Team Canada Hockey Rant

Wow...what a shocker! For those of you who don't know, Team Canada played their gold medal game last night in the World Junior Hockey Championships vs Russia. The game started off great for Canada, scoring the game's first 3 goals and being  up 3-0 after 2 periods. The goals were scored by Ryan Ellis, Carter Ashton, and Brayden Schenn. Then...the unexpected happened: Russia started a come-back. The Russians would go on to score 5 unanswered goals in the 3rd period to win the game, 5-3 and hand the Canadians their 2nd straight silver medal year. How could that happen? It happened because Canada stopped being physical with the clean hitting and good forechecking and they didn't use their size on the boards to their advantage to generate offence. Their game of cycling the puck was gone as well. It was almost as if Canada thought,"We're up 3 goals. That's enough offence. Let's sit back and try to skate with the Russians and keep them off the scoring sheet." That's honestly what it looked like to me as I watched the game. The Russians, of course, took advantage and downed the Canadians for their 1st gold medal since 2003 when they defeated Canada in THAT gold medal game. I am both shocked and angry today: shocked because of how Russia was able to come back and win the game the way that they did, and angry because of what Team Canada did in the 3rd period. Also too, the attitude of the fans has made me very upset as well throughout the tournament. Canadians overall are arrogant and vain when it comes to hockey: we think that it's "our" game and that we always have the best players. Shut up with that attitude! This is EXACTLY why our teams are not winners right now. We need to be humble and remember that any team can win on any night. I saw FAN-MADE SIGNS that reflected these proud notions on TV. As a result of our back-to-back silver performances, our team has now been relegated to the B pool for next year's tournament, which will be co-hosted in Calgary and Edmonton. Let's hope that our arrogance will disappear for good, because it needs to. Oh, and another thing: you Russians also need to be ashamed of yourselves after getting kicked off your plane for the return flight to your country! I know you won against us, but that is NO excuse for carrying on like children! Show some decency and conduct yourselves as professionals. For more on that story, click here. For the game recap, go here. You Russians are just as bad as Sweden was when they defeated Canada in the round-robin portion of the tournament. For the rest of us...let's hope Hockey Canada gets their heads together and comes out next year with a superb roster. Join me next time as we get back to normal with Raptors and Knights coverage. Until then, stay warm everyone!