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Canada, U.S. set to get their hate on

ROY MacGREGOR

From Tuesday's Globe and Mail

Latest comment posted at 8:40 PM EST 06/05/08

The faces and words might change, but the aim remains the same ...Read the full article

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  1. Antonio San from Canada, Canada writes: Here we are: buying cheap patriotism with hockey...
  2. Trent S from Canada writes: An Loving Every Moment of it Antonio!
  3. Hugh Draper from Vancouver, Canada writes:
    Just play the game and leave the jingoistic rubbish at home.
  4. Kevin Dooley from Canada writes: Nonsense. In football, if Brazil doesn't make it to the World Cup final, it's an upset. In hockey it's Canada.

    The US has never been the kind of hockey powerhouse that Canada is, and the reasons have everything to do with simple economic and social resources devoted to the sport. The US kicks our collective butts at a thousand other sports, but hockey is just taken much more seriously here.

    In fact, with the massive resources dedicated to sports in the US, it's almost amazing that they don't do even better in international sporting events. But I think that this is because so much of their sporting resources are devoted to American Football, for which there are no international competitions. If those same athletes were funded in the same way, but played rugby, hockey or football (soccer), or even non-team sports like running, jumping and throwing events, it's a safe bet that they'd dominate these sports internationally.
  5. Hugh Draper from Vancouver, Canada writes:
    If Americans take an interest in a sport, such as the Tour de France, they dominate it.
  6. Flames Forever from Canada writes: I am quite surprised the Americans haven't recruited more Canadian born players who have become US citizens to play for the good ole' USA.
  7. john wardle from Canada writes: The Tour de France is a drug exhibition.
  8. King 99 from Canada writes: john wardle from Canada writes: The Tour de France is a drug exhibition..

    Are you sure you didn't mean Tour De Farce??
  9. otto von abbatoir from Los Angeles, United States writes: It's just not cold enough down here often enough for Americans to ever take hockey seriously. Little kids can still play the game up there for half-a-year outside. That's not possible down here anymore and, as a result, the level of interest isn't created at either the fan or player level. Also, the booing of American children's teams visiting in Canada was an unmitigated catastrophe for the sport down here. Changing the image of the sport for parents into one of drunken thuggery that's all about fighting caused innumerable parents to remove their kids from involvement in the sport.
  10. Kevin Dooley from Canada writes: otto von abbatoir from Los Angeles, United States writes: "It's just not cold enough down here often enough for Americans to ever take hockey seriously."

    Yes, in the US, particularly in warmer places like Los Angeles, hockey is a country club sport that's only really played by rich kids. It's like cricket in the UK. The English are terrible at cricket internationally because only rich kids play it. In places like Pakistan, though, cricket is a big deal and everybody plays it.

    That reminds me of my grand scheme for securing Canada's place in sporting history. Let's make a list of all of these country club sports (polo being top of the list), and put together a Canadian national team out of the kids who just didn't quite make the NHL draft, but are all still obviously superb athletes. Then we spend a year training them to ride horses, or whatever the arcane country club requirement is, and set them loose on the idle rich from around the world. Let's turn polo into a goon sport, force them to create new rules about illegal use of riding crops just for our boys.
  11. Are We Having This Conversation ? from Toronto, Canada writes: I hope Canada can beat the US....call it pride, call it glory, call it whatever you like but when your country comes in first (for anything!) it is always something special.
    For those comments about "politics" and hockey being bafoonery, true...players aren't exactly the smartest of citizens, but hey, they don't get paid for that now do they?
    They are paid to win...and win big!
    To agree with a comment from earlier on, Canada is hockey obsessed, despite what some nay-sayers say. Whenever Canada plays hockey (international or within NA) the players and coaches know that anything less than a gold medal is just not good enough! Canada doesn't play hockey to go for silver! It's gold or nothing....that is a lot of pressure but...because they are athletes, that is the pressure that comes from playing a sport that we have done so well in the past!
    Good Luck Canada!!!! (and kick some American butt!!)
  12. Gary Dare from Portland, Oregon, Canada, writes: otto von abbatoir writes, "It's just not cold enough down here often enough for Americans to ever take hockey seriously." Hockey is a highly regional sport in the US and hasn't developed in the wrong areas (e.g., NHL SE Division). SoCal is large enough that it can sustain at least one team as a boutique sport, the jury is still out on the longetivity of the Ducks (one good season, Cup run and post-Cup halo are only short term). But NHL expansion has created one new piece of US hockey country and that's in the Bay Area ... lots of northern transplants, no competing pro sports based in the immediate San Jose area (up in SF and Oakland, yes; but the traffic is awful, again). Even repats that I meet in India and China go home with sports memorabilia from a) their graduate schools and b) the San Jose Sharks.
  13. Jan Burton from Toronto, Canada writes: In the mid-to-late 1990s it appeared as though the USA was going to be the next hockey super power. They'd won the 1996 World Cup of hockey and seemed set to take over via their massive propulation base.

    But it hasn't happened. Since then Team USA has appeared in only one senior mens final (2002 olympics) and have won only one gold medal (2004 world juniors, thanks to a Canadian own-goal).

    Americans have naver, and will never, care about hockey like they do football, basketball or baseball.
  14. Gary Dare from Portland, Oregon, Canada, writes: Jan Burton writes, "In the mid-to-late 1990s it appeared as though the USA was going to be the next hockey super power." The US had a golden age as a result of many players inspired in childhood by the 1980 Winter Olympics win. Their 1996 World Cup team was packed with starters from all over the NHL (LaFontaine, Suter, Richter, the Beezer) and many of them (Chelios, Modano, Roenick) are still chugging along in their twilight years. Also that was the start of the southern expansion and southern movement (Jets, Nords, Stars, Whalers) along with the attendant hype and overenthusiasm.
  15. Andrew Perry from halifax, Canada writes: I'm with Kevin: in Canada there's hockey,and there's everything else.

    The various Sports broadcasters are doing all they can to promote other sports but the numbers speak for themselves: that the last Canadiens game, a second round game, outdrew the Superbowl when all language groups are counted. This the obverse of the NBC/ESPN argument that they don't carry hockey in the US because the fans don't watch.
    I was at the Germany- Slovakia game last night and that game drew better, here in Halifax, than it would have in Stockholm or Helsinki even with the geographic proximity of the fans. The majority in the crowd were locals who had bought a package of game tickets knowing they would see some good hockey. That is why the game draws, Canadians watch hockey, not just the NHL.

    NB:The German fans are very impressive in their vocal ability and organization.

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