Jump to content

All purpose Olympics thread


SterioDesign

Recommended Posts

Bob McKenzie ‏@TSNBobMcKenzie:

Extent of John Tavares' Olympic-ending knee injury won't be known til MRI/re-evaluation on Thursday but sense out of Sochi is it's not good.

So Zetterberg, Tavares, Zuccarello (I'm sure I'm missing someone else as well)... Who sees the owners and GM's putting their foot down on NHL players participating in the olympics? I think there may be more resistance than ever before.

 

And with the next two Olympics being outside of North America, they have the perfect excuse to pull out.  There's no Salt Lake to buffer Nagano, or Vancouver to buffer Torino.  They went to Sochi to prevent a revolt from the Russian stars and to get some positive publicity after the latest lockout, but don't have to worry about anyone crying to mommy about not going to Korea.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

And with the next two Olympics being outside of North America, they have the perfect excuse to pull out. There's no Salt Lake to buffer Nagano, or Vancouver to buffer Torino. They went to Sochi to prevent a revolt from the Russian stars and to get some positive publicity after the latest lockout, but don't have to worry about anyone crying to mommy about not going to Korea.

Great point. I think its a distinct possibility we see college kids again in 2018. I hope that doesn't happen though, with all due respect to those kids. I enjoy watching the best in the world battle it out against each other. These guys may make a lot of money, but they aren't being paid to represent their countries. It means a lot to them, you can tell. Millionaire pros or not, everyone has pride in where they come from. There's no greater honor for any athlete than to represent their country in competition.
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Great point. I think its a distinct possibility we see college kids again in 2018. I hope that doesn't happen though, with all due respect to those kids. I enjoy watching the best in the world battle it out against each other. These guys may make a lot of money, but they aren't being paid to represent their countries. It means a lot to them, you can tell. Millionaire pros or not, everyone has pride in where they come from. There's no greater honor for any athlete than to represent their country in competition.

 

I like these tournaments too...but what I think winds up happening is they compromise and have some World Baseball Classic-type thing every four years so the NHL can make money off it and control the schedule (i.e. put it before the season like baseball does).

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I like these tournaments too...but what I think winds up happening is they compromise and have some World Baseball Classic-type thing every four years so the NHL can make money off it and control the schedule (i.e. put it before the season like baseball does).

Yeah I heard the NHL wants to do a World Cup during the non-olympic years. They haven't done a WCOH since 2004, right before the lockout. I was actually watching the game when we beat Canada in '96 the other day on NHL Network and was wondering to myself why they haven't done one since. That's a fun tournament with some great hockey.

 

Edited by MadDog2020
Link to comment
Share on other sites

As far as the language similarity goes between Finnish and Hungarian, it's roughly on par with the relationship between English and German.  Finnish and Estonian languages are close enough where their speakers can understand each other to an extent. 

 

http://www.histdoc.net/sounds/hungary.html

grew up in a 50/50 english speaking/hungarian speaking home and could never pick up the hungarian. just a tough language. lol

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Yeah I heard the NHL wants to do a World Cup during the non-olympic years. They haven't done a WCOH since 2004, right before the lockout. I was actually watching the game when we beat Canada in '96 the other day on NHL Network and was wondering to myself why they haven't done one since. That's a fun tournament with some great hockey.

I have vague memories of watching the Canada Cup, and did occasionally tune into the World Championship.

Ultimately the only reasons to do the Olympics are to build the fanbase and placate certain players that want to do it. The latter shouldn't really be an issue for the foreseeable future, since I don't think the next couple of Winter Olympics are in countries where you have a lot of NHLers.

Otherwise building the NHL fanbase really comes down to how well the US does. So if the US doesn't win gold, I think the NHL is done with the Olympics for a while.

Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Yes it would. Norway, Sweden & Denmark = Scandinavia. Add Iceland and Finland, and you have the "nordic" countries.

 

 

I actually thought Finland was part of Scandinavia. You do learn something new every day lol.

Again, these are based on subjective worldviews. Like I said, if you exclude Finland from a definition of Scandinavia based on geography, you must also exclude Denmark. If you exclude Finland based on ethno-linguistics, you must also exclude the Sami people who live in Norway and Sweden. In that case "Scandinavia" isn't place at all. Just a common culture.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

And we see why Russia isn't one of the hockey elites.

Because they lost to Finland? I understand why Russians are upset over this, but this doesn't prove anything. This wasn't an upset. Anyone who knows hockey wasn't "shocked", as many headlines are suggesting. They lost to a better Finnish team.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Has anyone here ever gone to Scandinavian Fest? They hold it every year in Budd Lake. I've gone a couple of times. It's pretty cool.

 

According to the website, they celebrate the customs, history and ethnic variety of the six Nordic nations: Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Iceland, Norway and Sweden.

 

www.scanfest.org.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Yeah there's no way the NHL sends its athletes to South Korea.  No way in hell.

 

And honestly?  I'm okay with it.  Can you imagine being an Isles fan right now?  I mean, they weren't going anywhere this season, but still..losing your best player in a game that essentially doesn't matter (to NHL fans) sucks.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Not getting a medal in the Olympics three times in a row really means that Russia simply does not belong in the discussion of elite hockey powers.

No, all it means is that they didn't get a medal three times in a row. Roughly speaking, medaling is basically a double elimination proposition done once every four years. It doesn't really speak to whether they have better hockey players than the US, Canada, Sweden, Finland or whoever.

Put another way, there's a pretty good chance that if the NHL were season decided in a similar manner, teams like Chicago, Pittsburgh, or Boston would not have won anything, while Florida might have.

Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Because they lost to Finland? I understand why Russians are upset over this, but this doesn't prove anything. This wasn't an upset. Anyone who knows hockey wasn't "shocked", as many headlines are suggesting. They lost to a better Finnish team.

 

I think the Russian team was one of the most talented in the entire tournament (at least offensively).  That top-6 is right up there with Canada in terms of raw skill.

 

However, as has been said before, hockey's a team sport.  Russians apparently didn't get that concept.

 

Oh and their coach made some awful decisions.  

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Outside of like ovy, Malkin and datsyuk and few forwards Russia isn't anything special at all. Its been awhile since Russia is been really good.

So outside of a few former NHL mvps, perhaps the best two way player in the game, a Vezina winner, they're not really all that good?

Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

Loading...
×
×
  • Create New...

Important Information

By using this site, you agree to our Terms of Use.