| WEST VALLEY CITY, Utah (CP) — Wayne Gretzky kept his temper in check for 20 years as a player. But it took only 15 months at the helm of Canada's Olympic men's hockey team to let it loose. Make no mistake. It was always there. But Canadian hockey fans never really got to see it until The Great One blew up last Monday night following Canada's 3-3 tie with the Czech Republic. Asked if he had ever seen that kind of anger before from his world-famous son, Walter Gretzky replied: "Privately, yes. Not publicly, though." It's a new side of Wayne Gretzky for many Canadians, but it's not a new Wayne Gretzky. He always had that edge but it was well-hidden. "He's just showing his competitive side," says Kevin Lowe, assistant GM on Team Canada and a long time friend and teammate from their days as Edmonton Oilers. "He had so much fluidity and grace on the ice that no one could really appreciate how competitive he was — or is. I think that's what he has shown more than anything." Even in his most devastating moment as a player, which he says is losing to Montreal in the 1993 Stanley Cup final when he was trying to bring a first-ever championship to Los Angeles, he was quiet and classy as ever after the last game at the Montreal Forum. But now he feels the expectations of an entire country, not just one NHL city. When Gretzky was named executive director of Team Canada on Nov. 8, 2000, no one quite knew what that job really entailed. Was he a mere figurehead? Certainly not as it turns out. From having the final say on the team jerseys to pushing hard for the players he wanted on the roster, Gretzky has made this his project and his team. That's why he feels so much pressure to deliver a gold medal. He knows he will shoulder a large share of the blame if Canada loses to the U.S. on Sunday (CBC, 3 p.m. EST). What Gretzky has found out the hard way is that wearing the Maple Leaf as a player is a whole lot easier than running the show. "I don't know if I've enjoyed it too much," he said with a laugh Saturday, recalling the last 15 months. "When you look back and it's over, you can think about what happened and things you did great and things that went the wrong way. "All in all, it's tough and it's tough to win." What few people realize is that Gretzky's anger about Canadian hockey being disrespected started way before these Olympics. First, he was stung by the semifinal shootout loss to the Czechs at the 1998 Olympics and has carried that feeling into Salt Lake. After all, who can forget the image of Gretzky sitting on the bench after that loss, looking like the world had just crashed on him. "I remember looking down from the stands at the bench and seeing Wayne just sitting there, alone," says Walter Gretzky. "That was his last and only Olympic chance." A second factor in Gretzky's growing frustration was going to the world hockey championships last May in Germany and watching young but talented Team Canada get knocked out in the quarter-finals by the U.S. The following day, when he met with a few reporters at his hotel in Hannover, Gretzky had the look of a man who had just lost Game 7 of the Stanley Cup final. He was hurt by Canada's surprising loss and angered by how much the Europeans enjoyed Canada's failure. And he was also reminded of how difficult it would be for Canada to win in Salt Lake. When you add up everything that Gretzky already had going in his head before these Games, his outburst here was not that surprising. "I could see it building up," Lowe says. "There was enough stuff said. I think it has a lot to do with '98. Quite frankly, there's quite an amount of angst towards the Europeans." When Lowe and Gretzky talk about the "Europeans," they're mostly talking about the Czechs. But they hate to mention them by name. "They're the former gold medal champions and reigning world champions," Lowe continued. "They were strutting their stuff a little bit, almost in mock jest. I'm not saying the players but the European community. And I think that really got Wayne's competitive juices going." Still, even his father was surprised to see Wayne explode like that. "Yes. At that press conference he said a few things," said Walter Gretzky, a little pride glowing in his eyes. "He was just trying to make people realize that we're proud Canadians and we want to win." The players appreciate their boss's antics. After all, it took the spotlight off their slow start here and put it on him. "I think he's just been a real calming influence on everybody," winger Theo Fleury said after practice Saturday. "He said to us: `No matter what people are saying at home, there's 23 guys in the room plus coaches and training staff and we're the guys in the end who are going to go out and do it."' Gretzky is so involved on this team that it's hard to determine exactly where his authority ends. Coach Pat Quinn made the final decision to go with Martin Brodeur as the No. 1 goalie instead of Curtis Joseph but there's little doubt Gretzky had his say. Before games, Gretzky can be seen on the players' bench, watching them in the warmup. He's also in the dressing room, giving them a little pep talk. "That's Wayne. He loves the game," says Fleury. "He loves to be around it. I'm sure he'd like to be playing in this game Sunday." Just one more game and Wayne Gretzky can finally relax. The pressure right now is almost unbearable. "The reality is simple," he said Saturday. "Nobody remembers who finishes second."
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