2010 Olympic Men's Ice Hockey Thread

[PiperInAlberta]

Originally Posted by JD_May

I can. The USA absolutely slayed at these games. Their underdogs and also-rans stepped up and delivered when it mattered and that's why they outpaced every expectation. They deserve it. As for whether it's better to win more events outright, or podium more events, that's an endless and honestly pretty stupid debate. And in Canada's case, it's a pretty lame attempt to move the goal posts. We didn't win the medals we should have, but enough people met or exceeded expectations to a point where we can be happy with the performance. Besides, in the end all that matters is that we win what some advertising guys decided to brand as "our game", right?

I don't consider someone 'the best' if their foundation is built upon those who weren't 'the best' (i.e. number 1).

Has nothing to do with penis envy of the medal count, just makes sense. Like I said, quality>quantity.

 

[AR_Six]

We came in intending to win the medal count. A lot of our guys **** the bed when it counted, and a lot of Americans threw out their A game and invented a whole new alphabet of awesomeness. Now, since they demolished everyone, Canadians left right and center are talking about how more golds is the REAL winner. I find that pathetic. How about you give the US its due, and instead of whining about how the medal count doesn't tell the real story, be happy with the fact that Canada now holds an all-time record for gold medals. We won at winning things. That doesn't have to be "better" than placing in the top 3, it's impressive in its own right either way and it's a really dumb argument to be having.

 

[audiophilia]

Originally Posted by NewYorkRanger

Too bad its not an aggregate score (7-6 USA)

Congrats Aud! What a great game. I'm VERY glad it didn't come down to a shootout.
Not a hockey fan, generally. But that game was ******* awesome. The never give up attitude of the US was amazing. Better than Game 7?

 

[audiophilia]

Originally Posted by JD_May

We came in intending to win the medal count. A lot of our guys **** the bed when it counted, and a lot of Americans threw out their A game and invented a whole new alphabet of awesomeness. Now, since they demolished everyone, Canadians left right and center are talking about how more golds is the REAL winner. I find that pathetic. How about you give the US its due, and instead of whining about how the medal count doesn't tell the real story, be happy with the fact that Canada now holds an all-time record for gold medals. We won at winning things. That doesn't have to be "better" than placing in the top 3, it's impressive in its own right either way and it's a really dumb argument to be having.

It's all bullshit, mate. Ignore the crap. The US' medal count is spectacular as is ours. The Vancouver games were fantastic. Countries did themselves proud (with the exception of Russia, so I gather -- did they send home much of its Olympic Fed?).

 

[PiperInAlberta]

Originally Posted by JD_May

We came in intending to win the medal count. A lot of our guys **** the bed when it counted, and a lot of Americans threw out their A game and invented a whole new alphabet of awesomeness. Now, since they demolished everyone, Canadians left right and center are talking about how more golds is the REAL winner. I find that pathetic. How about you give the US its due, and instead of whining about how the medal count doesn't tell the real story, be happy with the fact that Canada now holds an all-time record for gold medals. We won at winning things. That doesn't have to be "better" than placing in the top 3, it's impressive in its own right either way and it's a really dumb argument to be having.

You're talking to a guy who thinks the Olympics are screwy in the first place.

I couldn't give a rats ass at the end of the day really, we think we won the count, the Americans think they won. Win-win. But the scoring system is still marsupialed. You wouldn't consider that I have a better wardrobe because I've got 100 crappy shirts and you have 10 good ones, would you?

I choose to enjoy the fact that we set a record for gold medals by a single country at the winter olympics, you choose the typical inferiority complex Canadians exhibit by talking about how great everyone else did. Quite frankly, one of the greatest things about Americans is that right/wrong, win/loose they always consider themselves the best/right/winner.

 

[Nil]

Didn't Canada's special Olympic program's mission statement say that they wanted to win the most medals period?

 

[NewYorkIslander]

Originally Posted by PiperInAlberta

You wouldn't consider that I have a better wardrobe because I've got 100 crappy shirts and you have 10 good ones, would you?
\\.

