Thirty Years of the Game at its Best

by Gare Joyce

faced with what

  has proven to be

  the most unenviable

  task for a Canadian

  coach in international

  competition: rallying

  the troops for a

  bronze-medal game.

  if you are not on the bench, and one thing I always tried to tell guys in those roles, that you are dressed and on the bench, which means there is a chance you will play.”

  Not long after the game started, Butler sensed that the trio of Jason Spezza, Raffi Torres, and Brad Boyes required a change. Off came Boyes and in came Zigomanis. Zigomanis and Torres had played minor hockey together, so there was another connection that made the transition a fairly simple one. Butler’s switch worked. Zigomanis, after only a couple of shifts, tied the game in the second period.

  The line was effective through regulation, but so was Swedish goalie Henrik Lundqvist.

  Overtime, however, did not last long. Butler’s new-found strong line was on the ice for a faceoff in Sweden’s end barely a half-minute after the sudden-death period began.

  “I remember Spezza was struggling in the circle all game, and I went to him and said, ‘Are you going to win the draw or not?’“ Zigomanis said. “‘Because if I take it, I

  am going to win it.’ And he looked at me, and he had a little fire in his eyes, and he said he was going to win it. He won the draw and put it right on Raffi’s tape. I went to the net and screened, and we went home with some hardware.”

  Torres’s one-timer rocketed into the top corner of the net and Canada had a 2–1 victory at the 37-second mark. If Lundqvist saw it, he had no time to react.

  “Every player wants to play and they want a regular shift in the tournament and they want to make a difference,” Zigomanis said. “For me, it was better late than never. I was just happy to be out there.”

  In the end, the trust that Butler had in Zigomanis, the trust that Babcock had said was essential in that 13th forward, was paid back. In a big moment, Zigomanis was good for Butler.

  Zigomanis was one of two Canadian players—Brandon Reid was the other—who was not on the ice for any goals against in Canada’s seven games. Zigomanis’s mark of plus-5 was tops on the team. And though he played on the wing, when Zigomanis was summoned to the faceoff circle, he won 10 of the 13 draws he took.

  “He adapted,” Butler said. “There never was a thought that he was a bad player, but you have to decide who will be that 13th forward. It was him, and there were a lot of kids released from that team who would have liked to have had that opportunity.”

  Fortitude wasn’t the only factor in Zigomanis’s positive handling of the initially limited role. In teammates such as Boyes, Torres, Mike Cammalleri, and roommate Mark Popovic, Zigomanis had people close by to whom he could talk about his role.

  “I had known him for a while, and he was just thrilled to be there,” Brad Boyes said. “Whatever he was given, he took advantage of it. He played well in that tournament.”

  “It was a tournament I had watched growing up,” said Zigomanis. “I used to get up with my dad on those early mornings and turn the TV on. To actually be there, to win a medal—it felt like a gold medal to me—was a great experience. It was better to win the bronze than the silver, because you go out winning.”

  The pockets of ice time that Zigomanis had in Russia were to

  be reflected when he became an NHL player. Zigomanis spent the majority of the 2010–11 season with the Toronto Marlies of the American Hockey League, but previously he had stints with five NHL teams.

  “I think it helped me out in the long run,” Zigomanis said of his world junior experience. “I learned to play with limited ice, and most of my 200 games in the NHL have been between five and eight minutes. It was a good test for me and it was something I was able to apply to my game [in the professional ranks].” At his home, Zigomanis has a collection of his personal hockey memorabilia. In one frame are the bronze medal, his sweater, a program, and a puck.

  Upon the players’ return to Canada, pictures of Zigomanis with his medal appeared in the Toronto Sun and the Toronto Star. Before he rejoined his teammates in Kingston, people on the streets of Toronto recognized him.

  Not bad for a kid who began the tournament as the 13th forward.

  “I had a lot of adrenaline in that tournament, a lot of energy and the crowds in Moscow were great,” Zigomanis said. “I can tell you it is something I will remember forever. I was there.”

  After playing sparingly

  as the thirteenth

  forward, Mike

  Zigomanis (left) finally

  got to contribute on

  the bronze-medal-

  winning overtime

  goal by Raffi Torres

  (centre). Mike

  Cammalleri is at right.

  The youngest member

  of the Canadian

  team in Pardubice,

  high-flying Rick

  Nash had his first of

  many opportunities

  to play for Canada in

  major international

  tournaments.

  Brian Sutherby couldn’t count the times he had been jostled after a whistle over his junior career. A shove, maybe a stealthy elbow or slash—they were all part of the game. A few times after a whistle he had dropped his gloves to defend himself or send a message or both.

  But only once, during the 2002 world junior championship in the Czech Republic, was Sutherby spit on.

  “The first thing that came to me was shock,” Sutherby said. “I couldn’t believe it happened.”

  The Canada-Russia hockey rivalry has had dozens of intense chapters. Sutherby lived one. More than nine years after Russian forward Alexander Svitov spat in Sutherby’s face during a round-robin game at the 2002 WJC, there’s no hesitation when Sutherby recalls the incident.

