During the Olympic semifinal shootout in Nagano in 1998, Wayne Gretzky was famously passed over by head coach Marc Crawford. Now, his teammate Rob Blake has shared what he thought when he saw Gretzky left on the bench that infamous night in Japan.
Wayne Gretzky is widely considered the greatest hockey player of all time and still holds countless NHL records. Despite that, he only played in one Olympic tournament: Nagano 1998. It was the first Olympics to allow NHL players to participate, and the world’s top hockey nations arrived with star-studded rosters.
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Star-studded rosters
Team Sweden featured Nicklas Lidstrom, Peter Forsberg, and Mats Sundin. Team USA had Brett Hull, Mike Modano, Chris Chelios, and Brian Leetch. But Team Canada entered the tournament as the clear favorite, boasting Eric Lindros, Joe Sakic, Brendan Shanahan, Raymond Bourque, Steve Yzerman, Patrick Roy — and, of course, Wayne Gretzky.
Canada won all three group-stage games and had little trouble defeating Kazakhstan in the quarterfinal. In the semifinal, however, they faced Czechia, led by a prime Dominik Hasek in goal. After a tight game that ended 1–1 and a scoreless overtime, the matchup was decided by a shootout. At the time, the NHL did not use shootouts to decide regular-season games, meaning many Canadian players had limited experience with penalty shots.
Wayne Gretzky benched during shootout
Appearing as a guest on the Spittin’ Chiclets podcast, Hall of Famer Rob Blake recalled what happened next. Head coach Marc Crawford selected his five shooters — but left Wayne Gretzky out. Instead, he chose Theo Fleury, Ray Bourque, Joe Nieuwendyk, Eric Lindros, and Brendan Shanahan. Hasek stopped every attempt, ending Canada’s gold-medal hopes.
”Ultimately, as a coach, you have to recognize that you have to stick with your decisions, good or bad. I think had I changed my mind and we had lost, I would have felt worse. With the information we had at our disposal at the time we felt the choices we made were the right ones,” coach Crawford explained in 2017 for CBC.
Rob Blake still remembers
Nearly three decades later, Blake still remembers what went through his mind when he saw Gretzky remain on the bench. And he still doesn’t agree with Crawford.
“The best player in the world. Regardless of what you think he does in a shootout, you put him in that situation. We were by far the best team. It wasn’t close — and then we end up losing,” Blake said on the podcast.You can watch the interview below.
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