The Canadian and USA Women Hockey teams are coming under fire for doing exactly what they should be doing – scoring well. Canada defeated Slovakia 18-0 and the USA defeated Russia 13-0. And these scores have some people fuming.
If you watched the US game against Russia, it was clear the women weren’t trying to embarrass the Russians, they were just playing really well. They passed the puck back and forth more often and longer than they normally would, but yes they still attempted to score. After all, it would be a loss for the US team to get out on the ice, pull ahead, and then just lay down for the remaining period. They need to sharpen their skills and experience because they are in a competition.
The argument is that other countries haven’t had the time to train players able enough to compete with the two greats, the aforementioned ass kicking countries above. With this criticism is the threat that the Olympics will take out Hockey, like they did with Softball.
My question is, should we feel bad everyone else sucks at Hockey? Bad enough to kick the game out of the Olympics? Hell no. I’m sorry Team China looks like like lost ducks out there on the ice and Team Slovakia can’t shoot a puck straight. This is the Olympics. If you’re gonna compete, you’ve got to be the best.
Just like Russia usually dominates Figure Skating, the USA and Canadians dominate Hockey. Other countries will have to put in more time and effort training athletes to compete at a higher level, but I thought that was kinda the point. The US does not win gold in every competition, so we train our athletes long and hard. And if they don’t win gold, we don’t demand mercy rules or cry about how good the competitors were.
You play to win. If you don’t, shut up and train harder for the next 4 years.