  “We were up 5–2 late in the game, and there was under a minute left,” Sutherby said. “There was not really a hit or a slash or anything, but we came together after the whistle. He spit on me, and it landed just above my upper lip. I turned away, and when I looked back, he was long gone. I think I said something to the referees and looked over at their bench, but nothing happened.”

  Flanked by Mike

  Cammalleri (left) and

  Jay Bouwmeester

  (centre), Brian

  Sutherby faced

  the ultimate test of

  discipline in two

  games against Russia.

  Sutherby was livid. He struggled to keep his composure after the game when fielding questions from reporters. Not retaliating, he said, was “probably the toughest thing I ever had to do in my life.” Sutherby was so visibly shaken that assistant coach Marc Habscheid had to corral the 19-year-old in the dressing room and try to settle him down.

  For Sutherby, there was no option other than to pretend Svitov hadn’t just crossed one of those imaginary hockey lines that have been in place for decades.

  From the initial moment that Hockey Canada takes teenaged players under its wing—whether it’s in preparation for the world junior or much earlier, when players are gearing up for the under-17 championship, or at any other point—the importance of properly representing the country is emphasized. So too do

  the players have to accept that retaliation or acting out is selfish. If one isn’t willing to check his personal agenda at the dressing-room door, chances are he won’t make it out of a selection camp and he won’t be missed by the coaches or those who do make the team.

  “Everyone talks about the pride, but they often look past the sacrifices that go into what it takes to put that sweater on,” said Jay Harrison, another member of the 2002 world junior team. “This tournament is the pinnacle of your junior career. The discipline has to be dead on. And what Brian did, to not retaliate, was a prime example. There was something a lot bigger going on there.”

  It’s not just the coaches who drive home that defining message in the Program of Excellence. It’s a
theme delivered early and often by Hockey Canada. Harrison recalled that prior to an under-18 tournament, former Canadian juniors Mike Van Ryn and Manny Malhotra spoke to the team, and what they emphasized was playing for the crest on the front of the sweater.

  The learning process for Sutherby involved a couple of incidents during the exhibition games in the days prior to the 2002 tournament. Sutherby had made the team; he was a strapping forward who had earned a spot on the Washington Capitals’ roster coming out of training camp, but was returned to Moose Jaw of the Western Hockey League after playing in seven games for the Capitals.

  In short, Team Canada was counting on Sutherby and he wasn’t going anywhere, no matter what transpired in Canada’s exhibitions.

  On two occasions, though, Stan Butler, Canada’s head coach, had to summon Sutherby for one-on-one meetings.

  “I had elbowed a kid from Finland and I think I punched a guy in a game against the Czech Republic in the exhibition games,” Sutherby said. “Butler had to pull me aside and [emphasize] what was at stake.”

  In Butler’s mind, it was crucial that Sutherby know the entire landscape of the world junior tournament

  “Brian was going to play a big role on our team,” Butler said. “He was on a line with Steve Ott and Jarret Stoll, and they were going to play against the best line of

  the other team. When you play against the top line, one of the things you can’t do is take penalties.

  “Not so much for Stoll, but for Sutherby and Ott, we had to change their game for international hockey, and make sure they understood that the game would be called a little bit different. They were key players and we needed them on the ice.”

  When Sutherby later did not respond to Svitov, it was hard proof that the message had been ingrained.

  “I was as angry as I have ever been, but I was not going to put myself above anybody else,” Sutherby said. “It was a difficult situation for me because I don’t back down. I mean, it was a gob of spit on my face. I wanted to react in a much different way.”

  Though Sutherby had never been spat on before, and it has not happened to him in a professional career that has stretched over 10 seasons and included more than 460 NHL games, it’s not entirely surprising that Svitov let fly. During the 2001 world junior, he was ejected twice from games and led all players with 58 penalty minutes. In 2002, Svitov still was playing off the same page. He again led all players in penalty minutes, this time with 43, and one game after spitting at Sutherby and getting away without a penalty, he jumped a Swiss player and was suspended for two games.

  After Sutherby told the media about the spitting incident, reporters went to Svitov to get his version of the story. The Russian tuned out their questions, but he didn’t try to deny that he did it.

  Scottie Upshall, herec

  giving a Swedish

  opponent a rough

  ride into the boards,

  was just one of the

  Canadian players

  who understood that

  you can play with an

  edge but also with

  discipline.

  Sutherby would love to relate that everything turned out well in the end. Yet that’s not quite what happened.

  After the Canadians beat the Russians in the round robin on December 29, 2001, both teams advanced to the gold-medal game. Canada led 2–1 after the first period but allowed three goals in the second and wound up losing 5–4. Sutherby had to watch a gold medal be placed around Svitov’s neck, knowing that he’d lost the chance to exact revenge—not that he would have anyway.

  “I had zero intention of doing anything stupid in that game, no matter what the score might have been,” Sutherby said. “It was not on my mind at that point. What he had done was sickening and it ate me up inside, but my focus entirely was on winning.

  “And then to lose to them … I didn’t shake his hand. I couldn’t.”

