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How do you feel about Olympic hockey?

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Jersey Girl

Registered User
Sep 28, 2008
4,200
179
Just wondering how wrapped up everyone here gets in the whole Olympic thing. Pay attention because it's good hockey...and since the NHL is off there is no other hockey to watch anyway? Crazy USA USA (or whatever country you're from) fan who will die a little inside if they lose? Let's get this over with and back to real (NHL) hockey? Don't really pay attention to hockey because you're more focused on the next Brian Boitano and his risky quadruple axle attempt? Or more focused on Shaun White, probably the best athlete in Sochi?

I know that for most Canadians national team hockey is just one very small notch below life and death...'Murricans, not so much. For the next week and a half most of Canada is riveted to the World Junior Championships, the way we down here are riveted in March to March Madness. There are about 20 people in our entire country who are even aware the World Juniors are taking place, and only around 10-15 of those people actually care who wins.

The Olympics obvious beats the All-Star game by eons...personally I can't even watch one second of an All-Star game. Extremely competitive hockey with the best players on the planet, all playing hard with real checking and everything...what could possibly be bad about that?

I'm glad you asked...Ryan McDonagh can get hurt...Henrik Lundqvist can come back exhausted like he has in prior years, with a turbo NHL schedule and probably some ground to make up in the standings ahead of him (somewhat mitigated by the Cam Talbot phenomenon, as long as that lasts)...Rich Nash can catch yet another elbow to the head...Ryan Callahan can try to do too much too soon...and on and on.

For me, the Rangers competing for the Stanley Cup trumps the USA winning Olympic gold by about 80 bazillion miles. There is no comparison. So I secretly hope no Rangers get selected for the Olympics, the rest of the league tires themselves out, and our boys hit March at full speed. Not going to happen, I know, but if I were Queen...

I was at MSG when I was young at a Canada Cup game between the USA and Russia - USA, USA chants everywhere, and then one of the Hatchers crushed a Russian into the boards, the Russian player laid there, and the place went Lake Placid crazy. Trainers on the ice, the building still celebrating the lesson the American put on the Russian, until slowly but surely everyone began to realize it was Alexei Kovalev, one of our own, who couldn't get up. The place went silent...then, when Kovalev finally got to his skates, the loudest 'Let's Go Rangers' chant I'd ever heard rang through the Garden. THAT'S how I feel about international hockey.

That said, one thing I am interested to see is the Russians playing on home ice with a home crowd for a change. Seems like every international game I've ever seen (I don't count those 'World Championships'), the Russians are always playing in Canada or the US. It will be cool to see them with the crowd behind them.

What say you?
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I absolutely LOVE olympic hockey. It is right there with NHL for me but I only get to experience it once every 4 years. Seeing old acquaintances who now play in KHL. Seeing how North American players adapt to larger ice, and how Finnish and Swedish players we know so well adapt so much more easily to the ice they grew up on. The USA-Canada-Russia games are wonderful, but also how a player like Kopitar carries Slovenia almost by himself with his father coaching. Every matchup has a great story it seems.

If this was every year it would not be the same, and the world championship with some NHL players does not appeal to me.
Olympic hockey though, this is a rare and special treat and I am looking forward to it very very much.

I also love the rest of the winter olympics. Sports I am familiar with and those I am not. I am glued to the TV for 16 days.
 
I like it, and usually it ends up being the highlight of the season for me since the Rangers generally stink in Olympic years since professionals started playing in 1998. The Rangers missed the playoffs in 1998, 2002, 2010 and are a hot mess this year so it gives me something to look forward to. However, I do think the 2006 Olympics did more harm than good to the Rangers - Jagr got injured and the Rangers didn't look the same after the Olympic break.

I'm kind of hoping some Rangers don't make it this year not only because of injury risk, but because they don't deserve it. Players shouldn't be rewarded if they are playing poorly - Nash, Stepan, and Callahan have all underwhelmed this year and may make their teams over more deserving candidates.

However, I wouldn't mind if they went back to amateurs playing and brought back the Canada Cup/World Cup of Hockey.
 
It is an ensemble of the greatest player in the world in one place. What is there not to like? The players try because they want to bring something to their country. It gets people excited here too when the US does well. It brings attention to the game. It brings in more fans. Especially Olympic hockey. After 1980, the team, regardless of the players, brings something to the casual and non hockey fan to follow. After Paris scored that tying goal in 2010, people went nuts.

I think a lot of the HF group know of the WJC and how exciting it can be. US has won gold 2 of the last 3 years helps too. The Rangers having players in each helped bring my interest to it's peak.
 
I love Olympic hockey. Rangers are not winning the cup this year so I would like to see our guys put a lot of effort into winning gold.
 
