The preliminary rounds of the International Ice Hockey Federation World Under 20 Championships are under way and some superb hockey is being played. I highly encourage you to watch some of the games, especially USA and Canada on New Year’s Eve.
Despite all the talented players from around the world, I am drawn to focus on minuscule detail of two games. Sweden beat the Czech Republic 10 – 1 and Canada defeats Latvia 16 – 0. In the wake of all this, the focus is on records being broken and not that of what hockey stands for.
Hockey is a team sport that teaches many things that are not only used on the ice but off the ice as well. Growing up, I remember after every game shaking the hands of the opponent. To this day, I still shake hands with the opponent after the game in my recreational league. Why? Simple; team sportsmanship.
Perhaps I am old school, but you should never defeat a team so badly as Sweden and Canada has done to their opponent. Not only is it disrespectful to the opponent, but disrespectful to the game of hockey itself. It saddens me that any coach would allow their team to do such a thing, and even more saddened, that fans would encourage such things.
Maybe because they are young, maybe because Canada is showing off for their home crowd, maybe Sweden is trying to prove their capability, maybe this or that, either way, I hope both teams are humbled by the end of the tournament.
#1 by Steve Williams on December 28th, 2009
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It is Sweden and Canada (and any team’s) job to score as many goals as possible, not to be “good sports”. What if they stopped at 8, and then Czech or Latvia comes back with 9 goals to win? At what point does one team give up and stop scoring to “respect the game”?
#2 by EB on December 28th, 2009
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16 – 0 and 10 – 1 you know you have it on lock. I would say after 4 you kind of have a clue, especially if you are dominating the play, which both teams were.
I am not saying dump the puck and give up, but instead work on your neutral zone trap or other defensive minded play styles that of which would benefit the team when you play better teams.
As for a comeback of 9 goals, I think that is a far fetched statement, as the statistical probability of such a thing happening is quite slim, or more so put, next to near impossible.
I understand the argument, but sportsmanship is a part of the game. You may mention it is the teams job to score as many goals as possible, but it is also the teams job to be good sports on behalf of who they are playing for.
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#3 by Tony A. on December 29th, 2009
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Always an interesting question- applies to any sport
really. But this is not like NCAA football where a Florida
can schedule a patsy to beat up on. In a tournament such as this, you have to play the game that you are scheduled to play. Tough call…..if you are up 11-0
do you tell your team to go against everything that’s
been instilled in them since childhood? And if you “call off the dogs” doesn’t that disrespect your opponent, who, while undermanned, may be working as hard as they can in the hope of improvement? Hard to say.
Kudos for asking the question though.
Will we see a post of a HWBlogger’s review of Sherlock Holmes?
#4 by EB on December 30th, 2009
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No review of Sherlock Holmes, but worth the see.
In the Canada game, one guy had something like 7 points. There is no need for that, as the coach could be playing his third line more, and as stated before, working on things on the ice such as a trap and other things to better them for their next opponent.
The game was won, start working on other things, not how many goals you can score.
#5 by Tony A. on December 30th, 2009
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Your points are well made, I still think it’s a tough situation to deal with- no real sports fan- any sport-
likes blowouts.