Lately, some friends have been steering Cammi Granato toward the north, a direction that borders on sports treason.
“What about Canada?” they ask.
Would she? Could she? Is there a chance in Hull the former face, heart and soul – pick your bodily metaphor – of U.S. women’s hockey might someday fire pucks for her old team’s biggest, baddest Olympic rival?
In the haze of Granato’s anger and confusion over her unexpected cut from the American roster, she lets the idea breathe for a few seconds.
“Twenty people have mentioned that to me,” Granato said. “I kind of smile about it.
“But as the (former) leader of my team, how would I even be able to deal with something like that? I haven’t been able to go there.”
Ah, but we can. The facts: Granato lives in Vancouver, British Columbia, with her Canadian husband, former NHL player Ray Ferraro. At 34, her creaky knee has mended and she’s in “the best shape I’ve been in,” Granato said.
In recent weeks, three players and one staff member from the Canadian Olympic team have called Granato to say her American dismissal was “not right.” No job offers just yet, though.
“Hockey Canada has always had a lot of respect for Cammi Granato,” said André Brin, a spokesman for the Canadian team. “But it’s a hypothetical question. … Nobody’s been thinking about that.”
Under International Ice Hockey Federation rules, Granato must become a Canadian citizen and play three straight seasons north of the border before she could don the maple leaf logo.
“Please,” Granato said, “don’t indicate that I brought this up at all. … Besides smiling about it, I haven’t taken it further.”
Indeed, her Olympic passions are still enmeshed with the stars and stripes, with the team she led to a 1998 gold medal and a silver in 2002. Granato’s potent scoring and electric smile inspired hundreds of girls to swap figure skates for elbow pads. Her mystique nurtured American women’s hockey. And until late August, Granato thought her next stop was Turin.
But in a move tantamount to shoving Mia Hamm off the U.S. women’s soccer squad, hockey coach Ben Smith cut Granato and Olympic veteran Shelley Looney after a tryout camp at Lake Placid. Granato said she had no warning. Smith calls the decision “excruciating.”
“We have to pick the best opportunity for success … the strongest team,” Smith said. “They didn’t fall into that category. This is not something done lightly or callously. I feel and still feel a tremendous loss.”
When asked whether Granato’s past knee troubles were a factor, Smith said he wants players who can pressure the puck and push the play “both offensively and defensively.”
“It was a huge loss for us,” two-time Olympian Angela Ruggiero said. “You look to her for answers, for confidence. There was a bit of a mourning period. You look around the locker room and don’t see her. We don’t know what Coach Smith and his staff’s master plan is. But it doesn’t include (Granato and Looney).”
Granato’s days now include stick-handling drills in the garage with her stepson. No skating yet. Emotionally, that has been too painful, she said.
“If I had slowed down, I would step aside gracefully and be OK with it,” Granato said. “But I personally feel I have a lot to give the team. I know how to play at that level. I have the experience behind me.
“I feel I should be there.”
In the past month, Granato has heard that injuries led Smith to summon back three players he cut in August. Granato’s phone is not ringing.
She wants to hope but she knows she shouldn’t.
Staff writer Bill Briggs can be reached at 303-820-1720 or bbriggs@denverpost.com.
