Epsilon said:
The Mighty Ducks thing was a joke exagerration, but the main point still stands. You seem to think this team descended from Mount Olympus and were dipped in the River Styx for good measure. An elite NHL goaltender (Khabibulin, Brodeur, Theodore, etc.) in front of a decent team like Russia's would have little problem beating a team of star junior scorers. You probably think these kids could have beat the 1998 Czechs the way you are carrying on.
Also, you might want try making your point without name-calling and shouting.
Shouting? I didn't realize HF boards had audio capabilities. But seriously, I never mentioned Mt. Olympus, I simply said this team was incredible, and they cut through this tournament like a hot knife through butter. I have not been the only one on these boards or in the media, that has compared Team Canada to an NHL team. They had the size the speed and the system in place to bring it all together. They never trailed the entire tournament. Even with their so called weak link goaltending. All of these other people are talking about how if this goalie or that goalie would have made that save, the whole game would have been different. Well Glass never looked stellar, but he never had to, and he did make the big save when his team needed it.
I joked about Khabibulin instead of Khudobin would have made little difference, and you went off on a Mighty Ducks movie tangent. So you can see why I became a little irritable. I made a joke that was in some ways atleast conceivable, but when you mentioned any NHL goalie behind a group of 12 year olds made little to no sense to the conversation.
There will be a majority of those on Team Canada, who go on to have great NHL careers, because their games are in many ways NHL ready. Yes, some need experience, but I feel most of the players on that team will be playing in the bigs when hockey decides to start up again.
As far as the '98 Czech team, they were awesome, but you also have the advantage of looking back and seeing how many of them have gone to play in the NHL.
Also, you would have to concede, seeing as it is a fact, that Canada loses more of its U20 junior eligable prospects to the NHL every year. That being said, it stands to reason 2 of the best teams ever assembled at the WJC were the Canadian teams of '95, and '05. Whyyou ask? Because the NHL was then, and is now, in the midst of a labour strike, and that means that players who would otherwise have been playing in the NHL, could now have the honour of representing their country at the WJC.
Phaneuf, Carter, Richards, Bergeron, Getzlaf, Ladd, Coburn, Weber, and Stewart could all have been conceivably playing in some capacity for their NHL teams. At which point, their team would have to release them to join Team Canada. That would have been a completely different tournament, don't you think? Sure it would, but it doesn't seem fair if you're a fan of Canadian hockey and the World Juniors. If you add to that, the fact that Brent Burns and Nathan Horton were also eligible for this team, that is just scary!
These are the type of things that I wish the rest of Canada would look at when things maybe don't go as planned in these international tournaments. Canada comes in 2nd, and the whole country starts pannicking, and every newspaper starts a 12 part series of
..."What's wrong with our game?". True, Canada had not won gold at the U20's since '97, but they have won a medal every year since except '98, and the last three years have won Silver. Which, as anyone knows, Gold or Silver is decided in one game, winner takes all, and Canada could just as easily have won 4 Golds in a row.
The Americans who by and large have no clue what hockey really means to this country, have the luxury of sitting back and taking pot shots at why Canadians are so touchy about this game. Well hockey is a global game, and the other countries like the US are getting better at it all the time. I guess in some ways it is a lot like the US and the Basketball or Baseball situation. They owned the game forever, and now other countries have caught up.
This game defines our country and it makes up the very fabric of our nation. That may seem sad to some people, but it really is beyond a sport, it is revered and the people are passionate about it, especially when it is showcased with such awesome power on the world stage. Thanks for the memories Team Canada WJC Champs 2005.
