39 replies to this topic

[Victoria Watcher]

Men lose to Russia in curling.  I don't recall Russia being a curling power.

[AllseeingEye]

A case of the world catching up to Canada I think. When the sport was first included in the Olympics we were favored in literally all the iterations of the game...mens, womens, mixed. Not so much now. Italy, Japan, the UK and others are all now as good as if not better than us on any given day.

 

Said before the games I hated the roster selections for our men's hockey team and unfortunately looks like I was correct. That team really hasn't shown much and like the US last night we are blowing it against Sweden. Losing 1-0 with about six minutes left in the game. As I said then this team has a pop-gun offence and that is really showing today

[JohnsonStBridge]

Men lose to Russia in curling.  I don't recall Russia being a curling power.

 

They are not. The Russian Olympic Committee on the other hand has been dominating bonspiels for eons...

[spanky123]

A case of the world catching up to Canada I think. When the sport was first included in the Olympics we were favored in literally all the iterations of the game...mens, womens, mixed. Not so much now. Italy, Japan, the UK and others are all now as good as if not better than us on any given day.

 

Said before the games I hated the roster selections for our men's hockey team and unfortunately looks like I was correct. That team really hasn't shown much and like the US last night we are blowing it against Sweden. Losing 1-0 with about six minutes left in the game. As I said then this team has a pop-gun offence and that is really showing today

 

Given that 1/2 of the Canadian team plays in the KHL and has a completely different style of hockey it is a surprise.

 

Woman's hockey is completely different of course but the downside is that there are only 2 countries in the world that can form a competitive team. 

[Victoria Watcher]

Canada is heading home from the Olympics without a men's hockey medal for the first time in 16 years.

Lucas Wallmark scored midway through the third period as Sweden defeated Canada 2-0 in the quarter-finals at the Beijing Games on Wednesday.


https://www.cbc.ca/s...mpics-1.6352464

Edited by Victoria Watcher, 16 February 2022 - 11:51 AM.

[Spy Black]

Yeah ... you take the NHL'ers out of the mix and Canada is pretty much nothing more than the equal of the Nordic countries and the Russians (including their former states as the Soviet Union) ... even the Americans.

 

Olympics is really nothing more than the World Junior Championships all over again for mens hockey ... without the NHL'ers on the ice.

[AllseeingEye]

Yeah the days when Canada could supposedly send our "C" team and win major tournaments are long gone. Part of that is a result of other nations catching up to us and IMO partially a consequence of Hockey Canada being too much of an Old Boys Club for far too long, resistant to change, confident in the "innate" superiority of "our game", and failing to adapt and incorporate new ideas and processes into the development of young players in this country.

 

The US preceded us by a good margin for example using power skating coaches to teach that fundamental to young kids just taking up the sport. We were years behind in that regard. That eventually changed - but it took a very long time.

 

Additionally the Canadian hockey culture emphasized much to its detriment IMO a macho attitude that put emphasis on fighting while other nations pushed the skilled fundamentals including skating, passing, shooting and building above all a higher hockey IQ.

 

When I commuted to Calgary semi-regularly for a few years a buddy was heavily involved with the Calgary MAC's midget tournament, the largest such hockey event in the world; I took in a few games over that five year period and was blown away to see teams from the US from places like the Carolina's (really??) , South Dakota and even California literally skating and passing circles around some of our best midget teams. Not surprisingly our kids were getting blown out on a fairly consistent basis. Quite the eye-opener especially for Canadian teams from the prairies or Ontario getting smoked by teams from places better known for surfing and growing tobacco....

[Victoria Watcher]

Canada’s women’s hockey team has beaten the United States 3-2 to win gold at the Beijing Games.

[AllseeingEye]

Was an excellent game full value to our women for a gutsy effort. Poulin is a special player for sure. If Chinese claims can be believed - dubious I know - they aim to dominate all winter sports within a generation based on nothing but their pool of athletes which, according to them, currently sits at 300 million participants in the Winter Games disciplines. 

[Victoria Watcher]

Meanwhile, Norway (population 5.4M) is about to win this games.

Edited by Victoria Watcher, 17 February 2022 - 07:58 AM.

