Simon Gagne enjoyed his 22nd birthday after he and Team Canada took home the gold medal at the 2002 Winter Olympics.

Gagne sets sights on second gold
By Chuck Gormley | NHL.com correspondent
Jan. 19, 2006

Simon Gagne's Olympic gold medal rests neatly in a shiny wooden case. And it goes with him wherever he goes.

"If I go back home to Quebec it's in my luggage," the Philadelphia Flyers' leading goal scorer said. "When I'm here in Philly, it's here with me. Every place I go for a long time the medal is going to come with me. At one point, I'm going to have to do something special with it. But for now it stays with me."

Gagne was five days shy of his 22nd birthday when Team Canada defeated Team USA, 5-2, to win its first Olympic gold medal in 50 years at the 2002 Games in Salt Lake City.

Gagne had played on Canada's silver-medal team in the 1999 World Junior Championships, where he matched Mario Lemieux's tournament record with a four-goal game, but had never before been part of something as monumental as the Olympics.

In fact, playing in the Olympics had never even crossed his mind as a young boy growing up in Ste. Foy, Quebec.

"It was not a dream because NHL players were not going to the Olympics when I was little," he said. "My dream was to play in the NHL and win the Stanley Cup and the Olympics were not part of it."

The first Winter Olympics Gagne remembers watching was in 1994 when Peter Forsberg, his current linemate in Philadelphia, won the gold medal for Sweden by beating Canada in the shootout.

"That's when Peter scored that goal in the shootout with the one-hand move," Gagne said. "I never thought then that I'd be playing with him."

Gagne was 14 at the time. Four years later Canada finished without a medal as the Finns beat the Canadians in the bronze-medal game, extending Canada's gold medal drought to 46 years. That is why Gagne was extremely honored -- and nervous -- to represent his country in 2002.

"To play on a dream team like that was, well, it was like a dream for me," Gagne said. "I was in my third year in the league and I got to play with guys I watched when I was younger. Guys like (Joe) Sakic, (Mario) Lemieux and guys who played for my Quebec Nordiques, Adam Foote and Owen Nolan. It was pretty special to be around those guys."

Gagne, a Quebec native, played on a line with Sakic and Calgary Flames star Jarome Iginla and was on the ice for two of Canada's goals in the gold-medal game.

He said his only regret from 2002 was not being able to see the people of Canada celebrate their country's first Olympic gold in a half century. Instead, he and former Flyers teammate Eric Lindros joined Team USA's John LeClair on a flight back to Philadelphia to resume the remainder of the 2001-02 NHL schedule.

Gagne was happy to celebrate Canada's World Cup of Hockey championship in Toronto.

Gagne said there is something very special about playing for your country, especially when that country perceives itself as the home of the sport.

"It's amazing," he said. "It doesn't matter if it's the Olympics, the World Cup or the World Championship, it's always huge at home in Canada. Millions of people watch it. You're not only representing yourself, you're representing everyone in Canada.

"You may be far away, but you know so many people are watching you back home. Sometimes when I sit in the locker room before those games I think about all those people watching that little TV everywhere in the country. That's a lot of support.

"I was in Toronto when we won the (2004) World Cup and that was pretty crazy in the streets. It was pretty amazing."

Gagne played on a line with Sakic and Jarome Iginla in the 2002 Games and finished the six-game tournament tied for fourth on the team with a goal and three assists. As the NHL's leading scorer throughout most of the first half this season, Gagne will be asked to play a much greater role in these Olympics.

"My first year I was maybe following the group," he said, "and now I have a lot more confidence in myself and I can do more of the stuff I'm doing here. I'm more mature than I was in 2002."

With Lemieux and Steve Yzerman no longer on the Canadian Olympic team, Gagne represents a new core of leaders for Team Canada, a group that includes Vincent Lecavalier, Dany Heatley and Brad Richards.

He said despite the fact Canada's Olympic curse has been lifted, this year's team is no less talented or determined than the one in 2002.

"The team we have right now is very good," Gagne said. "I don't want to say it's better than 2002 because that team won. It's going to be very tough to beat that team. You can't take that away from that team. But if you look on paper, the team we have right now, it was a hard time picking it. That shows how much talent we have. But we have to do it where it counts most: on the ice."