i mean, you guys did play canada so let’s get serious
^ US Canada 2014 semis in Sochi was a pretty darn good game. US played 2 poor games, nothing wrong with losing its how bad they looked.
Team USA’s embarrassing performance aside, how seriously can you really take a tournament that has “the rest of Europe” and “North Americans under 23” as teams? If you can’t field enough legitimate national teams to have a tournament, you really shouldn’t have a tournament.
The US is the fastest growing nation in hockey. 20 years ago, 75% of NHL players were Canadian. It’s 49% today. The US has surged to 24%.
Their 1996 World Cup victory created a new generation of young athletes willing to get into hockey (mostly upper class white boys from the east coast…I guess tennis was the biggest loser because the US isn’t producing any more champions). Despite the new flock of talent entering the league, I am surprised that the US has not won a major hockey tournament since 1996.
There have been 12 “best on best” hockey tournaments in modern time. 5 Canada Cups (predecessor of the World Cup), 2 World Cups and 5 Olympics. Canada has won 8. The US, USSR, Sweden and Czech Republic have 1 each.
canada has the most outliers as basically every canadian is raised on the sport and there is basically no alternative sport to pull away top athletic talent. no kid says i’m going to quit hockey to play football or soccer in canada. you might get the odd kid who goes with baseball because they’re better at baseball techically but these are unlikely to be your far superior, crosby and stamkos like athletes.
you guys need a gordie howe to come around. the thing with hockey is its generational as well as players can be really good for really long. it’ll be hard to dethrone crosby, stamkos, toews, tavares, giroux and marchand with current US, European and Russian rosters. maybe in a decade or so if and when canadian talent subsides. in the late 90s and early 2000s when gretzky and lemieux were fading there was plenty of opportunity for other teams to dominate but you guys have a good 10 years before our current crop, which in my mind is probably the best ever, disappears.
^^ Why does “modern time” only extend back to the 1998 Olympics?
Because the NHL started sending their players in 1998. Before then it was amateur hockey players (mostly University players).
I predict the NHL is pulling out of the 2018 Olympics. That’s why the World Cup was revived.
Why does anybody watch Olympic hockey or basketball anyway? The NHL or NBA product is better.
Admittedly, I do enjoy Olympic soccer. The on-field play seems the same as the World Cup. There’s just a lot less hype.
This is by far your best post. You should stick to hockey.
The darkest period in Canadian hockey was indeed the late 90s early 00s. There was an actual national commission that was created to find solutions. Then Canada won 5 straight junior championships (that tournament is a leading indicator for success in the pros) and all was well again. Many state the 2014 Canadian Olympic team the best hockey team ever put on ice (went 6-0 and outscored opponents 17-3). Almost half the guys on that team were on the 2005 junior national team that went 6-0 and outscored opponents 41-7.
To me the 1987 Canada Cup roster was the best. It was the only time Gretzky and Lemieux played together (aside of one exhibition All-Star game in the late '90s). Gretzky was in his prime at 26 and Mario Lemieux at 21 brought his game to an elite level. They played on the same line and it was magical.
She’s not even hot. NEXT!!
1987 wasn’t bad in retrospect considering you had all-time top nhl scorers # 1, 2, 8, 11, 13, 18 and 19 all on the same team. it was likely one of the fastest teams in history with anderson and gartner in addition to all the greats. at the very least, the 1987 canadian team was on another planet compared to other 1987 teams. hard to say definitively now whether today’s crop is better with any hard data. different type of hockey today as well so tough to compare. imo, crosby would destroy gretzky head-to-head in their primes. crosby is unreal to see live. toews, tavares and doughty would give some of the bigger canadian greats a run for their money.