Olympic Hackey - The Good, the Bad and the Ugly
February 18, 2002

Now that the Figure Boxing is just about over, the next round of controversy has begun - The Olympic Men's Hockey Tournament. Let's start with the Canadians' abysmal performance in the first two games. What can you say - we played like s*&%! Sweden buried us and the Germans stayed with us. Last night, the Czech Republic got a taste of what Canada can do even though it ended up in a tie. The good, we play the Fins in the first elimination game - can you say retribution for Nagano!! The bad, Wayne Gretzky gets a backbone after 20 years in the game professionally and blames the American media for our problems. Nice try Wayne, but no one's buying it. You are worried about the team that you picked - period. The boys are coming around nicely and I think they should start to peak through the elimination rounds. The ugly, Roman HamerDICK's crosscheck on our Betty Ford Clinic Poster Boy, Theo Fleury. Gretzky did get this one right; the guy should be drawn and quartered. If the tables were turned the whole Canadian team would be suspended for touching anyone like that. Moving on, I have noticed a very interesting trend in regard to the big European teams. This is just plain ugly. Is it just me, or are players like Mats Sundin (Leafs), Jaromir Jagr (Capitals), Tomas Kaberle (Leafs), The Bure Brothers, Temmu Selanne (Sharks) etc etc… seem to be playing at a level that is well above the level they are playing at in the NHL? Collectively these guys are being paid tens of millions of dollars to perform for the teams and fans in North America, and no one will take away that they are amongst the most talented of any nationality in the league. But watching that game last night caused me to think what a great hockey player Jagr is - I just haven't seen it the past couple of seasons. He was tremendous last night against Canada. I think Don Cherry is right to a degree, but in the wrong sense. The Europeans' collectively will take the big paycheck (away from the North American boys) and play adequately over here. When it's for the homeland however they step it up large. The North Americans play at the same level with the same desire to win regardless. We love the game - period. If I was the owner of the Capitals I would be thinking about the deal that I gave Jagr last year and ask him why he doesn't play for me like he did for the Czech Republic in the Olympics. More incentives are needed for these marquee players to perform in the NHL the same way they do internationally. I think a Canada/U.S. Gold Medal match would be quite appropriate to just stick it right up the Euro's collective Union! Go Canada Go! Rock on!

- Sall