OK, this happened a month ago, but I was spending the holiday season in fellowship and togetherness with my family instead of dedicatedly updating my web-log. I beg your indulgence; it won't happen again.
Jeremy Roenick isn't going to Turin with the U.S. hockey team. Never one to mince words with the press, the 36-year-old center called the USA Hockey decision
"disrespectful."
Roenick's teammate in Los Angeles, Craig Conroy (who made the team) diplomatically said J.R. has "been a big part of USA hockey for a long time." There's no disputing that, but isn't it also true that the longer a player's "been a part," the more likely it is that he's done?
I like Jeremy Roenick. He's high-energy. He comes to play. Who can forget the 1999 playoffs, when he took the ice against the Blues with a football-looking facemask on to protect his freshly busted, freshly bolted-together jaw? Asked what in Jah's name he was trying to prove, he said, endearingly: "I think this is the time of year you have to suck things up."
And he wasn't talking about being on a liquid diet while his face healed, neither. I'm sure the assembled sports media got a thrill out of this quote, even if it did come out more like "Uh hnk us us uh tum of yhr yuh huff tuh suck hngs uhh."
So anyway, this recent bit of sour grapes aside, J.R.'s obnoxiously candid manner with the media is usually totally winning.
But as much as I like him, I like the team the USA has put together this year too, and there's not much room for sentiment on the frozen battlegrounds of international conflict.
As an Olympian, Roenick will be best remembered for
trashing his Nagano Olympic Village apartment in 1998.