On Tuesday I received an email in response to my Sunday post from Michal from the Czech Republic. It pointed out that "in the final game, [. . .] the ref was very nice to Canada, particularly your captain" and had a clip of the whole Fischer/Vokoun-Smyth altercation attached.
Since I am Canadian, naturally my bias leads me to forget/not mention the calls that the ref should have made against Canada but didn't, but being Canadian doesn't mean that I am blind to the faults of my team. I remember watching that little scene and listening in disbelief to the TSN commentators who were upset with Vokoun for getting involved in the "good, clean" (or something along those lines, as they described it) battle between Smyth and Fischer. Smyth was actually hacking away at Fischer's ankles, which is what led to both Fischer, Vokoun, and other Czech players taking exception to Smyth's actions.
Although I didn't mention it in my Sunday post (selective memory, again, caused by my bias in favour of my national team), at the time I saw it, I wasn't particularly pleased with Smyth's undisciplined actions, and if I didn't necessarily want a penalty called against Canada, if it had been called, I would've accepted it as the right call.
Anyway, I guess what I'm trying to say is that the bad aspects of the refereeing in the gold medal game went both ways. I thought that, in general, a lot of things were called that didn't need to be called, while many things that should've been penalized were let to slip. If my initial response to the game seemed biased in favour of Canada, that's because I am Canadian, and not because I believe that the refereeing was lopsided. Like I said, the Czechs well and truly deserved that win and the gold in the tournament, and better calls wouldn't have changed that fact, it just would have made the game less frustrating to watch. =P
So thank you, Michal for your comment, and the reminder for me to be a bit clearer, and less obviously biased in my comments. ^_^
Well, I wanted the Czechs to win against Sweden so I could see a Canada-Czech final, and considering the way the Swedes played today (dismal 6-3 loss to Russia), I'm regretting that wish just a little.
*sigh* I guess I should remind myself that Canada played really terribly the entire tournament and that I was amazed that they made it past Slovakia in the quarter-finals, never mind the final!! So yeah, on the bright side, at least they still got silver, which is actually quite significant considering the way they've been playing the entire tournament.
The Czechs, more than any other team would have, in my opinion, actually deserved the goal. They were totally solid defensively, without being deadly dull. Jagr stopped sucking, Vokoun was perfect, and Vyborny was excellent (a little Czech joke, since "excellent" in Czech is "vyborný").
Plus I've got to admit that I'm quite happy that (Tomas) Kaberle has finally won something significant in hockey!!
But still, when you believe, despite all of your complaining and criticisms, that Canada is going to win, it really sucks that they didn't come through.
My only consolation is that, even with all of my waffling and indecision, I decided to go to the baptism and to tape the game. Maybe I had a premonition or something, because the thing that made my decision was when I thought to myself that I'd be really pissed at myself for missing the baptism to watch the game if Canada ended up losing.
But...ARGH!!!!! Not to take anything away from the Czechs--who, as I said, totally deserved the win--I can't believe that Andersson (or however it's spelled) ref!!! He gives Maltby a roughing penalty after ignoring the Czech player holding Doan and dragging him across the blue line for an offside, and then when the Czech player (Fisher?) does some roughing of his own, he totally overlooks it!! And what about the freakin' closing the hand over the puck?!? Don't tell me he couldn't have seen it!! The guy had it in is hand for a good couple of seconds!! He even spun around a bit with the puck in his hand before he threw it!!! At that point the game was pretty well over (I had a bad feeling after the Czech's first goal, even though it was so early in the game), but if the stupid ref had called it, at least Canada might've ended a bit more respectably by getting something on the board!! ARGH!!!!!
Why does the WHC gold medal game have to coincide with the first baptism in our newly renovated church?!? Four of "my kids" from the high school youth group (I'm a counselor) are going to be baptized too!! I can't just skip out, but...it's the gold medal game!! Between Canada and the Czech Republic!!! My two favourite teams! How can I miss it?!?
I can't believe Canada has actually made it to the final. They almost blew a 4-0 lead in the second period to a very young Russian team!! The first half of the second period (when I started watching) they looked very good. Even up to a bit after the first Russian goal (very pretty!), Canada was looking fine, but then they started to look a bit lazy/sloppy. The third goal, of course, was horrible.
It came partially from an error on Jovo's part, I believe. I don't know if it's just my timing or something, but it seems like Jovo's been making errors and contributing to goals again quite a lot this tourney--every time I've watched he's done it, at any rate.
Thanks to Jello for pointing out how negative I was sounding!! After reading that comment, I chilled out a bit and realized that even if they aren't playing as well as usual, Team Canada is still OUR team, and adversity only makes victory sweeter! ^_^
Go for three in a row!! GO CANADA GO!!!! (Although I've got to admit, if Team Canada's going to lose the gold to anyone, I'm glad it'll be the Czechs!! Then Kaberle will finally have won a championship!!)
Stupid Team Canada!!! I didn't get to watch the Canada-Finland game because I was in church, and I missed the TSN encore presentation because I was cleaning all afternoon/night and then we took my mom out for a late dinner at Café Hollywood, but after I found out the score (today), I'm glad I missed it!
How could they tie after losing to Sweden!! Darn it all, we needed that win!!! ARGH!
Stupid NHL. If they'd actually been playing all year, I'm sure we wouldn't be sucking this bad. >_<
At any rate. I'm glad Louie at least got a tie instead of a loss (you know I'm not that fond of Brodeur, even though he's historically been excellent for Canada).
*sigh* Man, the way they're playing, I can't even get excited about watching the games, and this is probably the most significant hockey I've had/will have this year!
The ways things have been going (hockey-wise) since last summer, I'm really really grateful that I was able to go to all those World Cup games. At least they give me something in fairly recent memory to recall fondly.
Argh. Stupid NHL. Stupid Team Canada. (Unlike the Olympics, they don't have Gretzky this time to launch into a diatribe in their defense, and to draw away some of the attention.)
BOOOOOOO!!!! I can't believe stupid Canada lost to Sweden!! They weren't particularly impressive in the loss either--well, from what I saw of it.
*sigh* It's pretty sad when the only hockey I'm getting is WHC and I'm not even really watching (I was reading manga with the tv on in the background).
Ah well. Good for Sweden. They've been pretty shaky on the international (world) level for a while (World Cup was pretty darn sad) so it's nice to see them doing well!! 4-0 is their tournament record, in fact. I just wish it wasn't them doing well against Canada.
Like I said, I wasn't totally paying attention to the game, so I don't know, but I wonder if maybe it's time for a goaltender change? Brodeur's let in, what, 10 goals so far this tournament? I think that's like twice as much as he allowed for the whole of the World Cup!! Of course, Luongo was played against Slovenia so the comparison isn't really fair, but nonetheless...
Of course, Team Canada as a whole (and not just Brodeur) really needs to shape up! Even just from what I saw, they were looking rather rusty/shaky. C'mon Canada! Don't make us have another panicky "future of hockey" summit like after Nagano! LOL
