot compared to
five or six years ago.

"We are intent on defending our (world) title, of course. But we also
want to give to the younger players some experience at the
international level, to teach them how to represent Canada well, and
we're keeping in mind that we want to develop players for the 2002
Olympics."

For the home side, this Ontario-Quebec series offers a rare
opportunity to compete before friendly crowds. The Canadian program
already has enjoyed a wonderfully successful season, with two major
tournament victories - the national team captured the Three Nations
Cup last month, beating the U.S. and the host Finns, and the Under-22
squad, which has eight players on this week's team, won the Christmas
Cup against Switzerland and the host Germans.

But Sauvageau knows this is all merely preamble to the season's most
significant test. Canada has won all four world championships staged
to date, winning 20 games without a loss and outscoring the opposition
164-24. The gap is closing, however - the Canadians needed overtime to
beat the Americans at the last worlds in 1997, and the U.S. earned,
and predictably trumpets at every turn, bragging rights to the first
Olympic gold.

The Canadians can do nothing to rewrite history, of course, but
revenge would be awfully sweet at the worlds. And don't think for a
moment that Sauvageau and her team don't see the top step of the
podium there as a perfect first step toward Olympic redemption in
three years time.

Team Canada on ice

Who: Team Canada vs. Finland.

What: Women's hockey exhibition game, organized by Montreal Sports
International.

When: Friday, Jan. 22, 7:30 p.m.

Where: Maurice Richard Arena, corner of Viau and Pierre-de-Coubertin
(metro Viau).

Why: The game will help Canadian coaches to evaluate and select the
national team for the world championship in Finland in March.

Ticket information: $5 each, available at the door on game day or
through Admission ticket outlets, telephone (514) 790-1245. One dollar
from each ticket sold will be donated to Quebec minor hockey.

©1998 The Gazette,
a division of Southam Inc.

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