[AllseeingEye]

Norway has the highest total of medals in Winter Games' history; about the only winter sport they don't have mass participation in is hockey. 

[pontcanna]

Olympic gold-medallist Zandee-Hart of Saanichton 'an inspiration for all girls playing hockey in B.C.'

With Canada’s five gold medals in women’s Olympic hockey, it’s a surprise that blue-liner Micah Zandee-Hart of Saanichton is the first B.C.

 

Cleve Dheensaw - Times Colonist, Feb. 18, 2022


Saanichton's Micah Zandee-Hart celebrates after Canada's win over the U.S. in Beijing.

With Canada’s five gold medals in women’s Olympic hockey, it’s a surprise that blue-liner Micah Zandee-Hart of Saanichton is the first B.C.-born player to reach the top of the Olympic podium, which she did late Wednesday night in the 2022 Beijing Winter Games.

“We see Micah as the tip of the spear,” said B.C. Hockey CEO Cam Hope of Victoria.

A four-year-old Peninsula initiation-level hockey player, whose earliest memories are of watching in 2002 as Canada won gold at the Salt Lake City Winter Olympics, accomplished the feat herself two decades later.

“It’s at moments like this when you think back to that four-year-old girl and how proud she would be that she stuck it out to reach this goal,” Zandee-Hart said.

 

More: https://www.timescol...y-in-bc-5078476

[Victoria Watcher]

Was an excellent game full value to our women for a gutsy effort. Poulin is a special player for sure. If Chinese claims can be believed - dubious I know - they aim to dominate all winter sports within a generation based on nothing but their pool of athletes which, according to them, currently sits at 300 million participants in the Winter Games disciplines. 

 

I suppose they can do what Russia and East Germany used to do, take the gifted children away from their parents at a young age and make them state employees, solely focused on the sport at the expense of normal education, family, childhood, and individual choice.  In the past of course they would dope the children.

 

 

 

Before the fall of the Berlin Wall, promising kids as young as eight were pumped full of steroids in a win-at-all-costs quest for victory.

 

It brought more than 500 summer and winter Olympic medals between 1968 and 1988 – but at a terrible price.

 

The stars of yesterday suffered severe depression, heart conditions, degenerative bone disease and infertility. Some even changed sex because of the drugs. Many spiralled into drink and drug addictions, unable to find work.

 

 

https://www.mirror.c...-doping-6949436

Edited by Victoria Watcher, 18 February 2022 - 04:14 AM.

[spanky123]

Canada’s women’s hockey team has beaten the United States 3-2 to win gold at the Beijing Games.

 

Good for them.

 

To my earlier point about competitiveness though, I tried to place a bet on the Switzerland (who played for the bronze medal) / Canada game. I figured I would bet the head to head odds which would be low but pretty certain.

 

The only bet BCLC would allow me to make was Canada - 6 or greater! Those are football odds!

[Victoria Watcher]

Looks like we came in 11th. Or 3rd.

Edited by Victoria Watcher, 20 February 2022 - 06:15 AM.

[LJ]

11th in gold medals, 3rd in all medals.

[spanky123]

11th in gold medals, 3rd in all medals.

 

Big drop in 4 years however. 11 golds down to 4 and 3rd place down to 11th.

 

Personally I am just happy to see people able to compete and do their best but the bean counters who dole out billions (over 4 years) and the sponsors who want to buy eyeballs to fund athletic programs will be doing some soul searching. Probably won't help public opinion on our Olympic bid either.

 

We saw woke, progressive self destruction diminish the women's rugby sevens, hope that isn't happening across other sports as well.

Edited by spanky123, 21 February 2022 - 07:46 AM.

[Victoria Watcher]

Let’s see how the soccer World Cup fares coming from Qatar.

Edited by Victoria Watcher, 21 February 2022 - 07:51 AM.

[spanky123]

^ BC wants to bid for the winter games in 2030.

[Victoria Watcher]

The “Oldtimers” Pacific Cup hockey tournament is sold out again this year.

Next weekend all over town.

Edited by Victoria Watcher, 15 January 2023 - 11:46 AM.