Canadian\Olympic Thoughts

[wannabe whale]

First off..Congrats to Canada and its fans. Two Gold Medals on Ice-nice job.
I waited a few hours to post-to take some of the sting off-but here are my thoughts:

US Women thought they were unbeatable and deserved what they got.
US Men were outplayed BADLY. The Canadiens were clearly the better team.
Goaltending was a huge difference. I must have been watching a different game than the US announcers. They kept praising Richter. I thought he was bad. He gave up huge rebounds and the iron saved at least 2 more. I would take any of 4 Canadian goalies before him(ROY included).
No way McCreary should have officiated the game. It was pretty good-but he is a native of Canada and knows everyone from the NHL. Just like the US woman should not have done the Woman's game.
Congrats to you Canada-EXCEPT you Mr Gretzky. I now have a new team to hate--- the Coyotes!!!!

 

[shamrock]

not to take anything away from Canada' s great victory, but "the great one" was a tad annoying. I mean not quite as annoying as Kurt Warner' s wife, but a little annoying none the less LoL LoL

 

[TIME TO MAKE $$$]

I noticed that Canada played great hockey after his stupid speech if you want to call it that.

Either way, I think his speech knocked some sense into the canadian players.


Anthony

 

[jakejj]

I hope Team Canada took the Belarus Team out for a nice dinner before they left Salt Lake City. Team Sweden would have spanked Team Canada and all of Canada including Cry Baby Wayne would still be whining. I guess it is better to be lucky than good!

 

[Rakman]

Give me a break!!
Did you not watch the game? Luck had nothing to do with it, the better team won, deal with it!

I'm getting a little tired of people ragging on Gretz, the guy is one of the best players to play this game(if not the best) He wears is heart on his sleeve and tells it like it is.

 

[the mugs]

Hey guys...From my point of view.

I thought that Gretzky's speech was a little whiny and annoying and maybe a little calculated. Looking back, I'm dead wrong. Canada wasn't playing great - almost like the team felt the pressure of the last 50 years.

After his speech, it seemed like nobody (down here in the US anyway) could do anything but bash Wayne and company. IMO, they were all wrong. Gretz took the pressure off of the team and put it all on his neck. With everyone smashing Gretz, the team appeared to come together a little more and play better together. Nobody said anything about the team or how they played and just focused on Gretzky. With the pressure "off" of the team, they went out and won it all.

Kudos to Wayne Gretzky. As the GM/Leader of the team, he pushed the right buttons to get the team in a position to win.

Just my two American cents :shrug:

Jim

 

[Centre Ice]

I'll add my 2 cents worth.

When I saw Gretzky make the tirade you could see he was tired and under alot of pressure, but there's alot behind the scenes we don't hear about.

I believe Gretz wanted to take the pressure off the players and deflect the focus to himself, but there are alot out there who would love to see Team Canada fail and that comes with the territory.

I remember when they lost last time to the U.S. when there was hardly any time on the clock and a pass from the point right to Gretzky hopped over his stick. There were reports that ALOT of people said they were glad to see it was Gretzky that it happened too, "couldn't have happened to a nicer guy" were some of the things said.

I mean look what Brooks said publicly before the game that Canada's "dump and chase" is a stupid way to play, it'll never work on that ice surface. Then after the loss how Canada floated through easy opponents and were rested while the U.S. had to play Russia. That's exactly what he was talking about, people dump on the way we play the game we are so passionate about, and Gretzky is no different and hears alot more.

As Yzerman was saying, all season Chelios was telling him "we want to win the Gold, but we want to beat Canada more."

All I know is it was a great game played by both, yes I'm glad Canada won and I'm glad were proud of it and in the same breath don't boast about it, but after Sept. 11 it wouldn't have been the worst thing in the world if we had gotten the Silver, but we wouldn't have given cheap shots to the U.S. team either.

I guess some learned from it, others continue to put there emphasis on less important things.