Really poor analogy man. 100 crappy suits vs 10 great ones? So a bronze is a Jos A Bank, and Gold is Kiton Vicuna? There's a whole lots of good **** in between. And you're gonna count the curling gold the same as the hockey gold?? C'mon dude.

Re: Canadian hockey fans thinking US fans are whining...you guys thought you'd wipe through everyone taking the gold that was in "your game". You almost **** the bed, and finished with a worse record than the US. You're hockey program is not as good as you think. A lot like US Basketball and baseball. Maybe it was the pressure, but I have a feeling you guys'll be back back in 8th in Russia on the big ice. You're program is not nearly as progressive enough to succeed in hostile, and different environments. The US proved otherwise (see World Jnrs and this years men's tourney). I guess we'll just have to wait and see.

 

[R-H]

Originally Posted by NewYorkRanger

Re: Canadian hockey fans thinking US fans are whining...you guys thought you'd wipe through everyone taking the gold that was in "your game". You almost **** the bed, and finished with a worse record than the US. You're hockey program is not as good as you think. .

Give it up.

 

[Piobaire]

Originally Posted by NewYorkRanger

Re: Canadian hockey fans thinking US fans are whining...you guys thought you'd wipe through everyone taking the gold that was in "your game". You almost **** the bed, and finished with a worse record than the US. You're hockey program is not as good as you think. A lot like US Basketball and baseball. Maybe it was the pressure, but I have a feeling you guys'll be back back in 8th in Russia on the big ice. You're program is not nearly as progressive enough to succeed in hostile, and different environments. The US proved otherwise (see World Jnrs and this years men's tourney). I guess we'll just have to wait and see.

FWIW, what I posted? Applies to every event the US enters.

 

[CBDB]

Originally Posted by NewYorkRanger

Really poor analogy man. 100 crappy suits vs 10 great ones? So a bronze is a Jos A Bank, and Gold is Kiton Vicuna? There's a whole lots of good **** in between. And you're gonna count the curling gold the same as the hockey gold?? C'mon dude.

Re: Canadian hockey fans thinking US fans are whining...you guys thought you'd wipe through everyone taking the gold that was in "your game". You almost **** the bed, and finished with a worse record than the US. You're hockey program is not as good as you think. A lot like US Basketball and baseball. Maybe it was the pressure, but I have a feeling you guys'll be back back in 8th in Russia on the big ice. You're program is not nearly as progressive enough to succeed in hostile, and different environments. The US proved otherwise (see World Jnrs and this years men's tourney). I guess we'll just have to wait and see.

Mommy, my jay jay hurts

 

[Dakota rube]

What a great tournament the Olympics ended up being!
I was happy seeing two University of North Dakota players score goals: Jonathan Toews and Zach Parise.

Twenty-one of the players on USA and Canada played college hockey; I've been fortunate enough to have seen 16 of them play in person. Makes renewing my season tickets worth the financial pain.

 

[AR_Six]

Originally Posted by NewYorkRanger

Re: Canadian hockey fans thinking US fans are whining...you guys thought you'd wipe through everyone taking the gold that was in "your game". You almost **** the bed, and finished with a worse record than the US. You're hockey program is not as good as you think. A lot like US Basketball and baseball. Maybe it was the pressure, but I have a feeling you guys'll be back back in 8th in Russia on the big ice. You're program is not nearly as progressive enough to succeed in hostile, and different environments. The US proved otherwise (see World Jnrs and this years men's tourney). I guess we'll just have to wait and see.
This is a really stupid comment and you're totally out to lunch. You don't live here and have no idea what people are talking about. Did you get that "Canada thought it was going to destroy everyone" crap from NBC, or what? All people were talking about here before the games was whether we were good enough to beat the Ruskies and the Swedes, and how our goaltending, for the first time in a while, was clearly inferior to other countries' (namely the US's and Finland's tandems). Did we make the right choices not bringing Stamkos? Is Pronger too old? There was never any sense that we had it in the bag. There hasn't been since Nagano. People here do not look at any tourney as a lock. Sure, if you ask, they'll say they think we're going to win, same as I'll say I think the Canucks will win the cup every year, but that doesn't mean I ever think it'll be a walk in the park. No real Canadian hockey fan will tell you they're taking anything for granted, we all know that on any given night, no matter how stacked your team is, another really good team can and will win if they want it more. It's a one game series, anybody can take it. And the WJHC? After that people were pissed, but uniformly, everyone said that the silver lining is how good that result was for the sport period and its growth in the states. We WANT you to have a good hockey program down there. We WANT the Russians on track, we want the swedes to keep producing Forsbergs and Naslunds and Sedins, we want Finland to keep pumping out goalies. We don't want this **** to look like Women's hockey, or we'll have fewer games like today's to watch.

