"Only gold matters"?

[Itsnotatrap]

If the USA mens curling team won silver or bronze, they would be pounding back the beer and smokin cigars in celebration... like Canada's golden 2010 women's olympic hockey team. Just saying...

With John Shuster at skip, Disney would have to make a Miracle 2 movie about it. Chris Pratt would be the lead actor. It would be awesome.

 

[Danish Pastry]

Lame excuse usa just got beat down today. Your a professional the Canada game was the day before embarrassing if you let it effect your play the next day. Its disrespectful to the fans and to the fins.

 

[bareza]

Probably not, but we have earned the right to say "Gold or bust" WTF has the US done besides the miracle on ice?

i agree Canada has medals to back it up but , USA docent have. USA is-int even top 3 country in hockey but they only expect gold , i just don't see the logic

after raging i did some self thinking and i can say USA is a top 3 in small ice .

 

[MikeK]

Lame excuse usa just got beat down today. Your a professional the Canada game was the day before embarrassing if you let it effect your play the next day. Its disrespectful to the fans and to the fins.

Agreed. They just flat out didn't show up. Sad really.

 

[Pominville Knows]

Check out finlands record in 98 Olympics in nagano.

preliminary round.

lost to the Czech's
lost to the Russian's
beat kazakhstan

qf
beat Sweden 2-1

semi finals
lost to Russian's 7-4

Finland is in bronze medal game???

I realize its the way the tournament is set up, but really, finland wins 1 game of any substance and lose their other 3 games against good competition and their in the bronze medal game.

That's why who cares about the bronze. There are 5 teams (Canada, finland, Sweden, usa, Russia) that can win the gold, who cares who the third best team out of those 5 are

You're doing it wrong. It's crunch-time that matters. And they won two, the bronze medal game as well.

 

[Hoople]

So let me get this straight. You get selected to represent your country. You travel halfway around the world for the opportunity to do something 99.9 percent of people never have a shot at doing. You get a chance to win a medal. So you lay an egg and don't try because it's not a gold one? Give me a damn break. If they really did have that attitude then they are a disgraceful group. But I think they did try and got their ***** handed to them by a better team with a better coach.

It is a different mindset with a professional athlete who is paid millions by the NHL to play in the Olympics than pure amateur athletes.

 

[Wolfpuck]

Honestly, I consider this Olympics a failure for Team USA not because they didn't win Gold, but because they didn't even manage a goal in the two medal games, let alone win one of them. Going home empty handed sucks.

It's a cop-out. Finland is the better team.

No question.

 

[icKx]

I don't think the Americans would be saying this if they had won the bronze!

They would.

Spent my morning folding laundry and making a grocery list rather than turn on the tv. That's how little the outcome of this game mattered to me.

 

[Itsnotatrap]

Lame excuse usa just got beat down today. Your a professional the Canada game was the day before embarrassing if you let it effect your play the next day. Its disrespectful to the fans and to the fins.

For some, it might be an excuse, but that is weak. Finland goes after it hard every time they play for their country, it seems, and that's to their credit. I happen to think USA couldn't match Finland's intensity, and I also happen to think that isn't an excuse. It's embarrassing.

 

[Mant*]

So true. Got an infraction yesterday for one post similar to entire threads of this drivel.

Sorry world at large, as a fan (I am not a player, repeat: not a player) you're first or you're last. Second place and below is for losers and the Americans are losers this tournament/Olympics. Nothing to be proud of outside the gold medals earned.

Isn't it fantastic to have a place where everyone, including moderators, can gather to mock Americans, kick them when they're down, and then give them infractions when they don't like it? It's like disneyland for dicks!

 

[MerrimackBruin*]

It's very American to not celebrate 3rd... Since when is second runner up anything to be proud of? OH you didn't get the job but you were our second choice!? It's not the American way, we expect to win, it's like that commercial that jokes about how EU gets months of vacation and in the US a vaca of 5 days is considered a LONG trip.

Never in my life was I ever taught to be proud of losing. The Nhl doesn't have 3rd place games for a reason. Losing is losing, don't sprinkle glitter on crap

 

[Pominville Knows]

Sorry world at large, as a fan (I am not a player, repeat: not a player) you're first or you're last. Second place and below is for losers and the Americans are losers this tournament/Olympics. Nothing to be proud of outside the gold medals earned.

Well you would not have been an Olympic champion but you would have WON against Finland. Now you are left a loser against Finland, stand in line after them.

