What I saw during this tournament made me frustrated. In case anyone remembers, in 1998, we tried to construct the best "team" possible, rather than the best players. This is the reason for my favorite Olympian, Rob Zamuner (who, you ask? Exactly.) In Salt Lake, we tried something different: we got the best players, regardless of how they would mesh. We won. In the World Cup, we did the same thing. We won. This time, we went with the exact same lineup. Blake has been brutal this season, Pronger can no longer skate at an international level, McCabe is godawful defensively, and Bertuzzi is a cream puff with no edge at all. Pat Quinn has demonstrated that he can't raise a mediocre team to greatness.

Pat Quinn needs to be removed. Pronger, Blake are too old, McCabe sucks. Bertuzzi should be enforcing for the mob. Go Finland go.

[img]graemlins/rant.gif[/img]

On the other hand, great day for Canada. 4 medals, 2 silver, 2 gold AND we're assured of at least silver in men's curling. BTW, Duff Gibson, the gent who won gold in men's skeleton works out at my gym. :D

I agree, the team choices were brutal. It felt like, to me anyways, they were making the team with players who had past success rather than present success. McCabe, I agree... no. Nash was questionable due to his lack of a season so far. Bertuzzi is just brutal this season. I do disagree with your assessment of Pronger though. At the time he was selected it was a sure choice, but at the moment he has a broken toe (or is it foot? Can't remember) that he's been skating on, even before the olympic break. I think he should have pulled out of the tournament and had Phaneuf come in who, as far as I know, is injury free and skating well. Pronger's only 31... how's that old? ;)
Other Olympic news, good job for Cindy Klassen, 4 medals so far!

I was half hoping he'd bluecollar some of the other team's players, but alas, no. All for the best though, after the scandal about Moore I'm not surprised people aren't happy with him. Also, he probably wasn't getting "it" on, if you catch my drift. Chain a dog up if you want, but don't expect him to tear out someone's leg if he does.

He's old because of the amount of surgery he's had. Even though you hear so much about it in the press, it really is a long process. I think the fact that he had gigantic reconstructive surgery on his wrist (at one point he was seriously considering retirement) coupled with the lockout, where he didn't play, really hurt him. The Chris Pronger of today is a shell of his former self (the fact that he would play 30 minutes a game on any team now just tells you how amazing he was.) I haven't noticed it in the many (great) Battles of Alberta this year, but he really did look...slow during the Olympics. That may have involved his foot, and the distraction probably counts for something. But that pass he made with 30 seconds left sort of summed up his tournament. He didn't look comfortable, whether it was his injury or something else, who knows. The number of his passes that went off opponents, and the number of battles he lost down low...just not characteristic.

I should point out (yeah, I'm from Calgary and he rocks,) that Dion Phaneuf totally negated Ovechkin during the World Juniors two years ago. Also, I met the guy at a club, which counts for huge props. :D Even still, I think Boyle or Phillips (the other two names mentioned by Team Canada,) would have been superior to McCabe. I came away thinking that the goal drought wasn't because of the forwards - it was the defense. One thing that not many commentators touch on, but is true from my experience, is that goals tend to come from sustained pressure. Defence are crucial to that, and the number of times I'd see McCabe or Blake miss a puck at the blueline...

The best part about Klassen is that she hasn't skated her best event yet!

I was half hoping he'd bluecollar some of the other team's players, but alas, no. All for the best though, after the scandal about Moore I'm not surprised people aren't happy with him. Also, he probably wasn't getting "it" on, if you catch my drift. Chain a dog up if you want, but don't expect him to tear out someone's leg if he does. </font>[/QUOTE]He really seems to be playing scared. It's very rare for me to be screaming at my TV for someone to hit someone else, but I found that with him during the Olympics. It's like he has no idea where the line is anymore, and he's terrified of crossing it. Did you see the Iginla hit on Markov on the first shift? Bertuzzi could have done that 3 or 4 times, and he weighs 30 lbs more than Iginla, but he didn't. I would feel sorry for the guy, but I feel more sorry for Steve Moore.

Talk to any Oil fan and they'll tell you that him and/or Stoll have been the team mvp's this season. He's turned Bergeron into a true top 4, maybe top 2 dman in about a month. It's only been recently that his play has diminished, and I think it's because of injury.
But, we're going off an a tangent here, this is Olympic discussion not NHL discussion. ;)

Fair enough. So as I see it, we're probably in line to get 22 or 23 medals, which is (of course) a new high. I can see 2 golds remaining (4-man bobsled and curling.) That's pretty good, well on our way to the goal of being the best in Vancouver.

I'm not saying he's a bad player, far from it, he just was during the Olympics. He's been way better with the Oilers this year. [img]tongue.gif[/img]

If only we could get results like this in Beijing...
I swear, Pronger and Bergeron have been like a second goalie for us. Not that it's helped much. [img]tongue.gif[/img]

The difference being that in Beijing, the other countries really bring their resources to bear. China, Australia, USA, Russia, they all put huge focus on Beijing. We're really an also ran in the summer olympics, as it's not really well supported in Canada.

The one thing that kind of annoys me is the sports we do well in don't get as many medals. I mean, the Norwegians have more medals, but if you took away cross-country skiing, what would they have? There's like 10-11 Nordic skiing medals, but only one for hockey. Of course, not like we're winning it. :(

well, remember one thing:

our women kicked the tails (and every other available body part) of all the other countries put together for Women's hockey. I say bring on the 2010 Winter Olympics. Canada will lick its wounds and improve in the figure skating, men's hockey, and ice dancing, AND the revamped lineup for women's hockey will hold court and find all the other countries guilty of trying to step to us. The sentence: a natural +censored+ whoopin'!