Dan Falloon
For Chris Lindberg, Olympic reminders are never too far away.
The 42-year-old Fort Frances native now lives just minutes away from Calgary’s Olympic Park, which commemorate the 1988 Winter Games held in that city.
But now, with the 2010 Games getting underway Friday in Vancouver, Lindberg’s memories of his silver medal run back in 1992 in Albertville, France once again are becoming vivid in his mind.
“They’re coming back,” admitted Lindberg, who split 116 games in the NHL with the Calgary Flames and the former Quebec Nordiques.
“It’s been so long. Almost 20 years now,” he noted. “Time goes by fast.”
Lindberg, who was 24 at the time, remembers the stress associated with wearing the colours of a hockey-mad nation like Canada, especially considering its lack of recent success in the Olympic tournament at the time.
Going into 1992, Canada hadn’t won gold in ice hockey since the 1952 Games in Oslo, Norway—and hadn’t even captured a medal of any colour since 1968 in Grenoble, France.
Lindberg noted the pressure was most rampant leading up to Canada’s gold-medal showdown with the Unified Team (Russia).
“It was a stressful time, too, because you want to do so well,” he recalled. “That was 40 years without a [gold] medal.
“We knew we had already clinched the silver, but it was hard sleeping the night before,” he added.
“The Russian team, that was when it was the Unified Team, so they had all the little countries surrounding the [former] Soviet Union, so they had a great team.”
Lindberg reminisced about the emotions flowing through the Canadian dressing room leading up to the final battle, knowing what the game meant to fans all across the country.
“It was very, very exciting getting ready to play that gold-medal game,” he remarked. “You were playing for so much.
“Everybody was, not nervy, but on edge, and it was an exciting time, so even the build-up to the gold-medal game.
“Winning the semi-finals, getting into the finals, and the build-up to the finals was very exciting,” he enthused.
Several of the players on the Unified Team have since spent time in the NHL, including stars Alexei Kovalev and Sergei Zubov, but those players weren’t household names in North America at the time so the Canadians didn’t know what to expect from their opponents.
“Back then, we didn’t know the players,” noted Lindberg. “We didn’t know who Kovalev was, and [Andrei] Kovalenko and all these players.
“So we just went out and played as hard as we could.
“It was 0-0 going into the third period, and they scored a lucky goal that bounced from the behind the net onto a guy’s stick,” he recalled.
Canada boasted a lineup that included Eric Lindros, Sean Burke, and Joe Juneau, so it wasn’t a group of beer-leaguers in the Maple Leaf by any means.
But the fortunate bounce sparked the Unified Team to a 3-1 victory, leaving Canada with its gold-medal drought that was not broken until 10 years later in Salt Lake City.
“We had some good players [but] we weren’t as talented as the Russians,” Lindberg admitted. “We were hanging on and hanging on, but then they scored a lucky goal and it kind of deflated us.”
Still, Lindberg acknowledged getting to the gold-medal game was a major achievement in his career. And while gold was the
ultimate goal, securing Canada’s first medal in 24 years helped numb the pain.
“The biggest highlight was winning that semi-final game, getting into the finals,” Lindberg remarked. “We beat the Czechs 4-2, and that was pretty much the highlight and we knew we had won the silver medal.
“I wish we had won [gold], but life goes on.”
The Olympics have changed since Lindberg was competing, allowing NHL players to compete for the first time in Nagano, Japan in 1998.
Lindberg felt their inclusion narrowed the gap so that more teams than just Canada and Russia could be considered perennial contenders.
“All these NHL players are super. It’s all the all-star teams from across the world,” he noted. “The Americans could win, the Finns could win, the Swedes, the Czechs.
“I think it just really comes down to whose goalie is the hottest.”
As such, the former Canadian Olympian wouldn’t make a prediction, but did say he is impressed with the squad that GM Steve Yzerman assembled for the Games on home ice.
“I like Canada. I like our goaltending with Brodeur and Luongo,” said Lindberg. “I think we’re the favourites, but it is just so close once you get to the quarter-finals, semi-finals, finals.”
Lindberg said he’ll be vacationing in Florida when the 2010 Games are on, which will make it tougher to catch some of the action. But he also admitted he doesn’t watch much hockey anymore, aside from the world junior championships.
Instead, he wants to make up for the family time he missed while playing abroad, primarily in Europe, from 1994-2005. In fact, Lindberg said he didn’t take an NHL scouting position he was offered just after his retirement.
“It was right after I finished playing, and it was a lot of games that I’d have to see,” he explained. “I was just away from my family, playing in Europe.
“I turned it down, and I help coach my son’s team,” he noted. “[And] I’m going to help coach a spring hockey team.”
Lindberg admitted he would be interested in coaching at a higher level—if the right offer came along.
“I don’t want to do something that I’m away from home all the time because I’ve been away for so long doing hockey in Europe,” he stressed. “It’s nice to be home, but I’m starting to get a little stir-crazy that I need to start to do something else.”
Back in 2003, at age 36, Lindberg had told the Times he had been repeating the “one more season” mantra since he was 30, but didn’t follow through until two seasons after that interview.
“I’m sure glad I didn’t retire at 30 because I had some good years in Europe playing after 30,” he said, averaging well over a point per game even after he hit the milestone, highlighted by 56 points in 27 games in 2002-03 with Ajoie of the Swiss ‘B’ League.
Lindberg eventually decided to hang up his skates at the age of 38 when Japan’s Nippon Paper Cranes offered to extend his contract another season.
“They offered me another year on a contract and I just said ‘No, time to retire,’” Lindberg remembered. “Every year I’d be in the same situation: should I retire or should I play?
“I retired two years before I actually did retire [but] a couple buddies called me to go play in Austria, so I came out of retirement and went to play in Austria [with VSV EC].”
Injuries played a role in Lindberg’s decision to retire as he battled hip and groin problems later in his career, in addition to shoulder ailments.
“I had three shoulder surgeries, two of them out of the season,” he noted. “Your body starts to wear down as you get older, and playing so many games and stuff, and my body was starting to get injured.
“Then I’d come back, and it’s harder to get into shape when you get hurt,” he added. “You work out like crazy and get into shape, and then you get hurt again or you need a surgery or something in the off-season.
“It was really hard to get back into shape where you once were.”
Still, even with the chance to suit up at the veteran age of 38, Lindberg felt it was time to retire when he did—and is satisfied that 16 professional seasons was enough.
“I’m excited I can see my kids play hockey and dance, and be home for it now,” he said. “I don’t regret retiring even though I had a couple opportunities to keep playing.”
