GDT: Semifinals - February 23 - Canada (3) vs Germany (4)

[Pouchkine]

The problem is that actually the last few Olympics were pretty boring and not that high quality either. Lots of boring trap games with dump and chase and playing not to lose and that awful cycling game. To be honest International Hockey in the 21st Century is a huge letdown for many different reasons.

 

[Captain Bowie]

The problem is that actually the last few Olympics were pretty boring and not that high quality either. Lots of boring trap games with dump and chase and playing not to lose and that awful cycling game. To be honest International Hockey in the 21st Century is a huge letdown for many different reasons.

Well, no. Sochi was a little boring but Vancouver was amazing hockey.

 

[Baxterman]

If you want to whine about it not being best-on-best, have a word with the NHL owners.

I am not whining about it at all. Ido t care if it is best on best or not we have the World Cup for that.

The NHL owners did the 100% right thing not sending their players.

 

[Faterson]

How can you claim Canada was losing from 2006 to 201o (fair) and then claim they they weren't winning from 2014 to 2018? Canada won in 2010 and then didn't lose until 2018. That is 8 years. They were the defending champions for 4 years after 2014.

I was replying to the earlier nonsense posts about "12 years of Canadian domination", which is pure fiction. As you can see, the years can be twisted in any way you like, but it makes no sense because all data we have for between 2006 and 2018 are the 4 Olympic tournaments. The farcical pre-season exhibition Gimmick Cup of 2016 obviously doesn't count.

Canada failed both in 2006 and 2018, and it won in 2010 and 2014 (with considerable luck in 2010, or in extremely tight contests, if you will, both in the finals and semifinals in 2010, while enjoying the massive advantage of home ice).

So, that's all that Canada accomplished: it won 2 Olympic tournaments. Winning back-to-back Olympic tournaments is a great accomplishment, but it's zero domination. It's not 4 years, not 8 years, let alone 12 years. It's 2 isolated tournaments played within 4 years, and that's it.

 

[Bures Elbow]

I truly can't believe how those Canadian players let this opportunity slide to reach the Gold medal game.

They took Germany lightly, they came out SO flat. How could they do that knowing what was at stake?!

 

[Captain Bowie]

I truly can't believe how those Canadian players let this opportunity slide to reach the Gold medal game.

They took Germany lightly, they came out SO flat. How could they do that knowing what was at stake?!

They're human?

 

[Sentinel]

I am not whining about it at all. Ido t care if it is best on best or not we have the World Cup for that.

The NHL owners did the 100% right thing not sending their players.

 

[Ilyeu]

This was beautiful. Well, well, put.

 

[Ilyeu]

Canadians have been displaying one of the classic symptoms of saltiness, the ole 'I never really cared to begin with' charade. I don't know why you'd be in this thread pointing out that this was a bunch of Canadian grannies that lost if ya didn't care. Everyone knows the circumstances..the need to keep pointing them out is there because you just want to make absolutely 1000% sure that everyone knows this loss doesn't truly represent Canadian hockey and really it's just an exhibition kind of..it's hurt pride. Everyone following hockey knows this..as it's literally the Canadian response every time you lose.

Ironically in this particular case it's not even disputed by non-Canadians, but some of you can't help yourselves. Because even though it's your 16th strongest possible team or something, it still says Canada on the shirts and in the records. Even though no-one thinks that North American fans in particular (or even fans in general) are as enthused with this as they were with the 'best vs best' tournaments, it's still a big story. It's talked about by people all over, it's on American sports news websites.

People during the Olympics care for a brief moment about all kinds of fringe sports where athletes are anonymous otherwise and hardly make money..simply because it's an opportunity for them to do well for their country and make people proud. So obviously they're gonna pay attention to one of the few sports in these Games that people actually care about otherwise..even if it's not the best players from all countries there. It's still the flag and the anthem and all that when the medals are handed over. And if Canada doesn't want to send its best players then whose fault is that?

So thanks to the NHL's selfishness..Canada's ego has to suffer at least a tiny bit here. And trust me, we all know that Canada typically isn't exactly a boastful country, but you are when it comes to hockey. So of course you'll all tell me how no-one is salty really while at the same time reminding me (as if I needed a reminder) how good Canada have done in the 'real competitions' as defined by Canadians.

This was beautiful, well put.

I'm salty, for sure. I don't think Canada put a good team, I don't think we had a coach, I don't think we played hard enough. I'm salty because of that. I'm salty because we didn't get gold. It is what it is though.

Congrats Germany.

 

[Stephen]

I would have loved to have seen the NHL players take part but until Bettman/the owners start putting the sport before $$$ it probably won't happen.

Having teams of an almost equal level has ensured that most games have been competitive, unlike with the normally top heavy Canada/USA/Russia/Sweden/ Finland.

It's actually been refreshing to watch.

Between the IOC and the NHL owners, I don't see a good side at all. The Olympics is such a cash grabby, broken system and the NHLers are protecting their own financial interests.

Probably balances out the playing field when NHLers, AHLers and ECHLers aren't participating in the tournament, but I personally didn't watch a minute of this tournament. Think of the Canadian team they sent this year as the redheaded step child.

 

[snowkiddin]

The "argument" if you want to even call it that is the reason you found TSN's Olympic coverage lacklustre is because they are not the primary channel for the Olympics. CBC is, has had the bulk of the coverage and promotion, while TSN has been a secondary stations (including TSN2 at times) for when there are multiple events on worth airing.

