At a TV reporter's request, Herb Brooks turned his back on the game behind him.
How appropriate.
On the ice were members of the Brooks-coached 1980 men's United States Olympic hockey team, gathered in Los Angeles for a recent reunion that brought together all 20 team members for the first time since the day after they won improbable Lake Placid gold.
Before the Americans marched to an eventual upset of the Soviet Union and a tournament-clinching victory over Finland, Brooks was the man who molded them. Soon thereafter, as tales of how he did emerged, the disdain some players had developed became apparent.
Some, at times, even despised him.
Over time, though, many have softened.
And now, as Brooks prepares to coach a team of American NHL stars in the 2002 Winter Games ? final-round play begins with four games Friday, including the U.S. vs. Finland ? the college kids he had in '80 trust he can be successful again.
"In 22 years," said Mark Johnson, the forward with two goals in Team USA's 4-3 win over the Soviets, "we find out a lot about him.
"Obviously, the one thing I think people understand," added Johnson, now an assistant coach at the University of Wisconsin, "is he's a good hockey coach. . . . He'll be going to Salt Lake City, and taking our best players, and trying to win a gold medal for our country. Certainly, (he's) the guy that we need behind the bench in this situation."
In 1980, not everyone might have said the same.
The man who led the University of Minnesota to three NCAA titles drove his Olympians mercilessly, without apology. It was all part of his plan, one some only came to understand later.
Much later.
"I wasn't one of the stars of the team," defenseman Bob Suter said, "and I kind of bought into it. And I kind of didn't . . . Whatever he said, I kind of just went along with and did. I think most of (the others) did. I mean, some will say they didn't until towards the end, but I think most-everybody believed in what he was doing. Didn't maybe believe in him but believed in what he was trying to do for us."
That was this: "He put us in a position ? physically, one, and mentally, secondly ? to give us a chance to win," Johnson said. "I think the elite coaches, the good coaches, the coaches that are real successful, have a certain vision. It's their ability to get their players to realize that vision, and he was able to do that. And it started in August (of 1979), with his vision."
Brooks had the Americans play 60 games in the six months leading to the Games. When training camp started, he gave all prospective players a test ? a 300-question quiz that had nothing to do with hockey, everything to do with psychology. He was a relentless taskmaster, going so far as to return the team to the ice for extra practice after one win in Oslo, Norway.
"Right at the beginning of our time together, we barnstormed through Europe for three weeks. That was a very bonding experience, and we learned a lot about each other early," forward Dave Silk said. "For better or worse, we knew an awful lot about one another. Our strengths, our weaknesses.
"When Herb Brooks picked our team, he spent a lot of time getting character references and talking to coaches and people that knew the history of the players he was choosing. So, I think he really, really understood the importance of having good chemistry."
Yet he toyed with emotions like a mad scientist.
Just before the Games were to begin, Brooks even threatened to cut the man who wound up captaining the club ? Mike Eruzione, whose goal beat the Soviets.
"You get mad. You get upset. You want to quit. You want to go do something else. There were a lot of emotions," Johnson said. "But through the whole six-month process, the friendship, the togetherness and the team unity really started to develop, and it got stronger and stronger ? and that was one of his motivating tools. And the end result is the togetherness as a team, and the closeness. (That) is why we won it."
It wasn't luck, mere willpower, or the fact the Americans were at home.
It simply was The Plan.
"There were some mind games involved," Brooks admits. "I studied these guys, and I knew . . . how hard to push, and when to back off, and when to pull."
The result was unlike anything Brooks would achieve with any of the four NHL teams he's coached.
Whether it works with the American pros he will coach this time is one of the bigger questions of the Salt Lake Games. The United States will gather Thursday for its first practice since a short September training camp, and that may not be enough for Brooks to work his magic.
"We had six months of practice and training," Eruzione said. "We were able to put in our system of play, and it's going to be hard for these players, in four days or three days, to do that."
Suter, for one, suspects it can be done.
"He wouldn't have taken (the job) if he didn't think he could do well with it," Suter said. "He took a lot of time, I know, picking his players. He interviewed them and made sure they were thinking (along) the same lines as he was thinking. So I think he will do well because he kind of has a plan, and if the players follow his plan, I think they'll do OK.
"As much as the players have changed, and the situation changed, I think he's changed," Suter added. "He's not the same coach he was back then. And he's got a plan, I know, and he's had it for six months, seven months. He's probably had it for 10 years."
Even Brooks himself, though, knows he can't take the same approach now as in 1980.
"You change. You adjust," he said. "But there's a lot of similarities. The game is similar in a lot of ways.
"The common denominator is they all have a little boy in them. Just because they're all making a lot of money in the National Hockey League doesn't mean they don't gave a little boy in them . . . They like playing in the game; they like coming to the rink . . . And I just want to pull out that little boy and try to have them come together with that same intensity and spirit and then go from there."
If he can, it might be more of a miracle than the last. But then it will be behind him, just like 1980 is.
As Eruzione lighted the Olympic caldron during last Friday night's opening ceremonies for the 2002 Games, Lake Placid teammates surrounded their captain.
The coach, though, was nowhere to be seen.
"I had a chance to go," Brooks said Monday, "but it's really a place for the players."
How appropriate.
E-MAIL: tbuckley@desnews.com