No friends at hockey tournament

COMBINED DISPATCHES

VANCOUVER, British Columbia — Sweden defenseman Niklas Kronwall is friends with his Detroit Red Wings teammates Pavel Datsyuk and Valtteri Filppula on and off the ice when they play in the NHL.

That all changes in Vancouver, where all three are playing for different countries at the Winter Olympics.

“You don’t have friends on the ice,” Russia center Pavel Datsyuk said Sunday.

One of the toughest players in the NHL, Kronwall will not hold back if he clashes with Datsyuk, Finland star Filppula or American Brian Rafalski.

“You don’t even have it in your mind that you’re going to smoke somebody, or try to hurt somebody,” Kronwall insisted. “But you play as close to the line as you can with as much toughness as possible.”

The San Jose Sharks are providing eight players to five different nations in Vancouver — Canada, United States, Sweden, Russia and Germany.

“The stakes are high, so we’re not going to pull any punches,” said forward Joe Thornton, one of four Sharks in the Canada team. “I think it’s going to be exciting and we’re going to have a lot of fun with it.”

American Ryan Suter is looking forward to facing as many as four of his Nashville teammates representing four countries: “It’ll be a game within a game and a competition within the big picture.”

Filppula, whose first opportunity to play in the Olympics might get derailed by a groin injury, said Kronwall shouldn’t think twice about hitting him.

“I think guys will play the way they normally play because the game is too fast to think, ‘Hey, that’s my NHL teammate,’ ” Filppula said. “I’m sure Kronner will try to light me up if he can. That’s the way it should be.”

This might be the last year for such rivalries. The NHL has not decided if its players will be allowed to compete at the 2014 Olympics in Russia.

Kronwall, who will try to help Sweden repeat as Olympic champions, hopes things won’t change.

“It’s kind of the beauty of it,” he said.

“Maybe on the ice, you’re swearing at each other and the next week, you’re going out to dinner and it’s all back to normal.”

Martin Brodeur is hoping he doesn’t enjoy his 2010 Olympic experience too much.

“You don’t enjoy the Olympics when you play,” he said.

So, though this will be Brodeur’s fourth — and, at 37, likely final — Winter Games, he would like to be too busy in Vancouver to bask in the glow of the Olympic cauldron. He’d settle for simply being Canada’s No. 1 goaltender in what the entire nation hopes will be a long tournament.

Brodeur, the NHL’s all-time leader in regular-season wins, shutouts, minutes and games, will have to wait for Thursday’s game against Switzerland to get his chance, though. In a surprise move, Team Canada will start Roberto Luongo in net in its opener tonight against Norway.

“I enjoyed the Nagano Olympics. That was unbelievable,” he said of the 1998 Games, in which he did not play a single minute as Patrick Roy’s backup and Canada finished a disappointing fourth. “But the other ones, it’s too much getting prepared and everything. It’s like the NHL season to a certain extent. You play every two days and you get yourself prepared. You enjoy the village and the atmosphere, but there’s so much at stake, especially now being in Canada.”