IIHF World ChampionshipDiscuss International Tournaments like the WJC, Olympics, and World Cup, as they take place, or discuss past tournaments. performances.
Sadly, this team has shown that they do not have class. From their cheap captain to the players who dove in todays game to their coaching staff for not telling them to stop destroying a team that has no business being in the tourny to begin with.
I thought us Canadians were better than that. I thought we had more honor and class. Apparently not.
Blah blah blah, same thing was said about Canada last year. They stopped celebrating when it was 6-0 today. In the 3rd period they passed incredibly too much, a lot of guys passed up open shots.
We saw how much class shone through when they beat Russia in the semifinal. Canada has class - they always will.
Personally i think Canada did let up. Top notch athletes can only slow down so much. The fact is Lativa should not have been on the same ice as team Canada.
Canada started slowly carrying the puck over the zone but the Lativians could simply not stop a cross ice pass
I understand where people get the idea that Canadian teams are classless when they run up the score against weaker teams like this but the rules really have to be changed so that games like this don't get out of hand like this one did. I would never wanna be on the receiving end of a beating like that in the host teams country.
But honestly what are the chances that the Canadians do come to a tiebreaker scenario within their group? Not a very likely possibility IMO, but the Canadian mentality is obviously "better to be safe than sorry".
BTW, did anyone see the TSN statistic that was provided to them by the IIHF? There are 325,000 registered hockey players in Canada under the age of 20 copared to the 1,500 registered hockey players in Latvia under the age of 20. Latvia is picking their players out of a very sparse pool. They made constant stupid mistake after mistake that should not be made at this level. Maybe coaching could be an issue? I was always taught to ice the puck when you are killing a penalty, not wait at you own blueline looking for a pass when the puck has been in your zone for a 1:40 seconds.
Every other team will run up the score when they play a weaker team not just Canada.. Sweden and Canada did it.. Don't blame it on the teams blamie it on the GD rule..
What I'd like to know is, why does it seem like Game 1 of the tournament for all the powerhouses seems to be like throwing a lamb to the lions?
Why not have Sweden vs Canada, Russia vs US type matchups on boxing day - and put the weaker teams at the end, which ends up making the games worth a little more since these guys can play spoiler/cinderella as well as the goal differential reason actually being visible so all these people saying it doesn't matter - can see that it does from time to time.
The other option is replace goal differential with goals allowed as the tie breaker. Then a 1-0 win is as good as a 11-0 win.
Don't get why this is classless. Valeri Kharlamov said it best, "The biggest compliment to an opponent is playing your hardest against him. Letting up at any point is an insult to him."
the 11 year old OP doesnt speak for america. i have no problem with teams running up the score on someone, like when the Slovakian Womens team beat Bulgaria 82-0 in the olympic qualifier. Even if Canada beat the US team by 15 goals i wouldnt hold it agaisnt them
What I'd like to know is, why does it seem like Game 1 of the tournament for all the powerhouses seems to be like throwing a lamb to the lions?
Why not have Sweden vs Canada, Russia vs US type matchups on boxing day - and put the weaker teams at the end, which ends up making the games worth a little more since these guys can play spoiler/cinderella as well as the goal differential reason actually being visible so all these people saying it doesn't matter - can see that it does from time to time.
The other option is replace goal differential with goals allowed as the tie breaker. Then a 1-0 win is as good as a 11-0 win.
Playing weaker teams at the end may not be a good thing.Playing the stronger teams right at the end gets teams ready for the medal round and for the most part there playing at there or close to there level.You toss in a weaker team at the end and then the medal round it may do more harm then good for some teams.
You let up against 6 year olds that can't call your bluff, if you're even in the lead to begin with, but letting up on this level would be far more classless than pushing on.
I'm sure the beating most of these kids got whenever they lost a game at the age of six has callused them enough not to care about having the score run up against them in a televised international tournament against the best team.
And, as has already been said, it's more insulting (and less entertaining) to play lax, and you do much more harmful things to someone in the course of a hockey game than running up the score.
If they want to give teams less incentive to do so, though, they should just make it so that the differential tie-breaker only applies to games against clubs who made it to the next round or something.
