1992 Winter Olympics: Let's Get Physical

Anyone who watches Olympic hockey in the hope of getting his jingoistic juices flowing is bound to be disappointed this year. The new order is cosmopolitan. The American goalie Ray LeBlanc has blossomed in part because of advice from former Soviet star Vladislav Tretiak, who coaches goalies for the Chicago Black Hawks' farm team in Indianapolis, from which LeBlanc is on loan. Gene Ubriaco, coach of the Italian team, is a Canadian who lives in suburban Baltimore, and had been dismissed as coach of the N.H.L.'s Pittsburgh Penguins before hooking up with the team from his father's homeland. The top-seeded Swedes have four former or current N.H.L. All-Stars. Rounding things out, there is a Czech defector on the German team and half a dozen Quebecois on the surprisingly successful French squad.

If national stereotyping weren't in enough danger, in early round-robin play of the tournament, the "Goon of the Games" award for most penalized player went not to a Canadian or an American but to Patrice Brasey of the usually docile Swiss. Brasey alone has spent almost as much time sulking in the penalty box as the entire U.S. team, which, for its part, was playing more politely than the traditionally sportsmanlike Czechs or Finns.

Does this make sense? Sort of. Hockey has become globalized in the past decade, and traditional lines of demarcation have become ever more blurred. As players from Europe moved to the N.H.L. and players from North America immigrated to the European leagues, styles began to blend. The international game, played on a rink that is as much as 30 ft. wider than an N.H.L. rink, rewards players who skate and pass well. Enter the Swedes, who are grace epitomized. But as Team Sweden swept effortlessly to early victories, they displayed newfound passion for knocking their opponents into the boards. Swedish coach Conny Evensson admitted that his N.H.L.-blooded veterans actually enjoy "body contact," but he quickly asserted that as skaters, "they are good to look at on the ice too."

In fact, coaches are quick to cry foul when an opponent abandons the gentler Olympic style. After the Swedes were upset in a pre-Olympic warm-up against the Americans, the Swedish coaches branded the Americans hooligans. But Swedish center Bengt-Ake Gustafsson, a veteran of rough and tumble during nine seasons with the Washington Capitals, shrugged it off. "There was a lot of holding and pulling us down, that's all." Gratuitous violence of the kind that has turned N.H.L. hockey into a spectacle sport is the last thing American coach Dave Peterson wants to see, he claims. "We're not trying to play an aggressive style," he says. "We have to stay out of the penalty box to win."