[bigboydan]

how you canucks feeling this morning, after your hockey team loss yesterday.

you guys blamming it all on Gretzky mess why your not even gonna win the silver ?

[isetcap]

They probably took it harder when Sarah was cut from the Bachelor.

Blame Canada.

[Mudcat]

I'm a little surprised at how well I'm taking it.

I really invest a lot of myself into these sorts of hockey tournaments where the best players are involved. I watch every second of every game, and sweat things out in between.

I was crushed in 1981 (Soviets took the Canada Cup), 1996 (USA gets miraculous goaltending and takes the World Cup), 1998 (lost in a shootout to the Czechs at the Nagano Olympics).

But, for whatever reason, this one hasn't knocked me over as much. Maybe because I am also very interested in Curling and our men have a Gold Medal game tomorrow so I was able to shift my focus to that.

But if you listen to Sports Radio you hear everything being blamed from Wayne Gretzky to not-enough-young-players to supposed-dressing-room-conflict-between-Todd-Bertuzzi-and-Colorado-players to The Curse of Phil Esposito. I don't even know what that is supposed to be but there is no shortage of fingers being pointed, and second guessing. People are getting quite imaginative.

Me, I don't analyze it too much. I can't blame the make-up the team since so many of these guys were on the winning World Cup team in '04.

These teams of thrown-together Canadian all-stars always seem to start out slow. Fortunately for us, they often come together just in time. (They like to give us a heart attack but then a thrilling recovery.)

This time, it just didn't gel in time and, when you have single game elimination playoffs, this is going to happen. Full marks to the Russians who have a lot of skill and were clearly the better team.

[bigboydan]

Don Cherry said earlier today on the radio, that gretzky is the reason to blame for this years loss.

[shady610]

The irony in this is, i was mocking how canadians would be taking this. I just kept thinkg about how its not that big of a deal. Then i thought about a conversation my friend and I had about how we were sick to out stomach that USA besketball didnt bring home the gold.

[bigboydan]

shady, thats a good comparison, but heres one i feel would be a little more accurate IMO

hockey in canada is like the NFL is in the USA. so, just imagine if football was an olympic sport and the U.S. lost. now that would be the same thing those canadians are going thru right now with that.

[Mudcat]

Hockey is not just a game up here. It's a semi-religion. It's a primary cultural identifier.

And it's international. And it's changing. Not so long ago, 90% of NHL players were Canadian and no country would have dreamed of challenging a team made up of all the best Canadians. But the world has caught up.

And it causes us some national angst, believe me.

But it gives us huge thrills too and we can still take on the world. I remember the spontaneous celebration on the street under my balcony when we won gold in Salt Lake City.

It's a living thing. The roots are deep.