Ice Hockey at The 1998 Winter Olympics - Men's Tournament

Men's Tournament

The 1998 Olympic men's ice hockey tournament was the first in which professional players from the National Hockey League (NHL) were allowed to participate, allowing national teams to be constructed using the best possible talent from each country. The 1998 Olympic tournament therefore came to be known as the "Tournament of the Century". Unlike previous Olympics where athletes could choose five-star hotel accommodations (such as the USA Men's Basketball team), NHL players were required to stay in the Olympic Village like other athletes.

Several of general manager Bobby Clarke's selections for Team Canada were controversial. Eric Lindros was named captain over longtime leaders such as Wayne Gretzky, Steve Yzerman, and Ray Bourque (Clarke at the time was general manager of Lindros's NHL team, the Philadelphia Flyers). Rob Zamuner was a surprise pick, while Mark Messier and Scott Niedermayer were omitted.

Both Canada and the United States were heavily favoured; they had previously faced off in the final of the 1996 World Cup of Hockey. After a below-expectations performance in the tournament which included only one win, however, several American players trashed their rooms in the Olympic Village and never apologized. The Canadian team, despite a strong start in the round robin, failed to play well after losing their semifinal match, and disappointed Canadians who wished for Wayne Gretzky to get an Olympic medal, playing a lacklustre bronze medal game. Nonetheless, Gretzky encouraged all of his teammates to attend the closing ceremony.

Memorably, during the shootout in their semifinal match against the Czech Republic, Canadian coach Marc Crawford opted to have defenceman Ray Bourque shoot in the shootout instead of high-scoring forwards Wayne Gretzky and Steve Yzerman. Hockey commentators alternatively criticized Crawford's decision (Bourque, like the other four Canadian shooters, failed to score) and praised it on the grounds that Bourque was one of hockey's most accurate shooters at the time and Gretzky had always been surprisingly mediocre on breakaways. Thanks to the goaltending of Dominik Hašek, who was considered the best goaltender throughout Olympic play as well as the NHL, and Robert Reichel, the only successful goalscorer in the shootout, the Czech Republic won the semi-final shootout en route to shutting out Russia to win the gold medal.

Japanese fans were disappointed when their adopted hero, Paul Kariya, a Canadian of Japanese heritage and one of Team Canada's best stars, failed to make the Games due to a crosscheck by Gary Suter during regular season NHL play.

The format of the men's tournament was also criticized because the National Hockey League clubs would not release their players for the preliminary round. This severely hampered the campaigns of Germany and Slovakia, both of whom failed to qualify for the final group stage. Also the final group stage was criticized as being meaningless since all of the teams qualified for the quarter-finals.

The format was eventually changed for the 2006 tournament in an effort to address these criticisms.