Valet Service Not Up To Scratch for Team USA

Mike Modano didn't hold back. The veteran playmaker almost ran out of fingers to point in the wake of Team USA's early exit from the Olympics.

"You'd think USA Hockey would be a well-oiled machine, but it's not," he told reporters. "Basically, we were on our own for hotels, tickets, flights and things like that (for families). Normally we wouldn't have to worry about stuff like that."

The coaching staff, he suggested, could have shown "a little composure and a little less panic" during the quarterfinal loss to Finland.

To his credit, Modano refrained from trashing the wine list or the quality of the mint left on his pillow at night. Team officials later confirmed that he left Torino early Thursday morning, and was the only player to skip a final team meeting.

"My wife is here," said Olli Jokinen, the Finnish forward and Florida Panther who scored two goals against the U.S. "She went on the Internet a couple of months ago. She booked her own flight. Phones are working pretty good in the U.S. We have five or six players whose families are here. We haven't really had time to see them. We play every second day. It's not a distraction for us."

Modano's comments won't wash away the sour aftertaste left by the Team USA's performance. "Debacle on Ice" and "Do You Believe in Mediocrity?" are among today's headlines. In the San Francisco Chronicle, Gwen Knapp writes of "increasingly oppressive doubts about America's ability to build national sports teams."

Update: Realizing the public relations error of his ways, Modano has sort of apologized.