“One of the Greatest Things to Happen”: NHL Legend Wayne Gretzky Revealed Why He Rooted for the United States Team to Reach the Final During Winter Olympics in 2002

The 2002 Winter Olympics Hockey match was one of the most dramatic. It was between Canada and U.S. that was happening after many years. Canada had not won a medal in the last 50 years. On the other side, the US NHL team won gold medals in 1960 and 1980. There was sheer rivalry between the two border-sharing countries.

The Canadian NHL team won their first gold medal in the 2002 Winter Olympics. The Canadian team and manager Wayne Gretzky wished for the U.S. team to reach the finals that year. Gretzky was a former ice hockey player in the NHL and head coach of the team.

Why did the Canadian team want the U.S. to reach the finals?

During that time, North American teams like US and Canada did not have the impression of good hockey teams in Europe. Teams like Russia and other countries in the east looked down upon North American teams. Therefore, both US and Canada rooted for a North American championship.

However, there was a sense of being targeted felt by the Russian team. Coach Slava Fetisov shared in an interview before the match that things were already fixed. He accused the NHL referees of rigging the event to make it a North American finale.

Before the match, Canadian general manager Gretzky stated in Tampa Bay Times, “There is a sense of having a North American championship here,”

He added, “The U.S. playing Canada is probably one of the greatest things to happen to the NHL in a long time.”

Coach Pat Quinn expressed his desire to also see a US-Canadian. He stated: “This is big for us, big for a lot of reasons.”

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Quinn also expressed that Canada had not won in a long time. According to him, the Europeans think disdainfully of the Canadian game style, and the way kids are taught the game. Therefore, seeing North American teams who are assumed to not know much about the game would be interesting.

Wayne Gretzky hoped for an improvement in the North American hockey gameplay

In the interview, Gretzky shared that he was hopeful that the hockey gameplay in the North American region would improve. He wished to see more championships between US and Canada.

He also added that people in the United States usually grow up playing basketball, soccer, or baseball. However, with the changing times, there will grow an interest in playing hockey.

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