Serapth

See, instead of construing, I would use my actual comments from this thread: I don't think he is a terrible coach, but he did a terrible job as coach of Team Canada and I don't want him back.

If you would be so kinda as to confine your comments to reality, I would greatly appreciate it. The level of hyperbole and mis-attribution on this forum is disgusting. I never once called Babcock a horrible coach, read every comment I ever wrote in this thread, you will notice my comments actually are mired in reality. What I have said, and continue to say, is the Babcock did a pretty terrible job this series. I will firmly say Canada won this series in spite of Babcock. But hey, continue to believe what you want to believe it was I was saying and feel free to completely ignore the actual argument I, and others, have made.

I listen to a fair bit of anti-Canada BS on this board, and a fair bit of Canadian swagger. But after this comment, all I can say is. f*** YOU. You are a ******. I wont bother commenting towards the idiocy of your comments, including the ignorance behind the 50/50 comment. You are willing to spew out hateful and wrong comments like the above, and that is all I need to know about you. You are either ignorant, or a ******, or an ignorant ******. None of which is a trait I am willing to tolerate. If you don't realize the degree to which you just insulted my country and by proxy me, it just adds to your detriments.

Sweeping generalisms seem to be the order of business in these parts.

Ug, really.... They started playing the bloody trap. It was a coaching decision. Superstar or not, they don't have free will to play however they want out there. But, whatever, if you guys want to completely ignore what happened and absolve the person most likely to be at fault, I suppose you are comfortable enough with your head in the sand.

That is a different conversation... I mean, I don't think you will find someone that doesnt think there was too much coverage of Crosby ( and Ovechkin ). But, you can't blame a player for that.

We watched the game without fanboy blinders on?

Really... I mean, really? Are you going to be "that guy"? Sure seems like it. Oh, by the way... nobody likes "that guy".

I wouldn't be surprised that hockey is going down in popularity in Canada, but I doubt immigration has anything to do with it. Hockey is suffering in Canada as a matter of apathy, much the same as in most northern states I would imagine. We, to a man, hate Bettman and what he is doing to the NHL. I honestly have never met another soul in Canada who was even mildly sympathetic towards Bettman and the changes he has made to the NHL. Beyond that, I think the strike pissed a lot of Canadians off, and the fact that it seemingly resolved nothing as really alienated a lot of fans ( again, much of this can be place at the feet of Bettman ). Finally, and given their impact in the market its not suprising, but the death of Leafs nation sure isn't helping. Frankly, for the first time in about 40 years, Leafs fans are waking up and realizing that they have been getting it up the hoop without lube and are finally not going to games as a result, which while this is a very good thing, given the power of the Leafs, has a very negative impact on Canadian hockey in general. Lastly, the ongoing blocking of Basillie to bring in another team, isnt helping motivate people. A great many Canadians do feel like they are being pushed out of their own sport by a weaselly little f*****, which frankly, isn't far from the truth.

No, he didn't. He took a group of superstars, alienated a handful of them, failed to actually respond when he needed to take a firm hand, then proceeded to almost piss away 3 solid leads. As I said in the earlier post, the fact we did or didn't win gold changes nothing regarding to the coach. Hell, my respect for Wilson hasn't dimmed for Wilson in the slightest because he didn't win gold, why the hell should it increase for Babcock because he did. Simply put, Wilson was the superior coach.

This is an idiotic approach to life... "how dare you be critical when you are successful!" This line of thought leads to mediocrity, something you may be ok with, but I sure as hell am not. It's silly and more than a bit stupid to proclaim that because we won he did a good job, this is akin to pointing at a snowflake and proclaiming global warming doesn't exist. And, frankly, I was critical of Babcock well before " my team won ". Winning does not absolve him of his mistakes, especially when he continued to compound them. The simple fact we ended up winning regardless to his bumbling, changes nothing.

This is true. It is simply too expensive a game... 300$ for skates, 100$ for a stick, 100-200$ for pads, 100-2000$ for membership fees, to say nothing of travel costs. Hell, even a weekend tournament could easily cost a family 400$+ ( gas, meals, hotel, etc... ). Even on the cheap, I doubt you could play hockey ( other than at the youngest ages ) for less than a grand a year, without some kind of support program. As to marketing the NHL, I don't know that nationality it important, just stop playing up unlikable people... I mean really, Ovechkin, Phaneuf and Crosby have been the faces in most NHL commercials, and non of those people are really likable. I can help but think Jarome Iginla should have been the face of the NHL. Well spoken, physical and talented and yes, black. That said, he plays for a small market Canadian team and that doesn't work for Buttman. I think if Jarome ended up in New York or similar, he could have been the face of the New NHL.

Lets just say, I am glad it didn't go to a shootout!

