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There is perhaps no Olympic event that is more discussed across Canada than Olympic hockey. Can the women bring home gold on our own ice? Can the men redeem themselves after a seventh place finish at the Torino Olympics?
I didn't used to be a hockey person. Hockey is what my father used to watch on Saturday nights while I ignored the television and read a book. Somewhere in my teens I started softening on hockey. In my twenties I found myself actually watching hockey, voluntarily. Hockey Night in Canada, Stanley Cup playoffs, World Juniors - I watch them all. But nothing, nothing beats the patriotic fervor that is Canadian Olympic Hockey. To announce the Olympic men's roster for the Vancouver 2010 Olympics there was a press conference. And yes, I watched it live as Steve Yzerman and friends announced our team. And maybe Twittered it. Be warned, hockey fever is contagious.
For the athletes performing in the Olympics is a dream come true. For many Canadians, like Liv, theirs is attending a Canadian Olympic hockey game on home ice.
A dream came true last night when I attended my first ever Winter Olympics mens hockey game. Not just any old hockey game, but for my home team: CANADA!
Every dream comes with a cost and for both the men and women on our Olympic teams that cost is the pressure of bring home a medal on home ice. Our women have brought home us home gold in the last two Olympics and we really expect them to do it again. They are our Golden Girls. For them Olympics are the big game. Unlike the men they won't be going home to at the end of the Olympics to NHL careers.
The men have a different kind of pressure. They need to redeem themselves in the nation's eyes after their seventh place finish in 2006 at the Torino Olympics. We want a medal from them, preferably gold. Scarlett has tickets to both the women's and the men's gold medal matches and is hoping for double Canadian gold.
With a short tournament like this, it's hard to make predictions. Every single person in Canada is hoping and praying (even us atheists) for Olympic gold. The pressure on Team Canada will be the greatest they will ever experience in their life so it will not be easy. I do believe the team has enough experience and are prepared to take this the distance.
The men haven't had a lot of time to bond as a team. As Mother Pucker points out, the men were still finding their feet in the Canada vs Norway game.
Obviously I’m jacked about watching Olympic hockey, but still I think Canada played a good game from start to finish. Do you expect a bunch of guys that may have played up until Sunday night with their NHL teams to automatically mesh together in the first 20 minutes? It wasn’t likely to happen, and didn’t really, but it was to be expected so who gives a flying one that they didn’t get any goals in the first?
The biggest conversation that I've seen during this first week of the Olympics hasn't been about the men though, it's been about our women's team and the future or women's Olympic hockey. There are some that are arguing that women's Olympic hockey is a two team tournament. The Canadians and Americans are just more advanced, the rest of the field is far below them. Why have it in the Olympics when the games are so one-sided? It did not help that the Canadian women trounced Slovakia 18-0, setting a new Olympic scoring record. (Don't feel too bad for Slovakia - they annihilated Bulgario 82-0 in a 2008 match).
Women's hockey has only been part of the Olympics for the last four Winter Games. It's still young. It's something that Hockey Writer Chelsea Alexander takes pains to point out in her defense of the sport.
Many people have talked as of late about how Women’s hockey is underdeveloped and how some teams struggle to make rosters with not having enough qualified participants. With this being only the 4th Olympics to feature Women’s Hockey what do you expect? For most young women in North
