Veteran takes charge of U.S. hockey squad

At age 40, Chris Chelios is the Americans' leader on and off the ice.

By DAMIAN CRISTODERO, Times Staff Writer
© St. Petersburg Times
published February 22, 2002

WEST VALLEY CITY, Utah -- He hates to talk about himself.

Ask Chris Chelios about how he molded the U.S. men's hockey team in his image of hard work and grit, and he deflects the credit to coach Herb Brooks.

Ask him about the behind-the-scenes work he does to ensure some of the NHL's biggest stars park their egos and work for the greater good, and he defers to his teammates.

Ask him about the pressures of being captain on a team desperate to forget the ugly performance, on and off the ice, in Nagano in 1998, and he simply says, "That's my job, I guess."

It is clearly more than a job for Chelios, the 40-year-old Red Wings defenseman who was asked by Brooks to lead and has done so with the same determined efficiency he shows when playing. "This is his team," Brooks said. "He put his stamp on it. I have to tip my hat to him. We have a leader, and he's a great one."

The Chicago native showed that leadership as captain of the 1998 team. When no players admitted vandalizing two rooms at the athletes' village after a quarterfinal loss to the Czech Republic, Chelios took the heat, apologized for the team and wrote a $3,000 check to pay for the damage.

When Brooks suggested Chelios keep in touch with his fellow Olympians leading up to the Salt Lake City Games, just to keep the guys focused, Chelios became big brother.

He held informal meetings as the Red Wings traveled the league. If he was in Detroit, he called on the phone.

"He just exemplifies everything we want to learn as a team, hard work and drive," U.S. forward Scott Young said. "The guy is just so well-respected by every guy in the locker room."

Chelios takes that role to the ice as well.

Entering tonight's semifinal against Russia at the E Center, Chelios has a goal and leads the tournament at plus-8. Ice time is not recorded on Olympic stat sheets, but he has played on the penalty kill and power play.

It is an extension of the season he is having for Detroit: 4 goals, 26 assists in 60 games, a league-high plus-40. And his career: 19 seasons, 10 All-Star Games and three Norris Trophies as the league's top defenseman.

Chelios, who also played in the 1984 Games, leaves nothing to chance. Before the United States faced Germany in Wednesday's quarterfinals, a game it was expected to dominate, Chelios spoke to teammates about Sweden's stunning loss to Belarus.

Nothing emphatic, just a gentle reminder.

"We have to be ready every game," he said. "Sweden wasn't ready, and it was a big upset. We win that game, and we're one game away from a gold-medal game."

He is meat and potatoes but doesn't mind considering a little pie in the sky. When told today's game is 22 years to the day after the United States beat the Soviet Union in Lake Placid, Chelios said, "Hopefully, that's a sign of fate. We have to believe it."

But not without getting Brooks, the coach of the 1980 team, in on the action.

"He's been there," Chelios said. "He did something that was magical. Hopefully, he's got a lot of that magic left in him."

Injured Lightning defenseman Petr Svoboda, in Salt Lake City for the Games, said Chelios' aversion to talking himself up is a defense mechanism.

"That's how he gets his pressure off, I believe," said Svoboda, a good friend and Chelios' teammate with Montreal from 1984-90. "That's the way it is for athletes. The more you do for others, the easier life gets to be for you."

"He's a Hall of Famer," said Brooks, adding he would like to see Chelios become a coach. "He's our guy. He's our focal point. We're going to react on his leadership."

Whether he talks about it or not.

On The Wire