THIS COUNTRY'S most famous athlete casts an imposing shadow over Team Canada. Gretzky's presence is felt in the stands, in the dressing room, in the boardrooms and, where it counts the most, on the ice.

Hockey is a touchstone of Canadian life and has, over the years, produced some of the na-tion's greatest triumphs. Gretzky knows that hockey is more than a sport for Canadians; it is part of the country's soul. "I can't think of too many other countries that have the same passion for a sport as Canada has for hockey," he comments thoughtfully. "Brazil for soccer maybe."

Ice hockey first became an Olympic sport in 1920, and until the middle of the last century, Canada dominated international competition, winning six of the first seven Olympic tournaments. This was not surprising perhaps, given the fact that the sport originated here. But by the 1950s, hockey had caught on in other countries that have cold winters, and Canada found itself with some stiff competition.

The last time this country won Olympic gold in hockey was 1952, when the Edmonton Mercurys represented Canada at the Oslo games, outscoring their opponents 71 to 14. Four years later, in Cortina d'Ampezzo, Italy, Canada, represented by the Kitchener-Waterloo Dutchmen, won bronze. It was our worst finish in 36 years.

The 1956 games signalled a new era in Olympic hockey. For the first time, the Soviet Union won gold, sweeping through the tournament without a loss. Olympic hockey was being played at a higher level, and Canada was at a dis-advantage. While the Soviets were able to use their best players, Canada could not. The top Canadian players were members of the National Hockey League (NHL) and as such were classed as professionals and excluded from Olympic competition. While hockey was the occupation of the best Soviet players (many were part of the famous Soviet Red Army team), they were not officially paid to play hockey and were therefore not classed as professionals. Without its best players, Canada was no match for the Soviets and other top European teams, and in 1970 it decided to withdraw from international competitions that barred professional players.

Canadian fans longed to see a series that pitted our top players against the best Soviet players, and in 1972 we finally got our wish.

But the historic '72 Summit Series did not unfold as Canadians had imagined it would. It hadn't really occurred to us that the Soviet Union might prove a strong match for our top players. But it did, winning two of the first four games in Canada before heading to Moscow and the home-ice advantage for the final four games of the tournament. Canada did manage to win the last three games, thus avoiding international disgrace, but our confidence was seriously shaken.

The series was a wake-up call. Canada pulled up its hockey socks and took its international competitors more seriously. And its efforts were rewarded – we won four of the five Canada Cup tournaments we hosted from 1976 to 1991, losing to the Soviet Union in 1981. But Canada was to receive yet another wake-up call, this time at the inaugural World Cup hockey tournament in 1996, when we lost not to Russia or one of the other noted European teams, but to our neighbour, the United States.

The rule governing Olympic eligibility changed in the mid-1980s, allowing NHL players to participate in the games. But it wasn't until 1995 that the NHL, the National Hockey League Players' Association and the International Ice Hockey Federation were able to reach agreement on the shutting down of the NHL season for a period to allow players to compete for their countries in the Olympics.

Finally, in Nagano in 1998, a team of NHL players represented Canada. With Eric Lindros as captain, the Canadians were favoured to win a medal, but the team finished fourth, losing to Finland in the bronze medal game.

Gretzky is philosophical about Canada's diminished dominance in hockey. "I think you have to look at how hockey has grown internationally. Canada has had a lot to do with that," he says. "We haven't gotten worse. Everybody else has just gotten better." And that's good for hockey.

But hockey is our game and Canadians naturally want to win gold. No matter whether it's a junior team, an under-18 team or Team Canada, says Gretzky, the expectation is that we should finish first.

And so, on a day in early September of this year, Gretzky was at Calgary's Father David Bauer Arena, watching the royalty of Canadian hockey – Mario Lemieux, Paul Kariya, Brendan Shanahan, Rob Blake, Chris Pronger, Eric Lindros and Patrick Roy – take part in the fourth and last day of breathtaking, lung-emptying work-outs.

THE ELITE PLAYERS that will be representing this country at Salt Lake City come from all corners of Canada's hockey map and share something in common beyond hockey itself – Imperial Oil and its Esso name. Since it began sponsoring Hockey Night in Canada radio broadcasts with Foster Hewitt in the 1930s, Imperial has been a fixture of Canadian hockey. Over the years, the company's association with the game has broadened to include support for the Canadian Hockey Association (CHA), the national governing body for the sport. This includes sponsorship of Canada's national teams (currently, Imperial is sponsoring Canada's national hockey teams rather than the Olympics themselves) and, along with its Esso retailers and associates, support for amateur hockey. The company's involvement at the amateur level includes a diverse range of country-wide community initiatives, from the Esso Medals and Certificates of Achievement program, which honours minor league players, to the Esso Schools Program, which gives school-aged children the opportunity to learn more about our national pastime and to attend a major hockey event.

One reason the relationship between Imperial and the CHA has been so successful, explains Bob Nicholson, president of the CHA, is a shared belief that kids should be encouraged to challenge themselves and to shoot for their dreams. In order to do that, it's critical to support the education and the development of young people at the community level. "Imperial is always trying to make sure that we're both on the same wavelength regarding the values we are trying to instil in Canadian youngsters," Nicholson explains. "The most important job we do is create a positive environment for kids and teach them values that will help them in their lives. Our aim is to enhance their leadership skills and teach them how to work in a team environment, how to deal with conflict and how to be a positive – and humble – winner and a good loser."

