Olympics: Why was Canada so nonchalant in its Sochi victory?

[LEAFANFORLIFE23]

Because the reality is with Sedin, Backstrom and Zettberg out the final was over before it stared

 

[Confucius]

After re-watching our golden victory against Sweden this past February for the millionth time, I noticed something odd that perhaps played a role in the non-dramatic fashion of the victory (along with the 3-0 score).

Notice how the Canadian players reacted after the final buzzer, you'd think they merely advanced to the second round in a 4-0 series sweep.

Why?

Team don't react this laid back in the Stanley Cup. Boston's 4-0 game 7 drubbing of Vancouver in 2011 didn't cease them from piling on top of each other when the game ended.

Does it have to do with the whole "Olympic spirit" with sportsmanship? Or was it maybe, perhaps due to them being Canadian, that they felt they would have appeared classless had they done that?

The players regularly watch coaches corner.

 

[LeafsNation75]

This might be a cliché but maybe Canada didn't rush to the ice after they won because they were expected to win. Prior to the game against Sweden I was confident they were going to win and wasn't at all nervous before it started, like I was 4 years before when they played the United States for the Gold.

 

[OttawaRoughRiderFan*]

This might be a cliché but maybe Canada didn't rush to the ice after they won because they were expected to win. Prior to the game against Sweden I was confident they were going to win and wasn't at all nervous before it started, like I was 4 years before when they played the United States for the Gold.

I agree. As I said before, after we beat the Americans, I did not lose a second of sleep worrying we would lose to Sweden. To me, it was foregone conclusion.

 

[Stats01]

There was actually a lot of fear in 2010. Team Canada looked pretty disjointed and confused in the round robin games. Remember they had to beat Switzerland in a shootout and lost to the US. I remember some people were actually considering what would happen if they lost Germany? It wasn't like they had the previous Gold Medal to fall back on either. Failure in Sochi meant oh whoops we lost a game. Failure at home, in Vancouver and now we have only won one gold in four Olympics. Obvious the rest is history and they won, but there was some palpable nerves in 2010 that there was not in Sochi.

This^ 100% 2010 Wasn't just about the gold medal OT win (although a lot of it does) just imagine if Canada lost to Switzerland! we'd be having a hockey summit on what is wrong with Canadian hockey. It would be the biggest disaster and disappointment ever. You can't really describe the pressure that team had on it's shoulders..hosting the event, they bombed out in 2006, they were expected to win, anything less than gold was a failure as is the case in every tournament but even more so then. Bunch all that pressure up into a sudden death OT gold medal game and it's quite easy to understand how much elation and emotion was let out after Crosby scored. Sochi didn't have anywhere near that kind of situation.

 

[SmellOfVictory]

It's our fault (rest of the world) that we couldnt compete harder against the number 1 team. Maybe in future...

Should've had Backlund on the team, man. Olympic MVP for sure!

 

[FuriousSenator]

For all the reasons mentioned above me.

I think mainly it was just one of those things with a niche sport. Not to troll (I love the sport of course), but really when you come down to it, it's one medal out of a hundred at a single tournament for a sport followed regularly by like 0.0001% of the globe's population.

This ain't no world cup of soccer game. Once you're outside of Canada the enthusiasm and associated interest drops by orders of magnitude. Not surprising this leached into the games and players' mentality. Couple that with all the other things (Canada clear favourites, no Russia, sorta blowout etc...) and there you have it.

 

[SH15]

If you think that team looked confident wait until Stamkos, MacKinnon, Seguin & McDavid are inserted into the lineup...

 

[Zaddy91]

Man vancouver was a perfect game, ot, crosby, vs murrica, god it was flawless

 

[Zaddy91]

If you think that team looked confident wait until Stamkos, MacKinnon, Seguin & McDavid are inserted into the lineup...

Olympics are over for the nhl, the committee reached new levels of greed and bettmenn is ready to shut them out of their main event.

nhl basicaly makes no money and i terupts a season for nothing, sochi was last olympics with nhl players until the IOC isnt run by draconian weirdos

 

[solidmotion]

For all the reasons mentioned above me.

I think mainly it was just one of those things with a niche sport. Not to troll (I love the sport of course), but really when you come down to it, it's one medal out of a hundred at a single tournament for a sport followed regularly by like 0.0001% of the globe's population.

This ain't no world cup of soccer game. Once you're outside of Canada the enthusiasm and associated interest drops by orders of magnitude. Not surprising this leached into the games and players' mentality. Couple that with all the other things (Canada clear favourites, no Russia, sorta blowout etc...) and there you have it.

along with this -- winning it in the way they did (tight defence, little offence, almost no serious competition) it just wasn't a dramatic tournament and the players obviously felt that and didn't parade around with a lot of false emotion. they just got the job done.

 

[Do Make Say Think]

The outcome was never in doubt once Canada beat the US

No disrespect to Sweden but Canada was unbelievably stacked

 

[Pure West]

The tournament in general wasn't very exciting, particularly the Canada games. The Canadian defense was so ridiculously good that it seemed they were giving up an average of 1 scoring chance a game. The games were never in doubt as they completely dominated the short 6 game tournament...and it never does feel as sweet when you don't face any adversity or have to battle through a long playoff run. The big ice doesn't help either as its hard to get the same physical intensity, and to generate chances off the forecheck or get pucks to the net. It didn't feel like a battle that the players all had to endure.

From a fan's perspective It didn't help that the gold medal game was on at probably the worst possible time (4am on the West Coast) but I had a really hard time getting excited for it.

 

[Do Make Say Think]

I didn't even bother waking up for the gold medal game

 

[SilverSeven]

Probably because that team was ludicrous. Arguably the best international team ever put together...at least by the results on ice. They were just dominant.