An unashamed theory abounds in this Olympic city that all the gold medals Canada have won at these Winter Games — 10, as of writing — will not amount to a hill of beans if their men’s ice hockey team do not on Sunday skate to the one that really, really counts.
In Canada’s national sport/obsession/religion — as the Coke advert that drives you barmy here keeps roaring “Let’s make sure everyone knows whose game they’re playing” — the nation’s bid in the gold medal encounter to repel the young, vibrant USA team who beat them just a week ago in a qualifying round is being sold as the match to end all matches.
Thirty-three million Canadians will switch on their TVs and switch off their lives. And you fear for the nation’s collective wellbeing if their heroes put them through the wringer as they did here on Friday night when a loss of defensive focus — or was that nerve? — in the final period of their semi-final saw Slovakia come from 3-0 down and just fail to sneak an equaliser in the final seconds thanks to one inspired save from local legend, Vancouver Canucks goaltender Roberto Luongo.
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Notes:
Canadian ladies have beat the crap out of all opposition and already won gold.
If our guys lose what does that say about Canadian men?
Just trying to inspire “our guys”.
Keep piling the pressure on the Canadian team, after all, if they don’t win the gold then nothing else Canada has ever done will matter.
mid island mike
Who cares about the hockey team Canada won gold in Curling!!
I’m more than happy with the performance of Canada’s athletes. Gold or silver doesn’t matter since the point is supposed to be to test your skills. They’ve done so.
Oh Canada!
I would think that if you were to do a careful examination of the people that are building this BS pressure on the Canadian team, you’d find that the majority of them don’t even like hockey and probably the majority of them don’t much like Canada, certainly not a Canada that might just set a Global record for the most Gold during a Winter Olympic EVER!!
It will be a great game and both teams won’t leave anything in the bag at the end, of that we can rest assured. As long as the officiating is good, it’ll be a barn burner.