  The hockey gods wanted to play around with Sutherby one more time. As the Canadians gathered in their hotel lobby the next morning to make the long trek home, the Russians straggled past, still wearing their gold medals after a night of celebration.

  “You could tell by the look in his eyes that Brian was still angry,” Butler

  said.” I just had to remind him that the way he handled the thing was classy. Something could have got pretty ugly.”

  As it was, Sutherby figured he and Svitov would meet again one day in the National Hockey League. And they did. But this story, for Sutherby, doesn’t have a happy ending where he was able to make it clear to Svitov he had not forgotten.

  Svitov was the third pick overall by the Tampa Bay Lightning in the 2001 entry draft, but soon provided evidence that high-end picks don’t always become top-notch NHLers, let alone have lengthy careers. Svitov didn’t have discipline on the international stage as a teenager, and though he had skills in abundance, he played just 179 games in three seasons with the Lightning and Columbus Blue Jackets.

  Sutherby and Svitov squared off against each other just once in the NHL, during the 2002–03 rookie season for both.

  “There was one game where I went after him and it looked like something was going to happen, but Chris

  Dingman jumped me from behind and that was it,” Sutherby said. “I figured I would have lots of opportunities to get him back. You know, I still think about it a lot, especially at Christmas.

  “It’s something I will never forget. If I ever play him again, I will let him know that. But I don’t think it’s going to happen.”

  Goaltender Pascal

  Leclaire registered

  a sparkling.937 save

  percentage in five

  games, but Canada

  failed to protect a

  two-goal lead against

  the Russians in the

  gold-medal game.

  At the time, Svitov said through a translator that he did not worry whether Sutherby would respond one day in the NHL “because first we both have to make it.” Almost a decade on, Svitov has become a veteran of the Kontinental Hockey League, not having skated in the NHL since 2007.

  In Butler’s mind, when Sutherby turned away from Svitov and did not physically attack the Russian in 2002, there was no greater example for future teenagers who have earned the privilege of wearing Canada’s colours. What’s true, though, is that many would have applauded had Sutherby not turned away.

  “What happened there was a disgusting act, and was something that should never be tolerated in hockey,” Butler said. “Brian took away his personal feelings to do what was best for the team and for the country.

  “I think what you have to understand is that when you put a Team Canada jersey on, the standards are higher for you to begin with, even to get a chance to try out for that team.

  “That’s what separates the type of people who wear the Hockey Canada jersey. They do whatever it takes to be successful, but if that means putting aside anything personal, they do it time and time again.”

  Brad Boyes was one

  of the offensive lead-

  ers for a Canadian

  team that beat the

  Russians handily in

  the preliminary round

  but couldn’t seal the

  deal in the final.

  Defenceman Brendan

  Bell (here skating

  against the Czechs in

  the opening round)

  said Canada had a

  relatively easy route

  to the final in Halifax

  but knew that the

  Russians were going

  to be a stiff challenge.

  We were leading Russia 2–1 at the end of the second period in the final and we were playing in front of a crowd that was 100 percent behind us. We hadn’t lost a game. We weren’t ever in too much trouble during our run to the gold-medal game. And our goaltender Marc-André Fleury had been lights-out all tournament long. People in the stands in Halifax and those who were watching that game on televisi
on would have thought that things were going our way when Scottie Upshall scored a power-play goal in the second period to give us the lead. They would have been confident of a win and a gold medal for Canada, the first one that the program would have won at home in eight years.

  But when we went back to the dressing room after the second period, hardly anyone was talking. It hadn’t been that way for other games. We always talked a lot, had a lot of fun, and kept things loose. Not this time. We had a lead but we also knew that this was anybody’s game. Ours was a good team that played better as the tournament went along, but we also knew that the Russians were a really strong team and they were coming on. We could tell that they had a surge left and we had to be ready for it. We also knew that this was the last time all of us were going to play together. We had 20 minutes to bring everything to a close and we knew that

  Centre Kyle Wellwood,

  in an opening-round

  game, scores one of

  the most spectacular

  goals in the history

  of the tournament,

  sliding on his right hip

  through the slot and

  firing the puck by the

  Czech goaltender.

  we didn’t have anything locked up at that point. We’d been hanging on at the end of the second period.

  Looking back at the 1983 WJC, we didn’t have the high-end skill that a lot of other Canadian world junior teams have had over the years. We had thought that Jason Spezza was going to be on the team, but he was in the NHL when Team Canada sent out the invitations to the evaluation camp. Derek Roy was probably our best scoring threat. We weren’t going to run up scores against teams in this tournament. We knew that in order to win, we had to play a tight, grinding game with guys like Jordin Tootoo making teams pay the price on our forecheck. We beat the U.S. 3–2 in our semifinal and knew we were going to have to win a close game like that in the gold-medal finale. And we had a goaltender who could win those types of games. In the summer, we thought that goalie was going to be Dan Blackburn, but the New York Rangers decided to keep him on their roster that season. No one thought it was going to be Marc-André Fleury back in the summer, but he turned out to be not just our youngest player but more importantly our best one.