More of this Feature • Part 2: Do Yzerman and Mario have commitment issues?

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Elsewhere on the Web • Golden Day For Canada

Dateline: March 6/02 -

Some are calling it the Olympic Curse. Since returning to their NHL teams, an alarming number of hockey players who were at the 2002 Winter Games have landed on the injury lists.

There were surprisingly few injuries during the Olympic competition itself. The only significant player hurt was Keith Tkachuk, who suffered a leg bruise that has kept him out of the St. Louis lineup ever since. But the flame was barely extinguished in Salt Lake City when the stars began to fall. Another St. Louis star, Doug Weight, went down with a knee and pelvis problem. He might not play again this season. Curtis Joseph of the Leafs, Rob Blake and Milan Hejduk of the Avalanche and Atlanta's Ilya Kovalchuk are among the other Olympians hurt since the NHL schedule resumed. Blake missed two games, Joseph and Hejduk won't return before the playoffs and Kovalchuk is not expected back on skates until next fall.

Some blame the Olympics for this, arguing that the intense competition left players sore, tired and more prone to injury when they resumed their day jobs. That might be true of the Canadians or Americans, who were back in action barely 48 hours after the gold medal game. But most Olympic players had several days' rest before the NHL resumed. So it seems just as likely that the rash of injuries is coincidental.

Such reasoning does not hold up in Detroit and Pittsburgh, however. After leading Team Canada to a gold medal, Steve Yzerman told the Red Wings he needed at least two weeks to rest a sore knee, while Mario Lemieux played one game for the Penguins before packing it in for the season due to a nagging hip problem. The news has not gone down well in either city.

One columnist in Pittsburgh demanded that Lemieux apologize for making Team Canada his priority. Yzerman has been pilloried by angry Red Wing loyalists in Detroit. "Steve Yzerman should stay in Utah after what he pulled," wrote one fan, as reported in the Detroit News. "Yzerman's knee flared up during the Olympics and now he's going to sit at home on his butt and miss games for the team and the fans who pay him his $8 million per year. What an outrage! Mario Lemieux is being lynched in Pittsburgh and it should be the same in Detroit for Yzerman."

According to this view, both players should have skipped at least part of the Olympic tournament to rest their aching bodies. Instead they went all out for Team Canada. Now the clubs that pay their salaries have to live with the consequences. By not putting the interests of their employers first, Lemieux and Yzerman betrayed the teams, cities and fans that have supported them for many years.

Given that they are among the game's top players and proven winners, it is useful to consider their past behaviour. Have Yzerman and Lemieux been loyal soldiers over the course of their respective careers?

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