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Crushing moments for every country in the Olympics history

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1998 for Canada is the only real choice. After the 1996 World Cup loss, Nagano felt like a must-win and much of the country felt that it was almost guaranteed given the roster on hand. A win vs the Czechs in the semis seemed about 80% likely heading in, and after Primeau scored late to tie it up at 1-1 it seemed as though fate was on our side. Then came that damn shootout. Painful.
 
I'd guess 98 for Canada was the most crushing. 2010 had that moment against the US, but Canada still came out on top in the end.
 
2006. Olympic final against our arch-rival Sweden. We have played amazing hockey the whole tournament and everyone is quietly hopeful that we can finally go all the way.

Then Saku Koivu's stick breaks, Lidström unleashes a huge slapper and it's in. To make things even more bitter, we put on a crazy shooting gallery in the final minutes but Olli Jokinen misses an almost completely empty net. It just wasn't meant to be.

That was a soul crushing game to witness. Perhaps even tougher was to see the veteran stalwart of a defenseman Teppo Numminen crying in the post-game interview. Absolutely gut-wrenching.

 
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alko said:
And how about 2018 and the loss vs Germany?
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Not even close, I'm already okay after yesterday. I still feel bad about 2002, most crushing sportsmemory in my life. Been watching sports since 94. It's Sweden's worst defeat and biggest let down of all time in all sports, nothing is even close.

The hopes on that 2002 team was sky high after beating reigning champions Czechs and creaming future winner Canada in the group stage. I will never forget that game, the anger in sweden against NHL players and in particular Tommy Salo was unprecidented before or since.
 
alko said:
Now that im curious about. What was the talk? Was Salo the public enemy in Sweden?
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Very much so, he will always be remembered as the guy who lost us the game. It didn't take long for me to start feeling bad for him, one weak goal didn't lose us the game, the team was stacked with talent and they should've put the game away way before belarus scored that goal.

This was after Lindbergh and before Lundqvist and Salo was pretty much the only good goalie we had, except for maybe Tommy Söderström. He also clinched the gold medal against Kariya in 1994, but most people still remember him from the belarus game.
 
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ThatSaid said:
The most crushing moment for me? Not even being sensational here, but it's definitely the moment that I found out the NHL isn't sending it's players to the Olympics this year. Yeah, that loss in 2010 was a stinger and all that. But I genuinely think the U.S. had it's best shot in a loooong time at winning. I'll always look back at this year and wonder what could have been. Our roster would have been every bit as good as Canada's.
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They're likely going to China and the US will have an even better roster. A golden age of US hockey is about to begin.
 
1998 was a tough loss.

It led to Canada re-examining how they played hockey and I think a lot of changes to how our international teams operate (including more active participation in the World Championships) have had a positive impact since then.

I was not particularly enamoured with the 2006 team once Gretzky started promising spots to players before the NHL season started (e.g. Bertuzzi) and guys like Crosby and Spezza were sitting on the sidelines.

They were terrible in the round robin (lost to the Swiss) and just looked poor.
 
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As a fan of Russian hockey, I have never experienced a sensation worse than the 2010 QF 3-7 blowout. Russian team was stacked on paper (three Hart Trophy candidates from last year), riding two WHC golds. Then Bykov completely crapped the bed with his arrogance. I still believe that, with a competent coach, Russia could win that game.
 
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It would have to be the loss to Switzerland in 2006 or the shootout loss against the Czechs. Canada is always expected to win and it is always a major disappointment if the country does not win gold in best on best. Only a loss to the USA or Russia (maybe) can be somewhat condoned.
 
None were "crushing" for me.

1998 was the most disappointing. The team played like shit and then acted like drunk morons in trashing their rooms at the Olympic village.
Just embarrassing for USA Hockey.
 
ManofSteel55 said:
You could make the case for Canada not giving its all in the bronze medal game, but up until they hit the best player in the world at the time (Hasek) having the game of his life, you can't say that they weren't trying.
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It wasn't so much Hasek having the game of his life (he was very good and did his job don't get me wrong) but the Czech team system that was extremely effective against Canada. Roy's performance kind of gets forgotten because he was on the losing end but he stopped a number of high quality point blank chances from the Czechs.
 
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I remember getting really mad in 2006, even though that team was old and bad compared to 2002 and 2010. IIRC we had a goal taken away in the QF against Finland because Doug Weight's helmet fell off and the officials have to stop play immediately under international rules, and I flipped out.
 
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