Trevor had the honor of
representing Team Canada at the 1998 Winter Olympics in Nagano, Japan. This was undoubtedly a great thing for him, to take his mind off of the recent hell he went through thanks to Mike Keenan in Vancouver.Trevor played his heart out in Japan, racking up 10 penalty minutes and 1 goal. But, Oh, what a goal it was! It was a goal, that for a few short, but glorious moments, rivalled that of Paul Henderson in '72 for dramatic excitement for Canadian hockey fans.
Many Canadians were staying up past midnight to watch the match between the Czech Republic and Team Canada, battling it out for a chance to play in the gold medal match. The score remained deadlocked at 0 until near to the end of the second period, when Jiri Slegr of the Czechs put one past Patrick Roy of Canada on a screened shot from the point. With the Czechs up 1-0, team Canada started panicking, and play became ragged. They pulled out all the stops, and could not get past a very tight Czech defense. Finally, with just under a minute to go, Eric Lindros lead a rush into the Czech zone, passed it off to Brendan Shanahan, who one-timed a shot, which Dominek Hasek somehow saved. However, Lindros followed up on it, and picked it up behind the net. Without turning around, he passed it blindly in front of the net. It came right onto the stick of Trevor Linden, who ripped a shot upstairs over Dominek Hasek. Bingo. Score tied, 1-1.
The goal gave the Canadian team a huge boost, and they almost won the game in the last minute of the third period, and came even closer to winning it in the 10 minue overtime period. Unfortunately, that was as good as it got- the overtime ended, and it went to a shootout, where Canada, without their 2 premier breakaway scorers (Paul Kariya and Joe Sakic) was quite obviously a weaker team than the Czechs, who managed only one goal on Patrick Roy, and won the game.
So he didn't come home with a medal. (Canada lost the bronze medal game to Finland. Ironically, these were Canada's only 2 losses of the whole tournament.) So this goal won't be remembered as long as Henderson's. Who cares? It was an incredible moment, and will be remembered for quite a while.
Good luck in New York, Trevor!