Canadians have been displaying one of the classic symptoms of saltiness, the ole 'I never really cared to begin with' charade. I don't know why you'd be in this thread pointing out that this was a bunch of Canadian grannies that lost if ya didn't care. Everyone knows the circumstances..the need to keep pointing them out is there because you just want to make absolutely 1000% sure that everyone knows this loss doesn't truly represent Canadian hockey and really it's just an exhibition kind of..it's hurt pride. Everyone following hockey knows this..as it's literally the Canadian response every time you lose.
Ironically in this particular case it's not even disputed by non-Canadians, but some of you can't help yourselves. Because even though it's your 16th strongest possible team or something, it still says Canada on the shirts and in the records. Even though no-one thinks that North American fans in particular (or even fans in general) are as enthused with this as they were with the 'best vs best' tournaments, it's still a big story. It's talked about by people all over, it's on American sports news websites.
People during the Olympics care for a brief moment about all kinds of fringe sports where athletes are anonymous otherwise and hardly make money..simply because it's an opportunity for them to do well for their country and make people proud. So obviously they're gonna pay attention to one of the few sports in these Games that people actually care about otherwise..even if it's not the best players from all countries there. It's still the flag and the anthem and all that when the medals are handed over. And if Canada doesn't want to send its best players then whose fault is that?
So thanks to the NHL's selfishness..Canada's ego has to suffer at least a tiny bit here. And trust me, we all know that Canada typically isn't exactly a boastful country, but you are when it comes to hockey. So of course you'll all tell me how no-one is salty really while at the same time reminding me (as if I needed a reminder) how good Canada have done in the 'real competitions' as defined by Canadians.