2010 Olympic Men's Ice Hockey Thread

[Notreknip]

Originally Posted by Duff_Man

For all you Torontonians, there was a 200m conga line and fireworks going off in Dundas Square.

Good thing they were there and got spared the agony of watching the closing ceremonies.

 

[NewYorkIslander]

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.

JD, wasn't addressing how people felt, was addressing how the US performed. We were in a hostile environment in Vancouver. Every Canadian, in every game rooted against us in that building, as well as in Regina. We'll get it again in Russia, and so will you guys.

Re: why I thought all Canadians thought it was in the bag, leading up to the olympics, every quote from cbc and tsn was about how it was in the bag, and the only challenge would be from Russia, in the gold medal game. No I don't live there, and hockey coverage down here is pathetic, so thats what I was going on. That and Don MacLean (I take Grapes with a grain of salt) and Hot STove on HNIC. It also didn't help me thinking differently to read, "A Canadian B and C Team would beat the US in a series". And I root for Canada, I want to see them do well, just not against the US of course.

Look, I'm upset we lost, proud of how we played, and happy for Canada. Now I get to look fwd to the Rangers sucking for another month or so...

 

[Chinook]

Originally Posted by NewYorkRanger

JD, wasn't addressing how people felt, was addressing how the US performed. We were in a hostile environment in Vancouver. Every Canadian, in every game rooted against us in that building, as well as in Regina. We'll get it again in Russia, and so will you guys.

Re: why I thought all Canadians thought it was in the bag, leading up to the olympics, every quote from cbc and tsn was about how it was in the bag, and the only challenge would be from Russia, in the gold medal game. No I don't live there, and hockey coverage down here is pathetic, so thats what I was going on. That and Don MacLean (I take Grapes with a grain of salt) and Hot STove on HNIC. It also didn't help me thinking differently to read, "A Canadian B and C Team would beat the US in a series". And I root for Canada, I want to see them do well, just not against the US of course.

Look, I'm upset we lost, proud of how we played, and happy for Canada. Now I get to look fwd to the Rangers sucking for another month or so...

The USA was pooled in Saskatoon and I definitely participated in booing a 17 year old goalie. Campbell Sucks and recall chanting something witty about the back up Lee.

And it's Ron.

Otherwise, I definitely don't think the general vibe in Canada was that we were going to win. Most of us thought Ryan Miller had it in the bag pre-tournament. I know I did.

That was cool how they used the Canadian flag as the Stanley Cup.

 

[audiophilia]

Originally Posted by StephenHero

Updated all time medal count... Congrats to the Canucks for closing the gap to within 849 gold medals and 2143 total medals of Big Brother.

My personal US fav was Dwight Stones' bronze high jump from the Montreal Games. Class.

 

[Piobaire]

Originally Posted by StephenHero

Thanks for adding something to the conversation besides personal attacks.

More specifically, thanks for addressing the discriminatory nature of the winter games which put the U.S. at a distinct disadvantage in per capita medals (except in the summer games where we have a near 10x higher medal count). Your analysis is breathtaking as usual.

Wait. Wut?

Did you just make the argument that the Winter Olympics are discriminatory in nature, after commenting your best athletic pool in the US are blacks?

Originally Posted by StephenHero

Track and field events are the largest summer Olympic games group of medals to be won and Canadians are completely capable of practicing running, while Texans, Floridians, and large percentages of blacks in the south and eastern seaboard (who are the U.S.'s best athlete pool) don't have access to mountains and snow to ski on.

Yup, you did.

 

[Casual]

Originally Posted by Hard2Fit

Gotta be psyched for the Kid. He must get sooo much *****. . .
Still living in Lemieux's basement could make that difficult.

 

[Teacher]

(Teacher skips the vitriolic garbage on the preceeding pages...)

I'm late to the party...too busy the last few days! What a game that was. Naturally I was disappointed with the outcome, but it was a great, great game played well by both sides. Close, physical, fast, and very skilled. My hat's off to all involved.

Originally Posted by gomestar

Unfortunately, Crosby will get all of the credit. Great work with a performing a wrist shot way out in the open and right in front of the goal.

Too bad, it was Iginla who battled against 2 USA defensemen go get the puck loose and work it over to Crosby. Nobody will be talking about it in a few years, but Iginla deserves full credit for that OT goal.

Absolutely, positively agreed. I know Sidney the Kidney is a great player and all, but he was basically a non-facor in this game, and really wasn't that important in the two games prior. Sure he got a really good shot off, but that was pretty much it. There were others on Team Canada (Iginla, Perry, Toews, probably Niedermeyer) who were far more productive in that game and deserve to be recognized for it.

 

[sonick]

Ron Wilson: "Best team doesn't always win gold" http://www.nhl.com/ice/news.htm?id=519340 What happened to all the "US are the underdogs" talk, huh Ron? False modesty ftl.

 

[Piobaire]

Originally Posted by sonick

Ron Wilson: "Best team doesn't always win gold"

http://www.nhl.com/ice/news.htm?id=519340

What happened to all the "US are the underdogs" talk, huh Ron?

False modesty ftl.

As I said:

Originally Posted by Piobaire

Have you folks every watched a US broadcast of the Olympics? This talk of America "losing" at something indicates otherwise. American athletes never "lose." Sometimes, they beat themselves by, "Not playing up to their ability," or "Having an off day/bad luck," or are "beat by an injury." Other teams never actually win because they are better either, they either play "way above their heads," or got a lucky break.

 

[Teacher]

Give it up, Pio. Just look at many of the Canadian comments about the Canadian loss to the US...same thing. I don't think I need to even quote them; they're in this thread and in the other one about the Olympics overall.

 

[Piobaire]

Originally Posted by Teacher

Give it up, Pio. Just look at many of the Canadian comments about the Canadian loss to the US...same thing. I don't think I need to even quote them; they're in this thread and in the other one about the Olympics overall.

I am not going to excuse tough nerts from Canadians on their loss. People should be good sports, IMO. However, that doesn't dismiss the global nature of the US comments any time they lose any event, in any sport. A great example is when the "fastest man in the world" title suddenly didn't fit the 100m dash winner, but was taken up by the 200m dash winner, several years ago (Micheal Johnson). Or the "Dave and Don Show" that Nike gave us years ago. Which is exactly why Canada deserved to be lowered a notch over the "Own the Podium" thing, IMO.

Edit: Teacher, keep in mind, I love the US...so much I moved here! It was a great game yesterday and would not have been nearly so intense if it had not been Canada v. US, so both countries added to the excitment. I do stand by my observation though that the US shows a little...hubris...when it comes to certain things, the Olympics being one. Probably goes back to the US v. Soviet Bloc days.

 

[Chargersfan]

Yup, the US is number one...in coming in third...

 

[StephenHero]

Originally Posted by Piobaire

Wait. Wut?

Did you just make the argument that the Winter Olympics are discriminatory in nature, after commenting your best athletic pool in the US are blacks?



Yup, you did.

They are discriminatory from an access standpoint. The areas in the U.S. with the least access to ice and snow are also the areas with the best pool of U.S. athletes. Do you disagree with either?

 

[Mr.Pinchy]

Originally Posted by StephenHero

You also have 3.6x as many people as Hungary and still trail that god-forsaken shithole by 60 medals.
Obviously you've never been to Hungary. I heard it was quite the opposite.

 

[Mr.Pinchy]

Detroit

Windsor (accross the river, actually south of Detroit) - while it isn't pretty it certainly isn't Detroit

I'd be careful what you call a shithole.