USA Hockey Keeping Probe of Damage on Front Burner

The butler did it.

So far, that’s the only logical solution to the mystery of which members of the U.S. Olympic men’s hockey team were responsible for damaging three rooms in the Olympic Village in Nagano, Japan, last Thursday morning after the team’s quarterfinal loss to the Czech Republic.

Although NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman asked the culprits to come forward, no one has admitted involvement in the incident. Ten chairs were broken--including six that were thrown into a courtyard--three fire extinguishers were set off and one of those extinguishers was tossed into the same garden area. Walls, floors and beds were damaged and enough noise was created to disturb nearby speedskaters who had competitions later that day.

“We are aware of those denials, and that, in and of itself, does not clear anyone,” Darryl Seibel, a spokesman for USA Hockey, said Tuesday. “Our investigation is ongoing. I don’t think anybody has been eliminated yet. It has been complicated most by the logistics of everybody getting back from Japan. Players came back in two waves and officials of all the organizations involved just got back [Monday].

“We have been in touch with the NHL as recently as [Tuesday]. It’s a front-burner issue for both organizations.”

Seibel said USA Hockey, the sport’s administrative body, has received hundreds of letters, phone calls and e-mails decrying the behavior of the still-unknown number of players. Although some team members have said too much is being made of the incident--goaltender Mike Richter told the New York Daily News he saw the damage “and it was nothing a vacuum couldn’t clean up”-- Seibel said USA Hockey and the NHL are taking it seriously.

“If a player or players believe this is overblown, then they’re underestimating the impact and visibility that comes with participating in the Olympics,” Seibel said.

Finding the culprits will be difficult. Richter said he was down the hall; Brett Hull told reporters in St. Louis he knows who did it but won’t say; Mathieu Schneider said in Toronto he was familiar with what happened but wasn’t present. Chris Chelios, Keith Tkachuk and Gary Suter denied they were responsible, and Suter told reporters he wasn’t even aware of the vandalism until he got back to Chicago and saw a report on TV.

“The problem is, most discipline we administer, we have videotape and witnesses and a referee’s report,” Bettman said Sunday. “That’s not the case here.”

NHL Vice President Arthur Pincus said the league’s director of security, Dennis Cunningham, is still interviewing players and has not narrowed the possibilities. “I can’t give you a rundown of who’s been talked to and what’s been said,” Pincus said, “but we absolutely intend to continue.”

NAOC, the Nagano organizing committee, put the damages at $3,000. However, Bettman said the figure he got from the USOC was $1,000. The USOC will pay NAOC, and USA Hockey and the NHL will reimburse the USOC.

Rick Winston, public relations director for the NHL Players Assn., said the NHLPA’s executive director, Bob Goodenow, has held “cooperative” discussions with Paul George, the U.S. chef de mission in Nagano. The village was under the USOC’s jurisdiction. Winston initially downplayed the incident and suggested flimsy furniture had collapsed while players were playing cards, but he said Tuesday that was before he was fully informed. “What happened was totally inappropriate and indefensible,” Winston said.