2002 Olympic Hockey Photos

(Steve Yzerman, Chris Chelios, Brett Hull and Brendan Shannahan at the 2002 Olympics)

Ever since the NHL decided to let it’s best players fully participate in the Winter Olympics, there seemed to be a sort of even / odd “Star Trek” paradigm going on here.

You see, the 1998 Olympics was very much like the first “Star Trek” film–highly-anticipated, but failing to live up to the hype. Of course, I say this from a North American perspective, because I’m sure hockey fans in the Czech Republic thought the ’98 games were just fine.

And like “Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan,” the 2002 Olympics was all it was supposed to be and more, culminating in a final showdown between the United States and Canada. Expectations were met, and then some.

The 2006 Olympics? Totally “Star Trek III: The Search for Spock.” Yawn.

That makes 2010 the “Star Trek IV” of Olympic Ice Hockey. In other words, good. Or so we can hope. I’m crossing my fingers, ‘cuz I’ll be dammed if I have to sit through “Search for Spock” twice.

With the Men’s Ice Hockey tournament starting today, I thought it would be fun to look back at some pictures from the 2002 games.

Here we have Mario Lemieux and Joe Sakic celebrating their gold medal win.
 
Steve Yzerman, Mario Lemieux, Paul Kariya and Joe Sakic. How’s that for a power play unit?
The U.S. bench: Chris Drury, Adam Deadmarsh, Doug Weight, Mike York and Jeremy Roenick.

Photo of Team Canada after winning the gold. Click on the photo to enlarge, and see the enviable and unmatched level of talent.

Let’s hope that the 2010 games are as good as they were in 2002.