So as we go into tonight’s elimination game against Germany, I am finally seeing that many Canadians accept the reality. We are NOT the most dominant hockey nation on earth in terms of an Olympic team. I have been saying this the entire time. Not to say I do not want them to climb back and win it all, I just did not think it was going to be as easy as everyone else seemed to.
We do not have the most talented players anymore, nor do we have the best goaltending. Since most Olympic squads are made up of NHL players we no longer exclusively have the grit and toughness Don Cherry claims sets us apart from other nations. I mean, did you see that hit that Ovechkin laid on Jagr the other day??? Our best are no better than the USA’s, Sweden’s, the Czech Republic’s, Russia’s, or Finland’s. The difference is that we could conceivably send 3 teams that would be equally as competitive as any of those countries. We have the depth which in and of itself poses a huge problem when selecting a team. Steve Yzerman has to weed through all the stats and the film and ultimately guys who are very deserving will get left off the roster. How do we know that in this situation those guys are not the difference between a gold medal and an embarrassing early bow-out.
We also have a nasty habit of not recognizing when it is over, or when it is time to pass the torch. Case in point, Martin Brodeur. He is arguably the best goalie we have seen in our lifetime, however he has looked disinterested, and lackadaisical so far in these Olympics. Sure, he helped us win the gold medal in 2002 (after aging Curtis Joseph blew up vs. Sweden), but this is 2010. Roberto Luongo should have been given the reigns from the beginning. He has not looked himself all season and this should have been acknowledged. With so much pressure on this team to win they needed the best available goaltender to carry the load, and Brodeur clearly was not that guy. It is easier to hide decaying skills in the NHL where every team is not four lines deep, but here at the Olympics you get no shifts off. The torch needed to be past and it wasn’t early enough. Lets just hope that it is not too late.
As for Women’s hockey, I am not sure why anyone is excited about watching blow out after blow out. Has Canada even allowed a goal so far? This does not bode well for the health of the game and I certainly hope that other nations can close the gap or else Women’s hockey will possibly be dropped from the Olympics. It is a foregone conclusion that Canada and the US will meet in the gold medal game (with one exception in 2006…which was the biggest fluke ever). I am not knocking the quality of play as the Canada/USA rivalry is very exciting, I am just saying the lead up I painfully dull and unexciting. I hope it corrects itself and the Women’s hockey Gold Medal will start to mean something.
Go Canada Go!
See you tomorrow Russia…
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