"Anyone but Canada" sums up my interest in Olympic hockey, but it is cool to see the elite talents of the world go head to head. I like the world juniors as well. I will probably leave work early to catch the gold medal game.
 
To me, Olympic hockey is akin to Playoff hockey without the Rangers involved. It's made slightly more interesting because I want Rangers players to do well, but I also dislike it in a way because I don't want the Rangers players to get hurt. So it ends up about the same.
 
Highest quality of hockey there is. I like the games on small ice a lot better, but the talent level creates for the game to be played at it's fastest pace.

Some of the USA v CAN games that have taken place on North American ice are some of the greatest games you'll ever see. The quality of those games were incredibly high.
 
I love it; more room for creativity and skill. Always makes me wish we played on the larger ice surfaces.
 
Mikos87 said:
Highest quality of hockey there is. I like the games on small ice a lot better, but the talent level creates for the game to be played at it's fastest pace.

Some of the USA v CAN games that have taken place on North American ice are some of the greatest games you'll ever see. The quality of those games were incredibly high.
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This.
 
DelZottoHitTheNetJK said:
I had to stop reading after you said Shaun White was probably the best athlete at Sochi
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Shaun White celebrates like nobody's business. I don't even know if I consider him an athlete or a daredevil, but man is it entertaining watching him celebrate.

You take one the best at his sport who also happens to be one of most arrogant punks you can find out there, and the end result are some of the best cellys out there.

Dude shows up the competition like nobody's business.
 
Vehemently disagree about White being the best athlete at these Olympic games. Some of the games on NHL size ice at the Olympics were some of the greatest I've ever seen. Always a thrill. Always HUGE to be in the running for a medal. It's VERY important to me. Same with the Juniors. Hell, I had my juniors Kreider on yesterday. Living with, and within minutes from my Canadian friends, it's huge and I always wake up for it...

Be that as it may, the Stanley Cup is the biggest honor.
 
Olympic and WC hockey are quite a big thing here in Finland. A lot of Finns who don't even follow that much hockey (Finnish Elite League, NHL and such) become hockey fans for those short periods of time. For me the interest in WC has been in a downward spiral for the past years. I just don't get that excited about a tournament that doesn't have the best players in the world attending. It's just a tournament then and doesn't really represent the overall talent level of each country.

Olympic hockey is a completely another thing. It's still a short tournament and building great unified teams in that time isn't really something I'm expecting. More of great individuals playing together and many of these guys have played a lot with each other before. As a fan the overall attachment level of following a team through out a whole year is ofcourse completely different. Following Rangers hockey night and day is a bit different then a short tournament of Olympic hockey. But of course as a Finn I still take pride in how our national team does and will watch every game shouting until there's no sound left.

And of course for Finns, success in any sport or anything in general is always a good reason to get drunk in public as a unified nation. Here's the partying after the 2011 WC gold (The song is called Age old excuses, mantra of the damned)
 
Its terrible. Shutting down the league for nearly 3 weeks. Its a waste of time. The Christmas break of 3 days instead of 2 felt like 3 weeks.
 
Love the best on best tournament.

The fact that the US and Canada sent kids while the rest of the world sent pro's to me was unfair.

automatically puts our guys at a disadvantage.

Best on Best on a bigger surface? Great hockey to watch.
 
NickyFotiu said:
I wish it was all amateurs playing not professionals but I still watch.
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Yup. I agree.

25 year-old age limit. Not signed to a pro contract at the time the team is submitted.

Have the best-on-best for the late summer like the Canada Cup. The 1987, 1991 CC's and 1996 World Cup destroyed anything the NHL-led Olympics ever did, and that includes the 2010 and 2002 Olympics.

To disrupt an entire pro sports league for a whole month is beyond Pejorative Slured. The Olympics can run concurrent with an uninterrupted NHL season. It's been done before with no issues. Any amateurs can sign a pro contract after the Olympics, like Nedved in 1994.
 
The two Olympics post-USSR were outstanding theater and quality hockey.

The 1992 CIS (Russian) team was loaded with young Russians, the KLM/Fetisov guys were already in the NHL. The 1992 CIS team was electric, but Team USA was almost a Cinderella with Ray Leblanc, Tkachuk, Donato and Scott Young. Team Canada in 1992 had Lindros.

The 1994 Olympics in Lillehammer were epic and not just because of the Forsberg goal. Just great quality hockey.

You root for your country no matter who is wearing the uniform. There's a reason why we Americans love the NCAAs......99pct of the kids are just kids and playing something meaningful for the last time in their lives. And it shows. The quality might not be pro-esque, but it's riveting and entertaining theater.

The ratings will suck for the hockey. Friggin Sochi. Good luck with that.

For a game to be shown in prime time on the east coast, they'd have to drop the puck at 4AM.
 
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