The face of the game is changing, and the latest version of Olympic ice hockey will unfold before the eyes of an eager Utah audience in February 2002.
They still use sticks and a frozen rubber puck. And the object of the game -- putting the former onto the latter and firing it past a goaltender into the net -- remains the same.But this is not your father's Olympic ice hockey tournament.
This is not the Soviet Union winning four consecutive gold medals (1964-76) before a bunch of kids off the streets of the good ol' U S of A knocked them off the Olympic throne in 1980's Miracle on Ice.
This is the Olympic era in which professional athletes, the best in the world, compete for Olympic glory every four years. National Hockey League players participated in the Winter Games for the first time in 1998 and are expected to do so again in 2002.
This is the new millennium in which the sport's female athletes own a sizable share of the spotlight. With their first Olympic ice hockey competition in 1998, the women arguably fostered and invigorated a whole new generation -- certainly a new gender -- of hockey enthusiasts.
The story lines will be many when the Salt Lake Winter Games open and hockey takes center stage in West Valley City, where most of the men's games will be played, and Provo, where nearly all of the women's games will be staged. (The gold-medal women's match will be played at the larger E Center.)
Assuming the NHL again participates, can the star-studded and room-trashing U.S. team that finished out of the medal standings in 1998 transform itself into the medal contender everyone expected to see in Nagano?
Can Canada, the men's gold-medal favorite two years ago, turn its Olympic program around? Or will the Czechs begin building a dynasty to rival the Soviet Union's stronghold of the past?
Can the U.S. women defend their gold medal despite the fact that Canada has thoroughly dominated them in every World Championship held since that event began in 1990?
And will the presence of women's Olympic hockey in the United States further the dramatic growth in the sport that occurred after Cammi Granato and the Americans upset Canada in Nagano?
"We're confident it's going to be a great hockey tournament in Salt Lake City, both the men's and women's, regardless of whether the NHL participates," said Darryl Seibel, a former USA Hockey staffer now with the U.S. Olympic Committee.
Adding NHL players in 1998 effectively created six Olympic Dream Teams rather than a single dominating entity as was the case when national basketball players invaded the Summer Games in 1992.
Ultimately, the Czech Republic -- a team led by Pittsburgh Penguins forward Jaromir Jagr and Buffalo Sabres goalie Dominik Hasek but still featured the fewest NHL players on a national team -- captured the gold. The Russians took silver and Finland grabbed the bronze.
"What people don't understand when they look at the Czech Republic or Sweden or Russia or any of the great hockey-playing countries is that they all have their own professional leagues," said Doug Palazzari, a former Salt Lake Golden Eagle (1977-82) who serves as executive director of USA Hockey, the governing body for amateur hockey in the United States.
"They have plenty of outstanding-caliber players. There is a depth of players in all the hockey-playing countries."
That depth should provide for a top-notch Olympic competition if for some reason NHL players do not participate. That agreement is still being worked out.
But even if there is a glitch in 2002, chances are future Olympic ice will be populated with NHL pros. And that means no-name collegians and free agents -- like Mike Eruzione and Jim Craig of the gold medal-winning 1980 U.S. team -- may never again have the chance to emerge as national heroes.
"Mike Eruzione has not worked a day since 1980. He has not held down a real job. He has lived on one shot, one moment," said Tim Mouser, president of the IHL's Utah Grizzlies, who tried out for that 1980 team as a goaltender.
"Mike Eruzione wouldn't be a stick boy had the NHL players played in 1980."
Until the NHL decision is made, it is difficult to know what to expect from the men's tournament in 2002. The Salt Lake Organizing Committee is planning on a 14-team tournament with the NHL players but has contingency plans for a 12-team competition without them.
Former Utah Grizzlies goaltender Tommy Salo could return to the E Center in 2002. Prior to signing a professional contract, Salo was the goalie for Sweden's 1994 gold medal-winning team.Requires Adobe Acrobat.
Salo is enjoying his best season in the NHL this year with the Edmonton Oilers. He ranks eighth in the league in goals-against-average.
The women's Olympic picture for 2002 has already begun to crystallize. By Sunday night, the top six seeds for the 2002 Winter Games tournament will be decided.
The second women's Olympic hockey competition will feature a total of eight teams. Only six competed in 1998. And according to the International Ice Hockey Federation, the number of countries with women's hockey programs has expanded in the past two years from 16 to 25.
"The boost in women's ice hockey really took place after Nagano," said IIHF spokesman Kimmo Leinonen. "USA has a large increase, but in Canada (especially), more women ice hockey players are registered every year."
That doesn't bode well for the United States, which hopes to build from its 1998 success and begin to catch up with the Canadians in the IIHF World Championship. Canada has won the five previous world tournaments. Each time, the United States has placed second and Finland third.
The 2000 Women's World Championship ends Sunday in Mississauga, Ontario. The top six teams will be seeded accordingly in the 2002 Winter Games.
"For their program to go to the next level, they need to get a competitive club system together," Melody Davidson, coach of the Canadian national team, said of the U.S. women.
Canada's top players participate in an organized club league in eastern Canada and are in great playing shape when they reunite as a national team, Davidson noted.
This year, however, the U.S. team played together as a touring squad throughout the fall and winter. If that continues in subsequent years, the Americans will be that much tougher to beat in 2002, Davidson said.
The men's Olympic game is similar to the NHL except the rink is wider -- 100 feet instead of 85 -- and fighting results in an ejection instead of a few minutes in the penalty box.
"There's more room to maneuver, more opportunity, I think, for more team play," said Dan Moro, director of ice hockey for SLOC.
No checking is allowed in the women's game, but that is sometimes hard to tell. There is plenty of contact and inadvertent collisions. And because the women's sport is still fairly young, an increase in skill level is perhaps more noticeable each year as more college and amateur programs graduate players to the elite level.