hockey

[KThunder]

Congrats Canada on a fantastic game!!!!

[KThunder]

noone (else) here likes hockey?

[quarkx]

Being a born and bread Canuck, I was raised on Hockey, but I am disgusted with the Olympics and the blatant use of professional Hockey players and the fact that they even shrunk the rink to NHL size. People work hard all their lives for a shot at the Olympics and these guys just are given a golden ticket to it. Back in the '80's there was so much protest on the MBA "dream Team", yet with the men's Hockey, no one bats an eye. I would have been more choked if they lost though, these are Professional players after all, you expect them to win the gold. But enough of my rant.

[KThunder]

hockey, basketball, and several other sports have a very capable and organized talent  structure. the best highschool players many times go on to play in college or amateur leagues. the best college and amateur go on to play in ahl or similar and some of the best go on to play in the nhl.
all that to say it doesn't suprise me to see the nhl players there and since the nhl is the largest and best organised to see many if not all rules and stuff from there.
i would find it more disturbing to see the nhl and its players ignored.
do you think the olympics should all be non-professionals? would only college players be better?

[quarkx]

the whole idea of the Olympics is Non-professional (or Amateur) sports. Using pros is a slap to the face for the person who after years of working a day job, paying, not only for his or her equipment, practice time, coaching, etc , too be bumped aside for a person who makes millions a year doing that exact same sport, day after day, and has the facilities, equipment, coaching and training paid for, yes, thats insulting. Why go through 10 days of this farce. Next Olympics, the NHL should just give the Olympic Council a bunch of blank checks and be done with it.

The women's hockey team, on the other hand, played hard, and really deserved to win. None of them will be going back to million dollar jobs today, they fought hard and were hungry for the gold, to the men's team, it was just another day at the office.

Endorsements may and will follow the gold winners, but thats one the rewards of winning gold. But to the professionals, there really are no rewards. You might as well say it was the NHL All Star game for Canada and the US. Same idea, different uniforms.

[KThunder]

ok i see what you mean. i don't completely agree with it but i see. what would you say to the nhl players that really want to be in the olympics? i get the impression you think professional players are overpaid, which i partially agree with too.

[Bif]

Well I certainly love hockey. Play a lot of it too. But for some reason I can't stand discussing hockey with most people. Too much stuff like people wanking about their team when it doesn't win its 11th straight game against some team that is 10 points below them in the standing, etc.
 
So I was trying to stay out of this =). Honestly I found the Can/Usa game a tad boring for a 3-2 OT game ... it was pretty tentative hockey from Canada's side, but I can see that they were trying to not make mistakes. I would have preferred some more hitting from Canada.

[KThunder]

kinda weird i like to skate and watch hockey but i have only played a half dozen times my whole life. i wrestled, and played football and soccer.

[nooly]

congrats 2 Canada. but i think USA were slightly better + they didn't lose single match in the tournament before the finals. i was greatly disappointed with our (Czech) team. after we won olympics in Nagano and had other significant succes (like winning 3 world championship in a row) it seems the team lacks it's power now. i'm sad to say that in Europe only Sweden and maybe Russia can compete with Canada now :/

and btw. the olympic finals game was absolutely fantastic.