Letdown

Melissa Hollingsworth gave it her all for Canada and ended up fifth. Cindy Klassen gave it her all and wasn't close to the podium. But the two of them showed more Olympic spirit than the entire Canadian hockey team. Melissa's post-event interview was heart-wrenching as it was painfully obvious how much she tried in her event. Yes, she slipped and lost what was a fairly certain podium finish. But she tried her best. Cindy Klassen had fire in her eyes as she attempted to get on the podium one last time. To that I stand and applaud. To our medalists, a job well done. Jon Montgomery, Kristina Groves, Alex Bilodeau.... thank you.

And now let's talk about hockey. First off, I am not blaming Brodeur. He may have had a bad game, but hockey is a team game. Hockey is supposed to be Canada's game. But if those players can look into my eyes and say that they gave it their best against Switzerland and the United States then I can applaud them. But this is what Canada's greatest athletes have to offer? Money doesn't buy championships, heart does. The New York Rangers for years had a bunch of overpaid "superstar" players and yet they never made the playoffs. Am I supposed to feel confident about the team now? There are two scenarios that come to mind:

1) The hockey team did give 100% against the Swiss and the Americans. If that is the case then perhaps we should rethink if hockey is still our game, because the Swiss are catching up.

2) Canada strategically took it easy in the preliminaries in order to play it safe until the playoffs. Somebody remind me how this strategy worked 4 years ago? Gentlemen, if you are not going to give it your all every game, then please give your spot to players that will give it their all. I would rather see someone give it 100% and end up fifth. Maybe Gary Bettman (who I detest with a passion) is right about allowing NHLer's to play in the Olympics.