Montreal Canadiens at the Olympics: Martin Rucinsky and the 1998 Czech Gold Medal
When Martin Rucinsky was traded to the Montreal Canadiens during the 1995-96 season, it was seen as one of the most infamous trades in the team’s history.
Rucinsky joined former Colorado Avalanche teammates Andrei Kovalchenko and Jocelyn Thibault on the road to Montreal, in exchange for the Canadiens’ franchise goaltender Patrick Roy and then captain Mike Keane.
It wasn’t as if Rucinsky couldn’t produce for Montreal. It was quite the opposite. He finished the year of the trade amassing 60 points for the Habs and followed that performance with two consecutive 50-point seasons in 1996-97 and 1997-98.
His contribution garnered him a spot on the 1998 Czech Republic roster in Nagano, Japan. He joined the likes of Pavel Patera, Robert Reichel, 25-year-old Jaromir Jagr (to think he was ever that young) and former Canadiens defenseman Petr Svoboda. Oh yeah, the team also had a decent goaltender in Dominik Hasek who was backstopping Buffallo in a season where he would take home his fourth Vezina Trophy.
The Czechs were slotted into Group C against strong contenders Russia and Finland, along with a Kazakhstan team that won the top seed in their qualification table. Rucinsky’s squad won 3-0 against the Finns and 8-2 against the Kazakhs before faltering against Russia 2-1 in the last match of the preliminaries.
That last defeat pinned the Czech Republic against the United States in the quarterfinals. Thanks to a three-goal second period, the Czechs eliminated the Americans with a 4-1 victory and advanced to the semis where Rucinsky faced a familiar name.
The Canadians had finished atop Group D with an undefeated record in the group stage. They then trounced Kazakhstan handily 4-1 in the quarterfinal. Much of this was due to the incredible goaltending of Roy, who had surrendered just four goals up to this point in the tournament. He faced off against Hasek in what is arguably the greatest goaltending matchup in Olympic history.
Both teams scored one goal at the end of regulation, and an overtime period solved nothing. Hasek was perfect in the shootout, not allowing any rubber to find twine. This was thanks in part to Team Canada head coach Marc Crawford electing not to use Wayne Gretzky in the "win or fight for the bronze shootout". Roy gave up a goal to Reichel, and history was made. The Czechs had upset Canada and advanced to meet Russia in the final.
Russia had been on a torrent-scoring pace. The team had tallied 15 goals in the preliminaries, only to win 4-1 and 7-4 against Belarus and Finland respectively. Three of the top eleven point producers in the tournament were on the team: Pavel Bure, Alexei Yashin and Sergei Fedorov. In fact, Bure led the entire tournament in goals with nine by the end of it.
Hasek stopped all 20 shots he faced, shutting out the Russians while Petr Svoboda scored the game-winning goal. In helping his country’s team win their first-ever Olympic gold, Rucinsky amassed three goals and four points in six games, good enough for third best on the squad.
Rucinsky returned to La Belle Province with hardware many could only dream of acquiring. Unfortunately, he never experienced the same level of production in the rest of his Habs tenure. The proceeding 1998-99 season saw him put up 34 points while also enduring a troubling minus-25 rating. He never hit the 50-point mark again as a Hab, with the closest chance being 49 points in 80 games in the 1999-2000 campaign.
After putting up eight points in 18 games to start the 2001-02 season, the Canadiens shipped him off to Dallas alongside Benoit Brunet. He finished his career in 2008 after appearing in 961 games and totalling 612 points. In 2019 he was inducted into the Czech ice Hockey Hall of Fame due to his accolades.
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