Had nothing to do with the interest in hockey, just responding to your one post I quoted to hopefully clear things up for you. To answer your question; Canadians do care about Olympic Hockey, but less so without the best possible players playing, and overall the hype and coverage of the Men's Hockey games specifically has been less than the previous 4 or 5 tournaments.

So with you second paragraph you are agreeing with me. The overall hype and coverage of the Men’s Hockey has been way down. That’s what I was getting at.

 

[Captain Bowie]

So with you second paragraph you are agreeing with me. The overall hype and coverage of the Men’s Hockey has been way down. That’s what I was getting at.

I'm saying it's down. I don't know about "way" down, but that's a matter of semantics.

Is anyone even question that it is down? We can debate until we're blue in the face how much it's down, but everyone agrees it's down at least a little bit right?

 

[snowkiddin]

I'm saying it's down. I don't know about "way" down, but that's a matter of semantics.

Is anyone even question that it is down? We can debate until we're blue in the face how much it's down, but everyone agrees it's down at least a little bit right?

That’s right. I agree.

 

[Ilyeu]

So, that's all that Canada accomplished: it won 2 Olympic tournaments. Winning back-to-back Olympic tournaments is a great accomplishment, but it's zero domination. It's not 4 years, not 8 years, let alone 12 years. It's 2 isolated tournaments played within 4 years, and that's it.

Up until 2014, if we include just the Olympics, that's 3 out of 4 events Canada has won best on best. If we include the World Cup (which you probably don't care about), that's two more championships best on best. So in that span, Canada did dominate in the tournaments that mattered.

If we include 2010 to 2016, Canada won Two Olympics, Two World Championships, One World Cup. Including showing up to three World Championship finals and winning 2/3 after winning the Olympics in 2014 (from 2014 to 2017). Which is in the past recent years.

A bit more perspective. If you think "That's all that Canada did"

 

[Guy Gadowsky]

So basically the WJC team? WJC teams would get downright curbstomped at this level.

Maybe not an entire team, but picking a few kids would have been better than Linden Vey or crap

The USA's college kids were some of their best players

 

[antiqueslivers]

I can't even!!! up until now if anything about this game came on the radio or was spoken about I simply had to do the ol horse blinders to the nearest exit loudly making a noise (something akin to a whining bear) to drown out any news or updates about this tragedy.

 

[StatsNightHeroes]

Good for Germany and the game. Looking forward to the next World Cup. Sucks to lose regardless of the circumstances but doesn’t cut nearly as deep as 2006.

 

[BurntToast]

Germany is setup.. no pressure. Less talent against big bad Russia. Very 1980s of them. I have nothing against Russia but man it will be cool if Germany wins. Honestly outside of Russia the competition was even. Would the US or Canada have won if they sent their best players? Maybe, but to me this was more fun to watch because more games had upsets and surprises. Maybe they can find a happy medium "25 and under only".?!

 

[Bubba88]

Maybe not an entire team, but picking a few kids would have been better than Linden Vey or crap

The USA's college kids were some of their best players

how far has Team USA gone?
you think kids would stand a chance against team Rusia, Czech or Sweden?

to put some perspectiv to those "this wasn't team canadas best team".
Germany isn't even producing lots of NHL talent. They would have added Draisaitl, Rieder, Kühnhackl, Holzer (HS or AHL these days), Seidenberg (close to be done) and the Goalies Greiss & Grubauer.


the only player that would have made this canadian team would have been a goalie over 3rd string Justin Peters.

 

[Sevendust]

People saying this is an upset must be joking, or maybe delusional.

People saying this is not an upset must be joking, or maybe delusional.

 

[Sevendust]

Jesus Christ its just like the Spangler Cup. Have of you people have probably never heard of it

Yeah besides that Canada won the Spengler Cup in the last three years. Give it up mate

 

[Faterson]

Up until 2014, if we include just the Olympics, that's 3 out of 4 events Canada has won best on best.

You're conveniently excluding Nagano, right? In reality, it's 3 out of 5 Olympic events in the non-sabotage era. No longer quite as "dominating", eh?

If we include the World Cup

We're not including the World Cup, because the World Cup doesn't exist. You can't possibly call the farcical Gimmick Cup of 2o16 a "World Cup". Not even Canada and the US were allowed to field their best squad at that pre-season exhibition tourney (an extended all-star weekend).

Including showing up to three World Championship finals

World Championships are clearly not best-on-best for any of the participating contenders, so shouldn't be mentioned in a single breath when discussing the Olympics which used to be best-on-best from 1998 to 2014.

 

[JeremyTB]

Obviously not

So much salt in here it's funny. Normally it's Canada's so deep we could send anyone and win a medal, now it's look at all the scrubs we had to send.

It's brilliant.

Canada could send anyone if it included NHL players. Canada could have sent there 25 worst NHL active players and still would have been way more talented than the team they sent this year.

 

[serp]

Canada could send anyone if it included NHL players. Canada could have sent there 25 worst NHL active players and still would have been way more talented than the team they sent this year.

I doubt that. The Canadians on the Olympic roster are pretty much below average NHL-lers that decided it wasn't worth clinging on to the hope to get a permanent NHL-job anymore. The Canadian team has several thounsand of NHL games experience combined .

 

[iCanada]

I doubt that. The Canadians on the Olympic roster are pretty much below average NHL-lers that decided it wasn't worth clinging on to the hope to get a permanent NHL-job anymore. The Canadian team has several thounsand of NHL games experience combined .

They are below average replacement level players at best...

Keep in mind a lot of the top players on this team failed to procure roster spots on the oilers in the depths of the decade of darkness...