If Only They'd Played Like Girls!
Draw the curtains, disconnect the phone. Shed a tear and pour a few fingers in a glass.
Canada is having their best-ever showing at the Winter Olympics with 18 medals. But at the same time it will be disappointing in that the men's hockey team is going home without a medal. Again. Hopefully this won't be the start of another 50-year drought with no gold medals...
Salt Lake City was good. Torino not so good. The old New York Rangers theory is not a good one. Just getting a bunch of good players does not result in having a good team. Team Canada 2006 was slow and physically timid, which surely must question wether we had the best players available. But, more importantly, they never looked like a good team. Their first few games of the tournament were really also their first few practices. There never seemed to be much communication or awareness of what others on the ice were doing. The goaltending was excellent, but goaltending is where you can count on individual talent to get the job done. Teamwork and familiarity can help goalies perfomr better, but for the most part you have a goalie or you don't. Passing was shoddy, positioning was haphazard adn strategy appeared to be something only worked on after the game.
So here's a question. When the 2004-2005 NHL season got cancelled, why didn't Team Canada pick their olympic squad then, practice over the year, play as a team and be ready to lay waste to the opposition like a Canadian team should.
Look at our women's team. They play together. They know each other, they know how they want to play. Perhaps they face lighter opponents, but part of what makes them lighter opponents is the women's strength as a team. To outscore your opposition 46-2 over the course of the tournament must mean something. When the men faced a lighter opponent, they lost 2-0.
The worst part is I don't know who to root for in men's hockey. I would have gone for Switzerland just to see one of the little fish get to make waves in the big pond, but they couldn't come up with any magic against Sweden. Slovakia's another team that hasn't had the chance top do anything big, but they're right now only a minute away from being elimanted as well...
Canada is having their best-ever showing at the Winter Olympics with 18 medals. But at the same time it will be disappointing in that the men's hockey team is going home without a medal. Again. Hopefully this won't be the start of another 50-year drought with no gold medals...
Salt Lake City was good. Torino not so good. The old New York Rangers theory is not a good one. Just getting a bunch of good players does not result in having a good team. Team Canada 2006 was slow and physically timid, which surely must question wether we had the best players available. But, more importantly, they never looked like a good team. Their first few games of the tournament were really also their first few practices. There never seemed to be much communication or awareness of what others on the ice were doing. The goaltending was excellent, but goaltending is where you can count on individual talent to get the job done. Teamwork and familiarity can help goalies perfomr better, but for the most part you have a goalie or you don't. Passing was shoddy, positioning was haphazard adn strategy appeared to be something only worked on after the game.
So here's a question. When the 2004-2005 NHL season got cancelled, why didn't Team Canada pick their olympic squad then, practice over the year, play as a team and be ready to lay waste to the opposition like a Canadian team should.
Look at our women's team. They play together. They know each other, they know how they want to play. Perhaps they face lighter opponents, but part of what makes them lighter opponents is the women's strength as a team. To outscore your opposition 46-2 over the course of the tournament must mean something. When the men faced a lighter opponent, they lost 2-0.
The worst part is I don't know who to root for in men's hockey. I would have gone for Switzerland just to see one of the little fish get to make waves in the big pond, but they couldn't come up with any magic against Sweden. Slovakia's another team that hasn't had the chance top do anything big, but they're right now only a minute away from being elimanted as well...
posted by MyMaidMary | 5:09 p.m.
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