You want pressure? For Canada, it's hockey gold -- or else

From the Atlantic Provinces to the Pacific coastline, Canadians will spend two weeks gleefully rooting for their country's stars in skiing, skating and snowboarding. Winter sports are a passion in the Great White North, but only one Olympic sport creates as much inner fear as it does cheers.

Hockey.

For many of Canada's 33 million residents, it's the only game that matters, the only sport in which a gold medal absolutely, positively must be won for the Vancouver games to be considered a success in the country that invented the game.

In Canada, the players grip hockey sticks, but the sport itself grips the nation, with an estimated one-fifth of the country actively involved in some way. Americans vividly recall where they were when Neil Armstrong walked on the moon in 1969, but the touchstone of cultural significance for Canadians is Paul Henderson scoring in the final minute to beat the U.S.S.R. during the famous 1972 Summit Series.

Referring to hockey as a mere sport almost demeans its societal importance in a country where a pond hockey game is pictured on the $5 bill. More Canadians, it is reputed, know the words to the timeworn arena anthem "The Hockey Song" by Stompin' Tom Connors (A sample: "Oh the good ole hockey game is the best game you can name") than do the lyrics to the national anthem.

Because of this national fixation with hockey, every Olympic shift by Sidney Crosby, every save attempt by Martin Brodeur, every shift change by coach Mike Babcock will be analyzed and agonized over in a land that has literally waited years for this moment but, now that's almost here, almost can't bear to watch.

Winning a hockey gold medal would be the ultimate for nearly every Canadian who has played shinny on a frozen backyard, but losing on home ice might bring on a how-it-could happen malaise that could last for weeks.

"Will I be watching? Of course, I'll be watching," said Pittsburgh Penguins forward Max Talbot, a former Canadian world junior team member who scored the game-winning goal in Game 7 of the Stanley Cup finals last year. "Every single Canadian will be watching. Every single soul. It's the Olympics, and I can't imagine how big it's going to be."

The 23 NHL players wearing the maple leaf understand how big it will be. The Manitoban newspaper opined the day after Canada's team was introduced: "The thought of a losing effort is something wholly unacceptable and incalculable within this culture, where national pride and hockey skill are (at least once every four years) inseparable entities."

Talk about feeling the weight of the world. A Coke commercial running up north sends this jingoistic but pride-filled message: "Let's make sure everyone knows whose game they're playing."

The problem: Canada is good, but so are Russia, the United States, the Czech Republic, Slovakia. Remember the finalists in Turin four years ago? Not Canada and Russia, but Sweden and Finland.

"We know full well the expectations of the country," said Steve Yzerman, the longtime NHL star who succeeds Wayne Gretzky as Canada's executive director following the seventh-place disappointment of 2006.

The pressure is so great, he acknowledges, "It's nerve-racking."

He's not alone.

In 2002, Gretzky -- about as close as it gets in Canada to a national treasure -- rallied his players to a gold medal in Salt Lake City by imploring, "The whole world wants us to lose!"

His message wasn't quite correct, as hockey is a niche sport in most countries, but his attitude reflects Canada's mindset. The whole world may not care whether Canada wins, but Canadians can't bear the thought of losing.

"There was tons of pressure the last time in Turin," Canada forward Rick Nash said. "But any time you put on the red and white maple leaf, there's a lot of pressure."

Gretzky brought back much of his 2002 gold-medal team four years ago, but a terrible scoring slump -- three shutout losses in the last four games -- doomed the Canadians. Yzerman assembled a much younger team (12 players are 25 or younger) that didn't repeat the mistake of Turin by excluding Crosby, one of the world's best players and a Stanley Cup winner at age 22.

Because there's only one day of practice after the NHL shuts down for the Olympic break and the games start, Yzerman is bringing in familiar defensive pairings (Duncan Keith and Brent Seabrook from Chicago, former Ducks teammates Chris Pronger and Scott Niedermayer) and even entire lines in an attempt to quickly build chemistry.

"You want your game to be at your best when the time comes," Crosby said.

The United States also went young, with only three players returning from its non-contending team in Turin. But much of that youth is undersized compared to Canada, with Ryan Callahan, Chris Drury, Patrick Kane, Phil Kessel, Zach Parise and Joe Pavelski all 5-foot-11 or shorter. Goaltending is a strength, with Ryan Miller and Tim Thomas capable of carrying a team.

Reigning world champion Russia, the bronze medalist in Turin, has elite scorers in NHL MVP Alex Ovechkin and Stanley Cup MVP Evgeni Malkin, although Malkin was in an extended slump as the Olympics approached. The question is whether Russia, for all of its talent, has the depth to endure in a two-week tournament.

Russia coach Vyacheslav Bykov, under considerable pressure, passed over some worthy NHL players to choose nine players from the country's own Kontinental Hockey League, including relative unknowns Sergei Zinoviev, Danis Zaripov and Ilya Nikulin. It's a big gamble that, should Russia falter, will create considerable debate back home whether the best team was truly picked.

Sweden, the Turin gold medalists and the best team in Salt Lake City until its unimaginable quarterfinal loss to Belarus, copied the 2006 Canada model by loading up on veterans -- 13 return from 2006. But the Swedes won't have injured Red Wings star Johan Franzen, and they left off some possibly better-qualified players (Mikael Samuelsson, Kristian Huselius, Alexander Edler, Niclas Bergfors) to bring back their veterans.

Looking for a surprise team? How about Slovakia, with Jaroslav Halak in goal plus elite forwards Marian Hossa and Marian Gaborik and defensemen Zdeno Chara and Lubomir Visnovsky. And what about the potential risk of injuries? Will Ovechkin flatten Capitals teammate Nicklas Backstrom of Sweden if necessary? Would Malkin take a run at Crosby?

The 12 qualifiers will be split into three groups of four for round-robin play that starts Feb. 16. Sweden landed in perhaps the easiest group with Finland, Belarus and Germany; Canada and the United States join Switzerland and Norway, while Russia, Slovakia, the Czech Republic and Latvia form perhaps the toughest group.

While the three group winners and top runner-up advance to the quarterfinals, no team will be eliminated during round-robin play. The eight remaining teams will play quarterfinal qualifiers (No. 5 meets No. 12, No. 6 meets No. 11, etc.), a change from the Turin format that could result in upsets and, potentially, a previously winless team reaching the quarterfinals. It's single elimination after that.

"It will be a little intense, a little nervous," Canada goalie Marc-Andre Fleury said.

A whole country feels the same way.