 

[a mangy Meowth]

Because only gold matters ever. We are not out for silvers and bronze like some people here joke about. We want to be the best at everything.

 

[Mass]

this just shows how out of it you are. do you know how many teams over the years have had a great round robin only to drop out in elminiation rounds? or suck in round robin to clean up and win in the elimination rounds? of course you don't because the past 30 years is irrelevant and the only years that matter are the years the us won gold (count them)

You're really grasping aren't you? Totally taking my point about the last 30 years being irrelevant out of context. Because I totally said the only years that matter are when the US won gold By all means, keep up the strawmen.

I'm really failing to see the issue with seeing a team play well and expecting them to continue to play well. Is respectfully having high expectations for a team you root for that frowned upon here?

 

[Puck Dogg]

Isn't it ironic that current medal sequence (gold, silver and bronze) was first introduced during 1904 Olympic Games in St. Louis?

 

[PricePkPatch*]

Because Barney Stinson said so

 

[a mangy Meowth]

Well you would not have been an Olympic champion but you would have WON against Finland. Now you are left a loser against Finland, stand in line after them.

What are we supposed to do about that though? I don't know what you are expecting him or any of us to say

We want to win and be the best, and anything less is a failure, plain and simple.

 

[ThirdManIn]

Funny how there were many americans in that "is it exciting cheering for a team going for bronze" thread saying that yes it is. Now they are all gone. And then they have that medal count where they count # of medals (and not gold foremost).

Some of us are still around and incredibly disappointed in the utterly horrible performance today. Maybe we just aren't as vocal as others.

Congrats, Finland. You deserved it today.

 

[LAKings88]

I don't think the players themselves wanted to lose. I understand as an athlete that down by two goals in a bronze game, to a very good team, after losing 1-0 to Canada, you might let the game slip away. The Finns wanted it and it showed.

The US is a good team and they were playing well. They were as much of a contender as any of the top teams in the tourney.

Lot of cultural differences popping up in this thread. Lot of chest thumping. These teams are all closer than many would like to admit. Today's game may had been different if Kane scored on those PS. Congrats to Finland on your third place finish, better than fourth.

 

[Hockeyfan6781]

I think its a false narrative engrained in our culture.. From a young age we as Americans are fed a line of crap that because we are Americans we're the best and our country is better than everyone else and blah blah blah.. There are still people who actually believe that, and in some cases effort is overlooked

 

[hitmen19]

You're doing it wrong. It's crunch-time that matters. And they won two, the bronze medal game as well.

no, the point demonstrates that its gold or who cares. Canada doesn't care if they are third or fourth. In a tournament that only 5 teams can realistically win, bronze is average, middle of the pack. Although I really still have a hard time thinking Finland had a realistic chance of winning this tournament, so its basically the best Finland could have done. Winning Bronze for finland is like winning gold for the other countries to be honest.

 

[mangdas]

The US were just not as good as those teams finishing with a medal. But for a tournament that is only 2 weeks long and a team that has had a few practices to gel, who really cares?

 

[DarkReign]

Well you would not have been an Olympic champion but you would have WON against Finland. Now you are left a loser against Finland, stand in line after them.

Question; will there be a parade/celebration in Finland for winning the bronze?

Because I guarantee if the US had won it would have only been recognized as an addition to the bronze column.

It's not hard to understand, or at least I don't think it is, you're first or you're a loser, I don't care what color your name appears in.

 

[FlutteringSaucer]

They would have started Howard or at least Miller if they didn't care. Also not sure who their scratches were?

Sure they weren't able to match Finland in intensity today but they came there to win the game and only gave up in the 3rd.

 

[nhindian]

I will bet every American player's #1 priority was "dont get injured", and rightfully so. Patriotism, shmatriotism...a bronze medal is not worth potentially injuring yourself for a Stanley Cup drive. Not for a North American anyway. I don't believe this was USA taking a 'gold or nothing ' approach (but if it is, they are getting way ahead of themselves).

Finland absolutely deserved to win, but I don't think 5-0 is necessarily indicative of the US team's standing in international hockey.

This was my take on it as well. Every single person on the USA roster has an NHL team to go back to. After losing the possibility of goal, I'm sure the vast majority of them went into focusing on the Stanley Cup mode.

Conversely, the Finns have a mix of NHLers and European league players. I'm sure a bronze medal for them means a lot more to them because they aren't playing for the Stanley Cup.