Serapth

See, instead of construing, I would use my actual comments from this thread: I don't think he is a terrible coach, but he did a terrible job as coach of Team Canada and I don't want him back.

If you would be so kinda as to confine your comments to reality, I would greatly appreciate it. The level of hyperbole and mis-attribution on this forum is disgusting. I never once called Babcock a horrible coach, read every comment I ever wrote in this thread, you will notice my comments actually are mired in reality. What I have said, and continue to say, is the Babcock did a pretty terrible job this series. I will firmly say Canada won this series in spite of Babcock. But hey, continue to believe what you want to believe it was I was saying and feel free to completely ignore the actual argument I, and others, have made.

I listen to a fair bit of anti-Canada BS on this board, and a fair bit of Canadian swagger. But after this comment, all I can say is. f*** YOU. You are a ******. I wont bother commenting towards the idiocy of your comments, including the ignorance behind the 50/50 comment. You are willing to spew out hateful and wrong comments like the above, and that is all I need to know about you. You are either ignorant, or a ******, or an ignorant ******. None of which is a trait I am willing to tolerate. If you don't realize the degree to which you just insulted my country and by proxy me, it just adds to your detriments.

Sweeping generalisms seem to be the order of business in these parts.

Ug, really.... They started playing the bloody trap. It was a coaching decision. Superstar or not, they don't have free will to play however they want out there. But, whatever, if you guys want to completely ignore what happened and absolve the person most likely to be at fault, I suppose you are comfortable enough with your head in the sand.

That is a different conversation... I mean, I don't think you will find someone that doesnt think there was too much coverage of Crosby ( and Ovechkin ). But, you can't blame a player for that.

We watched the game without fanboy blinders on?

Really... I mean, really? Are you going to be "that guy"? Sure seems like it. Oh, by the way... nobody likes "that guy".

I wouldn't be surprised that hockey is going down in popularity in Canada, but I doubt immigration has anything to do with it. Hockey is suffering in Canada as a matter of apathy, much the same as in most northern states I would imagine. We, to a man, hate Bettman and what he is doing to the NHL. I honestly have never met another soul in Canada who was even mildly sympathetic towards Bettman and the changes he has made to the NHL. Beyond that, I think the strike pissed a lot of Canadians off, and the fact that it seemingly resolved nothing as really alienated a lot of fans ( again, much of this can be place at the feet of Bettman ). Finally, and given their impact in the market its not suprising, but the death of Leafs nation sure isn't helping. Frankly, for the first time in about 40 years, Leafs fans are waking up and realizing that they have been getting it up the hoop without lube and are finally not going to games as a result, which while this is a very good thing, given the power of the Leafs, has a very negative impact on Canadian hockey in general. Lastly, the ongoing blocking of Basillie to bring in another team, isnt helping motivate people. A great many Canadians do feel like they are being pushed out of their own sport by a weaselly little f*****, which frankly, isn't far from the truth.

No, he didn't. He took a group of superstars, alienated a handful of them, failed to actually respond when he needed to take a firm hand, then proceeded to almost piss away 3 solid leads. As I said in the earlier post, the fact we did or didn't win gold changes nothing regarding to the coach. Hell, my respect for Wilson hasn't dimmed for Wilson in the slightest because he didn't win gold, why the hell should it increase for Babcock because he did. Simply put, Wilson was the superior coach.

This is an idiotic approach to life... "how dare you be critical when you are successful!" This line of thought leads to mediocrity, something you may be ok with, but I sure as hell am not. It's silly and more than a bit stupid to proclaim that because we won he did a good job, this is akin to pointing at a snowflake and proclaiming global warming doesn't exist. And, frankly, I was critical of Babcock well before " my team won ". Winning does not absolve him of his mistakes, especially when he continued to compound them. The simple fact we ended up winning regardless to his bumbling, changes nothing.

This is true. It is simply too expensive a game... 300$ for skates, 100$ for a stick, 100-200$ for pads, 100-2000$ for membership fees, to say nothing of travel costs. Hell, even a weekend tournament could easily cost a family 400$+ ( gas, meals, hotel, etc... ). Even on the cheap, I doubt you could play hockey ( other than at the youngest ages ) for less than a grand a year, without some kind of support program. As to marketing the NHL, I don't know that nationality it important, just stop playing up unlikable people... I mean really, Ovechkin, Phaneuf and Crosby have been the faces in most NHL commercials, and non of those people are really likable. I can help but think Jarome Iginla should have been the face of the NHL. Well spoken, physical and talented and yes, black. That said, he plays for a small market Canadian team and that doesn't work for Buttman. I think if Jarome ended up in New York or similar, he could have been the face of the New NHL.

Lets just say, I am glad it didn't go to a shootout!

I don't think Lou won games like Miller did, and I don't even think he really played much better than (his) average at best, as his goals against attest. Hell, he didn't even really make any giant momentum changing saves over the course of the tournament and did let in a few soft goals. That said, Luongo was a thousand times better than Brodeur. Brodeur didn't do anything overwhelmingly great either, but he did have two staggeringly stupid plays. Would he have bounced back after that game? Could be, look what happened with Kippy in the Bronze medal game, but I don't think he earned the chance to try again, especially with Luongo and Fleury waiting in the wings.

Oh, and for the record, I still dislike Crosby and I dislike the attention Crosby has received and this game winning goal sure isn't going to make things better. That said, I don't kid myself that he isn't one of the top 10, probably top 5 hockey players in the world. I just thank dog that Miller got MVP and not him, that would have made me puke a bit in my mouth.