This is not going to be about how well/awful a country is doing in the men's ice competition, but more-so about the roster each country has. Now, let me say this: I do not assume everyone will agree with me. Also, I would like to add that it is also hard to imagine Canada's Men's Ice Hockey team without so many bloody NHL star players.
For the purpose of whatever argument I bring up, I will focus on Canada's team. Their roster is pretty damn disgusting and terrifying. Their team is built to win Gold and nothing less - hell, a silver or bronze would seem like the greatest disappointment in Canadian sports history. Believe me, it would be to Canadians. As I said, Canada's roster is disgusting and terrifying. Every player on that roster is a star (to a certain extent) for their NHL team. The thing about Canada is that they lack real role players like they used to with Draper and Maltby (I cannot remember others at this point). No matter how much offense a team has, no matter how big and strong the defense is, every team needs role players (hard workers who simply finish their check, create motivation, may play better two-way hockey, etc etc). Canada doesn't really have that. Correct me if I am wrong, but they don't really have forwards that play good two-way hockey other than Patrice Bergeron and somewhat Jonathan Toews; no real role players. Sure they're powerful and should score plenty of goals, but they can't just rely on that because it will hurt them badly when they play countries like the US, Russia, Sweden and Finland.
The next thing I wanted to mention is Canada's roster compared to other countries. They're stacked everywhere, but I already briefly touched upon that. They have everything. As for other countries such as Germany, Latvia (what are they doing there, seriously?), Norway and Belarus .... well, they really cannot compete. They can't. Each of those countries has maybe a handful of NHL players, while the rest of the roster is more european and somewhat lesser talented. Now, don't get me wrong. I am NOT trying to say that the NHL is better and far superior than any other league (well, maybe it is), but talented players do come from other national leagues. What I am saying is that it seems that when Canada, Russia, United States (even though they are not as good) play Germany, Latvia, Norway and Belarus the viewers are watching the NHL players vs. AHL players; experienced players vs. inexperienced players. You get my point. You start feeling bad for these countries when they play Canada, Russia and the USA. It's more unfair then them being a terrible team. It's like having a baseball team like the New York Yankees (payroll ++ 200 million dollars) against the Florida Marlins (practically tied for lowest budget, 30-45 million.
I saved this point for last because it's about Patrice Bergeron. There was this article by John Grigg of The Hockey News. I think it just speaks for itself on how fucking stupid John Grigg is. The Ironic part, this is a guy that vowed for Alexander Burrows to be on the team. I encourage you to read it.
Link
Hopefully I made myself clear on these points. As I have mentioned within this blog, I am not trying to bash countries other than Canada, USA and Russia. What I am saying is that it's unfair
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