 

[sonick]

^ +1 to all this, very well said.

 

[GQgeek]

Originally Posted by JD_May

This is a really stupid comment and you're totally out to lunch. You don't live here and have no idea what people are talking about. Did you get that "Canada thought it was going to destroy everyone" crap from NBC, or what? All people were talking about here before the games was whether we were good enough to beat the Ruskies and the Swedes, and how our goaltending, for the first time in a while, was clearly inferior to other countries' (namely the US's and Finland's tandems). Did we make the right choices not bringing Stamkos? Is Pronger too old? There was never any sense that we had it in the bag. There hasn't been since Nagano. People here do not look at any tourney as a lock. Sure, if you ask, they'll say they think we're going to win, same as I'll say I think the Canucks will win the cup every year, but that doesn't mean I ever think it'll be a walk in the park. No real Canadian hockey fan will tell you they're taking anything for granted, we all know that on any given night, no matter how stacked your team is, another really good team can and will win if they want it more. It's a one game series, anybody can take it.

And the WJHC? After that people were pissed, but uniformly, everyone said that the silver lining is how good that result was for the sport period and its growth in the states. We WANT you to have a good hockey program down there. We WANT the Russians on track, we want the swedes to keep producing Forsbergs and Naslunds and Sedins, we want Finland to keep pumping out goalies. We don't want this **** to look like Women's hockey, or we'll have fewer games like today's to watch.

God I miss Forsberg. As a Wings fan since '93 I got to see a lot of that bastard in the play-offs. Every time he was on the ice I had my fingers crossed. He was an absolutely relentless player with tons and tons of skill.

 

[unjung]

Originally Posted by JD_May

We came in intending to win the medal count. A lot of our guys **** the bed when it counted, and a lot of Americans threw out their A game and invented a whole new alphabet of awesomeness. Now, since they demolished everyone, Canadians left right and center are talking about how more golds is the REAL winner. I find that pathetic. How about you give the US its due, and instead of whining about how the medal count doesn't tell the real story, be happy with the fact that Canada now holds an all-time record for gold medals. We won at winning things. That doesn't have to be "better" than placing in the top 3, it's impressive in its own right either way and it's a really dumb argument to be having.

Originally Posted by JD_May

This is a really stupid comment and you're totally out to lunch. You don't live here and have no idea what people are talking about. Did you get that "Canada thought it was going to destroy everyone" crap from NBC, or what? All people were talking about here before the games was whether we were good enough to beat the Ruskies and the Swedes, and how our goaltending, for the first time in a while, was clearly inferior to other countries' (namely the US's and Finland's tandems). Did we make the right choices not bringing Stamkos? Is Pronger too old? There was never any sense that we had it in the bag. There hasn't been since Nagano. People here do not look at any tourney as a lock. Sure, if you ask, they'll say they think we're going to win, same as I'll say I think the Canucks will win the cup every year, but that doesn't mean I ever think it'll be a walk in the park. No real Canadian hockey fan will tell you they're taking anything for granted, we all know that on any given night, no matter how stacked your team is, another really good team can and will win if they want it more. It's a one game series, anybody can take it.

And the WJHC? After that people were pissed, but uniformly, everyone said that the silver lining is how good that result was for the sport period and its growth in the states. We WANT you to have a good hockey program down there. We WANT the Russians on track, we want the swedes to keep producing Forsbergs and Naslunds and Sedins, we want Finland to keep pumping out goalies. We don't want this **** to look like Women's hockey, or we'll have fewer games like today's to watch.

Totally agreed on both counts.