Here are my post Olympic remarks for Mens Hockey.
First of all I would like to see NO NHL PLAYERS in MENS Olympic Hockey. I would like to see it back to Amateurs trying out; Like back in 1992 when Sweden won their first Gold in Olympic Hockey, Petr Forsberg was playing, but he was not in the NHL yet. I believe it happend to Lindros too, before they turn PRO, it only should be allowed. That way Canada could pick a real hockey team without the star power that really is not star power. Grinding, fighting for the puck, scoring, playmaking; back to hockey again.
Secondly, the NHL will not be shut down for 20 days again, teams will not lose players to injury in the Olympics, we would still have the option to watch our NHL teams while the Olympics are on.
and last we will all be happy.
Now, the NHL calendar. POST OLYMPICS
[quote]# February 28: Regular Season resumes
March 9: Trading Deadline (3pm et/Noon pt)
April 18: Regular season ends
April 21: Stanley Cup Playoffs begin
May 6-21: IIHF World Championship
June 24: NHL Entry Draft in Vancouver
July 1: Free Agency Begins
July 20: Salary Arbitration Begins
August 6: Deadline for arbitration decisions[/quote]
In my opinion, allowing the pros in the olympics was to serve one main purpose: to have the best players in the world in the tournament and enhance the profile of olympic hockey as the real world championship. But we all saw that having the best players in the world doesn’t really mean having the best team in the world and hockey is a team sport.
I stand by my comments early in December on how the team wasn’t picked properly. Just on the leadership part of it, Team Canada was missing players. Sakic is a great on-ice leader but I bet he is quiet in the dressing room. They needed someone like Shanahan to slap them in the face and motivate them on the bench.
I don’t agree with taking the pros out. I wonder if people who say that would have said the same thing if Canada’s men would have won the gold. Sports commentators who predict that after Vancouver, pros will not be involved are sucked in to a knee jerk reaction after the canadian loss. It’s hard to admit that we are not the best at our game. The americans had to do just that with basketball in Athens.
What about the people who play professionally in Europe, etc. Would they be eligible to play in the Olympics if no ‘professionals’ were allowed in the Olympics.
I’m on the same page with Meowth…No pros in the Olympics. They can have the World Cup of Hockey and World Championships. Leave the Olympics for the Amateurs. The same goes for Basketball in the Summer games.
[quote=“Hoser”]What about the people who play professionally in Europe, etc. Would they be eligible to play in the Olympics if no ‘professionals’ were allowed in the Olympics.
I’m on the same page with Meowth…No pros in the Olympics. They can have the World Cup of Hockey and World Championships. Leave the Olympics for the Amateurs. The same goes for Basketball in the Summer games.[/quote]
No pros. So who qualifies as a pro? Someone who plays hockey and earns a living from it? Then how are you going to have a national team? Do you think these players will train just for fun? Are you suggesting that maybe take the best senior AAA hockey players in Canada? Is there a salary cap for being considered a pro? I think regulating this nowadays will be a nightmare. And we’ll end up with teams not being able to be Kazakhstan.
My main point was that any person in Canada COULD persue their Olympic Dreams of winning a medal, and that cannot happen with pro’s from the NHL, NBA, MLB…
Figure Skating for example, they have a choice for going PRO or staying Amateur.
Was it the 1976 Olympics where Canada didn’t enter a hockey team to protest the “amateur” status of the USSR team?
The thing was, the Soviet players were not being paid, therefore they were not professionals. However, the government was directing shitloads of funding into their training and development. They played hockey full-time.
I agree with Bigthumb, that it would extremely difficult to regulate nowadays.
I say let the pros play. And when Team Canada gets knocked off by Team Luxembourg, I say good for them. Sometimes great players play poorly, and sometimes mediocre (or undiscovered) players play fantastically (Giguere in that run to the Cup finals anyone?). I think that it echoes the sentiment that many, myself included, said about women’s hockey internationally, that it needed to get more competitive. When Slovakia goes undefeated in the round robin, and the US finishes 2-3, etc, I think it’s a good thing. How about Switzerland? Another contender in the international hockey scene? Awesome.
So one poor performance takes us Canadians down a peg. We probably needed it. Things’ll change, we’ll do our best to adapt and do better next time. We do shitty again in 2010? Then we change more things. Becuase that’s what the European countries that are now forces to be reckoned with have done. And as a result, I feel that I, as a consumer of hockey, have benefited.
It’s the same in any adversarial competition. Sometimes the number one seed gets knocked off by some nobody. I think that it’s pretty immature to say that just because we didn’t win, that the entire rule system and structure needs to be reevaluated.
Actually, the Commonwealth of Independant States (ie. post Berlin Wall/Cold War USSR) beat Canada in the Gold Medal Final of the 1992 Olympics. Sweden beat Canada, in a shootout, during the 1994 Winter Olympics. If you are going to preach, at least get your facts straight.
Also, there seems to be some confussion with regards to Amatuer hockey players in the Olympics. You do realize that 1960 was the last time that Canada sent a truely “Amateur” team right? Since that time Canada has either sent:
a) The National team
b) An NHL Allstar team
c) Not participated
Now, whether it was NHL players or the National Team, the players reperesneting Canada were paid to play hockey. That doesn’t exactly make them amateurs. If you want to say no NHL players that’s one thing, but don’t kid yourself thinking that it will be amateur hockey players going to the olympics. If the NHL pulls out, Canada’s team will be filled with minor leaguers and players playing in Europe. Either way, they are profesionals, just not NHL profesionals.
Also, Eso it was the '72 and '76 Olympics that Canada withdrew their hockey team from.
How about a Canada National and a US National team in the NHL? Say we require the Sens to use only Canucks and the Capitals to only use Yanks?
The Washington capitals couldn’t get any worse because of it…
