Only the NHL could go stumbling into such a mass dilemma, agreeing to a secondary event in the middle of a post-strike season, where the fans are touchy, anyway, about the game disappearing. But that’s a different story, one Robert Esche chose not to consider, not at this time of his life, not with this opportunity. That’s because when it was his time to make the call, he went to the No. 1 tiebreaker, the one that, if used properly, is as noble as it is understandable.
The Olympic ideal?
Yes, the Olympic ideal.
"I remember when I was a little kid," Esche was saying the other day, after a Flyers practice at the Skate Zone. "My grandmother (Leona Ziminski) always used to tell me that I would play in the Olympics some day. And that was even before I played hockey. Maybe she has a little magic up her sleeve or something."
A 28-year-old goaltender, Esche has headed to Turin as one of three Flyers on the U.S. Olympic team, joining Derian Hatcher and Mike Knuble. As many as 11 Flyers had the opportunity to compete, for various countries. Some were unable, due to injury. Others were unable to say no, for those other pressures. Some, like Esche, maintained the purity of the Olympic spirit. Few, though, would have as much close-up knowledge of U.S. Olympic hockey as Esche, whose Whitesboro, N.Y., hometown was an easy three-hour drive to Lake Placid, home 26 years ago to the greatest upset in Olympic hockey history, when the USA stunned the Soviet Union.
"I was, uh, 2 years old then," he said, smiling. "So I didn’t watch it live. Or, I may have watched it live, but I don’t remember. I watched the movie. But I have a lot of relatives and friends who were up there at Lake Placid, and it is not too far from my house. So it always remained a special thing in our area, upstate New York, and to the country, obviously. But we always hash it out every year up there.
"I played there, too, a lot of times. There are a lot of youth hockey tournaments played up there. I was in a couple of world junior tryouts there. I have met a few of the guys from that 1980 team. I don’t know any of them --- just some handshakes and things when I was younger. But I always remembered that."
Not that much has changed or anything since the celebrated Miracle on Ice, but where once a group of spirited college players represented the U.S., now professionals compete. With that, come fresh circumstances --- circumstances leading back to the dollar. Esche earns about $1 million a year to tend goal for the Flyers, and they would prefer that he do so with two healthy groin muscles. Yet groin trouble --- especially problematic for goaltenders --- has kept Esche from action for much of this season. So, the real question: When does commitment to a team (and to a paycheck) override that Olympic spirit?
"As an athlete, you never think about injury," Esche said. "If you think about injury, you are done. The only way I look at it is the way I always look at it: I have one job, and that is to remain healthy and to be as healthy as I can for the Philadelphia Flyers. It is obviously an honor to go over and play for the Olympic team. But I couldn’t head over there if I didn’t feel 100 percent healthy. Is that to say that in any game, you couldn’t get hurt? No. Obviously, you can get hurt in any game. But you can get hurt in any practice here. If I didn’t feel that I am capable of playing over there at 100 percent --- or if I felt like I would hinder my team when I got back, I would never go. I would never go."
He would never go ... but then, he may never have the chance again. Esche will be 32 the next time there are Winter Olympics, and who knows how much strain there will be on his muscles by then, let alone any strain on the Olympic ideal?
No, this is his chance --- in these two weeks --- to live his grandmother’s dream to bring another ice hockey gold medal back to upstate New York, whether by a miracle, or just by miraculous play from highly paid professionals.
"It’s an exciting feeling to represent the United States, and my grandmother seemed to know that one day I would," Esche elaborated in the Utica Observer-Dispatch. "When you put on that American jersey, you think about your forefathers who fought in wars, you’re thinking about Sept. 11 ... you think about all types of things that make up our country and make it great. And when you do that, there’s a lot more emotion involved."
Any other reason to go to the Olympics would be wrong. Any other reason not to go would be wrong, too.
Play or not to play? To Robert Esche, it never was a difficult choice, not at all.
To contact Jack McCaffery, e-mail sports@delcotimes.com.