One of Imperial's latest hockey initiatives is the Esso Sweaters Program, which enables Canadians to pool their Esso Extra points (earned when buying gasoline or any other product using an Esso Extra or Royal Bank Esso Visa card at Esso-branded service stations) to purchase jerseys for minor league hockey teams. "It costs a lot to outfit a team," says Todd Corradetti, Imperial's manager of marketing sponsorships. "This program makes it a lot less painful for teams to acquire their uniforms."

But it is the Esso Medals and Certi-ficates of Achievement program that is the cornerstone of Imperial's involve-ment with minor hockey. Since the program's inception 20 years ago, the company has given out more than two million medals honouring sportsmanship, dedication and improvement among girls and boys playing in the minor leagues. "The program is about much more than athletic achievement," says Corradetti, who explains that hockey is not an end in itself but a means to an end. "We reward the attributes that will help build champions in life, not just on the ice."

It stands to reason, perhaps, that a number of NHL players and members of Canada's national teams have won Esso Medals of Achievement. Becky Kellar of Hagersville, Ont., who plays defence for Canada's National Women's Team, won a medal when she was eight. At the time, she was playing ringette, which is similar to hockey but played with a rubber ring rather than the harder hockey puck.

Paul Kariya played on Canada's 1994 silver medal Olympic team and will be playing at Salt Lake.

Canadians were counting on Kariya to play a big role at the 1998 games in Nagano, but an injury prevented him from participating in the tournament. In those Olympics, the Czech team that beat Team Canada in the semifinals included NHL star Dominik Hasek, who played superbly, but few other big name players. Kariya describes his missing the tournament as the "biggest disappointment" of his career.

At the previous Olympics, Kariya and his team-mates had come very close to winning gold, losing to Sweden in a sudden death shoot-out, and Kariya, whose final shot in the shoot-out was staved off by the Swedish goalie, had very much wanted the opportunity to help appease the loss to Sweden. The 1994 team had included no active NHL players, and the hockey world had not expected the team to make it to the final round, but it did.

"It was a great feeling winning the silver when no one had expected us to win a medal," says Kariya, but adds that he and his team-mates were nonetheless a bit disappointed at not winning gold, after coming so close.

IMPERIAL HAS PLAYED a key role in the development of women's hockey in Canada, explains Bob Nicholson. "The company's early sponsorship of women's hockey contributed significantly to its growth," he comments. "When the first Canadian women's championship was held in 1982, there were approximately 5,000 players in Canada, representing 345 teams. Today, there are 51,000 players on 3,000 teams. Esso has been behind the growth all the way."

Cassie Campbell, a forward with the women's national team, which will represent Canada at Salt Lake City, cites the Esso Fun Days program as being instrumental in the development of women's hockey. The program provides girls and women of all ages with a day's introduction to the basics of hockey free of charge. "Esso Fun Days help girls think about hockey both in terms of playing the game and watching it," says Campbell enthusiastically. She adds that the progam also helps mothers and grandmothers develop an interest in the game, so they can better support their daughters and granddaughters when they play hockey.

Equally important in terms of promoting women's hockey, explains Campbell, was Imperial's decision to sponsor the Women's National Hockey Championship in 1995. "People connect Esso with hockey," she says. "So having the company behind the tournament gave it instant credibility, and people took more interest in it."

The women's national championship is an important scouting ground. "The national team coaches use the championships to scout out future team members from across the country," states Campbell. "They're a great feeder system for our elite programs."

NICHOLSON SAYS that he can't imagine where hockey would be in this country without partners like Imperial. "If we didn't have sponsors like Esso, we'd be looking at more user fees for kids to play, which means that many kids just wouldn't be able to play."

Gretzky's comment goes further: "There wouldn't be minor hockey without Esso support. Imperial is as integral a part of small-town Canada as the neighbourhood rink."

And Gretzky can't think of a better way of honouring the people who support Canadian hockey – from its sponsors to all the dedicated parents who coach minor league teams, flood backyards to make rinks and rise before the sun to get their children to practices – than by doing his part to help Team Canada do its best at the upcoming games. But he knows as well as anyone that there is a distinct difference between winning a gold medal at Salt Lake City and winning the NHL's top prize, the Stanley Cup.

In the NHL, there's always – well, almost always – tomorrow. Olympic hockey, he says, is a sudden death tournament.

"Nineteen ninety-eight was a big learning experience," says Kevin Lowe, Team Canada's assistant executive director and a former NHL player. "We learned just how tough those other teams are. We want to win and that is our goal, but we realize we could just as easily come fourth or sixth as first."

This lack of certainty about our ability to win may be disappointing to Canadians, but it is actually a very positive statement about international hockey. Hockey is simply much better when played by teams of fairly equal ability. Nagano was great hockey. The games were quick and the play swung like a pendulum. One minute a team was on the attack; the next it was in full retreat. Olympic hockey is hockey played at full throttle, all the time. It's exciting, and the drama is in-creased by how much the prize means to those playing and the countries they represent.

At the very least, Salt Lake City will be a tremendous tournament. At best, it will see Wayne Gretzky's dream realized. He and his players are certainly giving it their all.

Fans of Canadian hockey can't ask for more.

Illustration: Kveta
Photography: Bruce Bennett, Canadian Hockey Association, Imperial Oil Archives