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Olympics: Canada Roster Discussion (Roster in post 1)

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I think the fact that Cale Makar was considered for Team Canada at the Olympics says it all about this tournament. Good lord.
 
kabidjan18 said:
Again, this is what makes you such a ridiculous person. "It fits MY logic, therefore it's true." It matters to you, therefore it's important. It doesn't matter to you, therefore it's not important.
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How about if it matters to players? Obviously it doesn't. No free agents held out signing NHL contracts so they could have the opportunity to play in the Olympics this year. No Russians bolted to the KHL. It has less meaning to the hockey community than if NHL players were participating.
 
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Rob said:
How about if it matters to players? Obviously it doesn't. No free agents held out signing NHL contracts so they could have the opportunity to play in the Olympics this year. No Russians bolted to the KHL. It has less meaning to the hockey community than if NHL players were participating.
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Absolutely, it's a solid argument. Not the hockey community part, that was already addressed in terms of the scale of that community, but the aspect that what if it doesn't matter to the players? Not in the absolute sense but in the relative sense, compared to playing in the NHL, contract money etc. Somewhere along the way we deemed that the significance of the event to the actors involved does have a greater significance than say you and I, and I think this is fair. So obviously, the Olympics in its current state does not matter to some players as much as the detriments of not having a club. To some prospective teammates of Cale Makar on team Canada, the Olympics is relatively less important.

What about other players? What about the prospective teammates of Cale Makar who said yes to team Canada? Of course you could say if they were in the same scenario as the NHL athletes they would prioritize one thing over another, but they aren't. Can we invalidate people's opinions, desires, or feelings due to ascriptive characteristics? I would be inclined to say no. Just because these people aren't naturally as good at hockey as the people who are in the NHL doesn't mean, at least in an idealistic sense, that we should value their passion less. Their ascriptive states, being less proficient at hockey, absolutely can be a factor in how much we value the tournament as fans, but in the evaluation of (generally speaking) the importance of the tournament to participating athletes and prospective participating athletes, I don't think it would be fair to only weigh the relative indifference of some parties without also factoring the passion of others.
 
El Travo said:
This is the opposite of being a spoiled brat. A spoiled brat is a person who doesn't get an invite and goes to the media to complain about it. If anything, he left a spot open for one of those other people who are dying to go.

"Want some water?"

"No thank you, but thanks for offering."

"Wow, spoiled brat. You know how many people would die for some water right now?!"
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yeah because refusing water and a chance to represent your country is the same thing..... nice one, keep em' coming
 
If makar pledges to donate all of the money from his first two contracts to Canada govt will they forgive him and reinstate his citizenship?
 
lawrence said:
so many athletes work so hard to represent their country at any Olympic games. It's a dream. I'm surprised he turned it down, but he doesn't deserve this flack for it.
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This is true for many other sports no doubt. However, for hockey I dont think it's nearly as cut and dry. When you're a young kid playing hockey your dream is to play in the NHL and to play for your favorite team in the NHL.


That's the ultimate goal for these kids is to play in the best league in the world. Representing your country is a massive honor associated with reaching that ultimate dream, but in the case of hockey I dont think being in the Olympics is the ultimate goal of players.


For me, I certainly wouldn't give two shits about representing Canada at his age. My number one goal would be doing everything I can to put myself in the best possible position to be an NHLer one day. If that means down the road once I've accomplished that goal, I get the chance to also represent my country playing hockey, then awesome. But the #1 goal would always be NHL hockey.


Now I'm not saying that's how Makar is seeing it. But I wouldn't be surprised if it played into his decision. He wants to play in the NHL and realize that dream. His best chances of doing that are by staying at Umass, keeping up with his schooling, helping his UMass hockey team as much as he can, and continuing to work on the things he needs to, to become an NHLer and realize that dream of his.
 
nickdawg95 said:
yeah because refusing water and a chance to represent your country is the same thing..... nice one, keep em' coming
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Yeah, you actually need water to live. Sorry. It's an analogy, I don't know if they went over that with you in school or not.

Makar just represented his country at a high-end tournament. Now he wants to focus on his schooling and team instead of going to some discount Olympics in South Korea just to ride the bench because Canada is allergic to offensively gifted defenders.

You'd think he refused conscription with some of the reactions here.
 
It just sounds very wrong to me for an athlete who might never get another chance to represent his country in the Olympics to decline the invitation just because he feels it's not best thing for his own development.

This might be something he regrets in future.
 
Zaige said:
Well with North Korea just on the doorstep you never know.
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Without getting too political, since they're right next door, that makes it more likely that they wouldn't attack right?

As for Makar's decision, I'm not criticizing it but I don't understand it. I can't fathom turning down an opportunity to represent your country in the OLYMPIC games. Whether you think this tournament is watered down doesn't change the fact that this is the OLYMPIC games and most around the world still would consider a gold medal in hockey to be a great achievement. When I was in high school, one of the kids made the US swimming team and won silver medal in 1996. I just remember thinking it would be an experience of a lifetime.

I don't buy the missing classes as a reason since he probably will only attend for 2 years anyways before turning pro.

Having said that, it's his decision and I'm sure he has his reasons. He doesn't need to explain his decision to anyone but himself and his family.
 
A91 said:
The olympics are the olympics. Regardless.
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Yeah, cant believe some of these posts. Hoping O'Dell makes the team, great guy on and off the ice had a terrible shake in Ottawa, is really having a fantastic season in the KHL and showed well in the pre tournament games.
 
Maybe the guy wants stability for a little while so he can get back to working towards his goals? He wants to be an NHLer and part of that is making good decisions for the long term rather than chasing excitement.
 
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I read on twitter yesterday from someone who was familiar with how UMass operates with it's athletes (if I find it I'll quote it). Basically it said that the school allows athletes to miss so much classtime for their sporting events, but if they miss too much they would be deemed ineligible for the remainder of the season. If this holds true, he'd be giving up on his team for the rest of the year.

We don't have to understand his decision. He made it with what he feels is in his best interest. Maybe staying at UMass and playing hockey until the end of the semester is better than going to the Olympics and sitting on the bench or press box for most of the tournament and then being finished high calibre hockey for the rest of this eason.

Its easy for us to say "I'd never turn down a chance to play in the Olympics" because we have no realistic shot at making it. This kid has an entire career to think about, if he reaches his potential this won't be his last opportunity to play for Team Canada, hopefully at a future Olympic tournament ;)
 
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Now, I don't know much about the defense, we got a few OK forwards, but wow we are going to get wrecked.
 
Not an impressive list at all.

I would have asked for Mete, Strome, Greening and Pirri
 
I don't know who a lot of those defencemen are, but Gragnani is absolutely atrocious. Having watched him as a Canucks fan, I can say with full confidence that he is the worst defenceman our team has iced in the last decade. That list includes Aaron Rome, Andrew Alberts, Matt Bartkowski, etc. This is frightening.
 
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