Canada Olympic Team a Topic

Wayne Fleming is coach of a team that really doesn’t exist, which made winning the Deutschland Cup a bit more difficult.

“We went through evaluation of 42 players in six days,” he said. “That’s tough.”

Fleming, a former NHL assistant in several ports, including most recently Phoenix, was in town over the weekend to talk with King Coach Andy Murray and captain Rob Blake about the Canadian team in the 1998 Olympic Games. Murray was an assistant to Marc Crawford at Nagano, and Blake was the Games’ outstanding defenseman.

“He wanted to talk about our experience,” Murray said Saturday. “And he wanted to talk about player evaluation.”

Murray made much of his reputation as coach of the Canadian national team when it was a full-time operation. It no longer is, in part because of cost, but also because the Olympics are now contested by NHL players. That makes Fleming’s job harder, because Canada still competes in several international tournaments, including the Deutschland Cup, but with players from European teams and the North American minor leagues. Those players are taken from their teams, put together quickly and sent onto the ice for the glory of Canada.

And with the nation’s greatest of expectations, even though Canada hasn’t won Olympic gold in generations.

With Olympic team Coach Pat Quinn otherwise occupied as coach of the Toronto Maple Leafs, Fleming has been left to scout NHL players for the Olympic team, to coach the national team when it is called together, and to lay the groundwork for the Salt Lake City effort.

The NHL will take 12 days off for the Olympics, and the Games’ tournament can take as long as 10 days.

“There isn’t a lot of time to get ready,” Fleming said.

There is pressure already. “I think as it gets closer, the pressure will increase,” Fleming said.

*

Stephane Fiset was in goal for the Kings Saturday night for the first time this season, but Jamie Storr will be back there tonight for the Kings’ game at the Arrowhead Pond.

“If I was dissatisfied with [Storr], he wouldn’t play,” Murray said. “It’s good to have two No. 1 goalies.”

TONIGHT

at Mighty Ducks

5, Fox Sports Net

* Site--Arrowhead Pond.

* Radio--KSPN (1110), XTRA (690).

* Records--Kings 12-8-6-0, Mighty Ducks 8-12-4-3.

* Record vs. Ducks--Kings 1-0-0-0.

* Update--Storr is 2-0 against the Ducks, one of the wins coming on Ziggy Palffy’s goal in overtime Oct. 23.