Olympic Hockey
I have to admit I was surprised by the results of the Men's Olympic Hockey results in Torino this year, and I'm sure that there are many others who feel the same way. After all, who would be criticized for favoring Canada or the USA, the two teams with the best finish in Salt Lake City?
As it turns out, neither team got into the medal round. Critics like to blame this on the larger international ice surface, but I don't know. When watching the games I actually didn't feel that there was much of a difference. In my observation one of the major reasons for the upsets was fatigue. Teams playing in the semifinals played at least 7 games in 10 days. That makes the busy NHL schedule look like a vacation. It's amazing that the players could play as well as they had.
As for penalties, I didn't notice as many controversial calls as in the NHL. I wasn't sure which rules they were using for the tournament, I noted that in some games the "no tolerance" rules on hooking and holding were enforced, while in others, not so much. This no doubt threw some players off, especially those playing in international leagues that weren't used to the current NHL standards. Regardless though, I don't think that it made a really big difference in the end results.
Sweden defeated Finland in the Gold medal game. As a Detroit Red Wings fan I don't think anything else could have made me much happier. Of course Draper, Schneider, Shanahan and co. aren't going to feel all that happy about the results, but the Red Wings overall had the highest number of gold medalists this year.
The biggest fear looming in the minds of all the NHL general managers and coaches that sent players to Torino was : INJURIES. I could nearly hear The Flyers' GM wince every time Peter Forsberg got checked, straining his eyes to see if he was alright. The same goes for the New York Rangers, who despite having grown deeper this year, would still be probably out of Cup contention of Jagr took a serious injury.
Which brings up an interesting question. Where do the loyalties of the players lie? With their team or their home country? There's no doubt that regardless of how the players feel about playing in the once in four year Olympics, the coaches would probably rather have them take the 2 weeks off in preparation for the Stanley Cup Playoffs. They can't legally stop the players from participating in the Olympics so all they can do is pray nobody gets hurt.
Sometimes I wonder whether or not having NHL players participate in the Olympics is a good thing. Before that the only time we'd see NHL players in International Tournaments was the World Championship, albeit only players from teams already knocked out of the playoffs, or those that never qualified.
The rise of overall talent and skill that the NHL brings to the Olympics is arguable, however the fact that national teams that have very few NHL players have more time to practice together may indeed be one of the reasons for some of the stunning upsets this year, an example being Canada being shut out by Switzerland 2-0.
Do I like seeing my favorite players in the NHL? Hell yeah, familiarity breeds compassion, and I actually can cheer for a team since I recognize most of the players. But the fact that it's a one-game elimination makes anything possible, not to mention the fatigue hindering the players from playing at their best level.
The playoffs should be interesting this year...
As it turns out, neither team got into the medal round. Critics like to blame this on the larger international ice surface, but I don't know. When watching the games I actually didn't feel that there was much of a difference. In my observation one of the major reasons for the upsets was fatigue. Teams playing in the semifinals played at least 7 games in 10 days. That makes the busy NHL schedule look like a vacation. It's amazing that the players could play as well as they had.
As for penalties, I didn't notice as many controversial calls as in the NHL. I wasn't sure which rules they were using for the tournament, I noted that in some games the "no tolerance" rules on hooking and holding were enforced, while in others, not so much. This no doubt threw some players off, especially those playing in international leagues that weren't used to the current NHL standards. Regardless though, I don't think that it made a really big difference in the end results.
Sweden defeated Finland in the Gold medal game. As a Detroit Red Wings fan I don't think anything else could have made me much happier. Of course Draper, Schneider, Shanahan and co. aren't going to feel all that happy about the results, but the Red Wings overall had the highest number of gold medalists this year.
The biggest fear looming in the minds of all the NHL general managers and coaches that sent players to Torino was : INJURIES. I could nearly hear The Flyers' GM wince every time Peter Forsberg got checked, straining his eyes to see if he was alright. The same goes for the New York Rangers, who despite having grown deeper this year, would still be probably out of Cup contention of Jagr took a serious injury.
Which brings up an interesting question. Where do the loyalties of the players lie? With their team or their home country? There's no doubt that regardless of how the players feel about playing in the once in four year Olympics, the coaches would probably rather have them take the 2 weeks off in preparation for the Stanley Cup Playoffs. They can't legally stop the players from participating in the Olympics so all they can do is pray nobody gets hurt.
Sometimes I wonder whether or not having NHL players participate in the Olympics is a good thing. Before that the only time we'd see NHL players in International Tournaments was the World Championship, albeit only players from teams already knocked out of the playoffs, or those that never qualified.
The rise of overall talent and skill that the NHL brings to the Olympics is arguable, however the fact that national teams that have very few NHL players have more time to practice together may indeed be one of the reasons for some of the stunning upsets this year, an example being Canada being shut out by Switzerland 2-0.
Do I like seeing my favorite players in the NHL? Hell yeah, familiarity breeds compassion, and I actually can cheer for a team since I recognize most of the players. But the fact that it's a one-game elimination makes anything possible, not to mention the fatigue hindering the players from playing at their best level.
The playoffs should be interesting this year...
Comments
Post a Comment