I don't think Lou won games like Miller did, and I don't even think he really played much better than (his) average at best, as his goals against attest. Hell, he didn't even really make any giant momentum changing saves over the course of the tournament and did let in a few soft goals. That said, Luongo was a thousand times better than Brodeur. Brodeur didn't do anything overwhelmingly great either, but he did have two staggeringly stupid plays. Would he have bounced back after that game? Could be, look what happened with Kippy in the Bronze medal game, but I don't think he earned the chance to try again, especially with Luongo and Fleury waiting in the wings.

Oh, and for the record, I still dislike Crosby and I dislike the attention Crosby has received and this game winning goal sure isn't going to make things better. That said, I don't kid myself that he isn't one of the top 10, probably top 5 hockey players in the world. I just thank dog that Miller got MVP and not him, that would have made me puke a bit in my mouth.

Are you seriously implying that Crosby's success is simply a matter of luck and being at the right place at the right time and that he hasn't faced real competition? If this is the case, you really are letting your hatred delude you. Say what you will, but you can't lead a team to the Stanley cup and then win Olympic gold, not to mention the scoring title, without more than a small bit of talent. Frankly, you just sound kinda dumb, especially trying to draw parallels between McCarty and Crosby!

Actually, Crosby is very similar in many ways to Yzerman when Yzerman broke into the league. I know many of you aren't old enough to remember those days, but he was touted as the next greatest thing to save hockey, the golden boy to break Gretzkys records and was the face of hockey, like it or not. I remember seeing Yzermans face plastered on just about every fast food container you could buy and frankly, it took a few years for Yzerman to mature. I have nothing but the highest respect for Yzerman now, but I sure didn't when he debuted. Thing is, Yzerman has almost 20 years more experience at this point than Crosby. I am no Crosby fan, but I think he did an admirable job couping with an unrealistic level of pressure put on his shoulders by the likes of Hockey Canada and Gary Butthead.

Actually, Babcock sure didn't help the team. His earlier gaffes are well documented, but the decision to play a defensive game with a 2 then 1 goal lead was an act of pure stupid that bit us in the ass. You would have thought they would have learned from the Russia game ( letting our foot off the gas almost let them back in a 6-0 game ), but especially after the Slovakia game that was a hell of a lot closer than it had any right to be... but... nooooooooo. In the US, Canada came out of the gate charging and left the first period firmly in control, then switched to a defensive game that ended up seeing us go to overtime. So, basically yes, Babcock did do a pretty horrible job and frankly, I hope in 2014 we pick anybody but him to coach. Frankly if coaches decided the series, Wilson would have won, he did a vastly superior job.

Truth is, except possibly Montreal, very little would have happened. Frankly, we have suffered some pretty epic loses... ours inst a nation that burns down its cities after winning/losing at sports, nor like the Koreans, do we call in bomb threats! That said, the actions after the Jays won back in the 90s was a bit shameful and a bit of a blackmark.

Thats pretty impressive, I wish you could see broken down numbers. I mean, you could almost put up those numbers with the northern states and an epic turnout ( which is still pretty cool ), but I am really wondering if there was an upswing in viewers in all these areas Bettman insists on shoving hockey... the Floridas, Californias and such.

Has somebody bodysnatched Sutter? This is not a Sutter style contract. Too much money, way too much money. It could work out, but then, they probably could have signed him for easily a mill yes a season.

I really have to wonder sometimes why people insist on wearing tinfoil hats. I mean really, if you watch the game with such a mindset, why do you watch at all, I can't imagine you get much enjoyment out of it? To this thread, I was going to reply bravo, what a civil thread. People from both sides pretty much agreeing that the refs were a relative non-factor in the game, which most people viewed as a good thing. ... then it went down hill.

USA vs Finland 12:00 PST / 3:00 EST Canada vs Slovakia 6:30 PST / 9:30 EST Winners play for Gold, Losers play for Bronze.

Guess its a matter of how old you are. I remember when Steve Yzerman was drafted, and was the face on every Burger King cup and the Wings were simply delighted with the concept of making the playoffs. The whole idea of Detroit winning a cup was unfathomable, after all, it had been 40 years. Guess I'm just saying all streaks end and begin, although to be honest, Detroit really should have too much talent for that streak to end. Then again, tons of teams with tons of talent have been golfing early these last 4 or 5 years.

So are the 8 1/2 teams in front of them in the standings as well as the Ducks just behind them. All 10 of those teams have had a break too. The article has it right though, in many ways, the Blue Jackets and Oilers are going to play the role of Kingmakers. The Wings have about the same chances of making the playoffs as the 5 or 6 other teams on the bubble, and to pretend otherwise is to ignore the fact the emperor is wearing no clothes.