Streit Shooter

It was Habs d-man Mark Streit who scored the game winner on the PP as the Swiss upset the Czechs 3-2 today. Aebischer, who replaced Martin Gerber in the third period in yesterday's 5-0 loss to Finland, was splendid. So far, Aebischer has stopped 53 of 55 shots in four periods of hockey. I'm guessing we've seen the last of the Gerber baby in this tournament.

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Steve Simmons is a colossal hypocrite. He has the gall to say Gretzky's presence at the Olympics detracts from the coverage of the amateur athletes. Since Steve is covering the Gretzky "story" rather than actual Olympic competition in this very column, are we to assume that Wayne himself - or perhaps his wife Janet - forced Simmons at gunpoint to attend the press conference? More likely, Simmons was coaxed by an irresistible smorgasbord of cappuccino and biscotti, or whatever the Italian equivalents of coffee and donuts are. How could silver medallists Renner and Scott possibly compete with that?

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Here's an interesting tidbit that I hadn't heard before:

"In 1989, Olaf Kolzig was at Canada's training camp for the World Junior Championships. He made the team and he was asked for his passport number as the team prepared documents to travel over seas. Kolzig's passport had too many numbers. It was a German passport. Kolzig wasn't a Canadian citizen. He had lived in Nova Scotia since he was three, but he never became a citizen. Kolzig couldn't get his Canadian citizenship in time and he missed the World Juniors."