Canuck Women's Hockey: A HUGE chance for women to get a piece of the dominant culture.

[Captain Hilts]

Really. Hockey is THAT important to Canada. And, along with Mounties, is a symbol of the country that for too long excluded women.

This is why it's good they won.

This is another reason:

[Gman]

1. It's great they won

Gender doesn't matter. What they did was in very poor taste. Go do that in a hotel room, or somewhere else in private. They're athletes, ferchrissake!

[Captain Hilts]

2. I'd agree with you if they weren't on their home country's ice. I see your point. nt

[Gman]

12. I think being on their home country's ice makes it that much worse

they embarrassed the entire country of Canada.

[Rebubula]

15. They only...

...embarrassed some people.

I highly doubt the entire country is in shame.


I found it funny and well deserved. No one got hurt....there was no taunting and it happened well after the game was over.


Lighten up, Francis

[Oregone]

20. Right now, I think Canada is far more embarrassed about pressuring the shit out of their athletes...

until a ton of them choked.

This just lets everyone relax, take a deep breathe, and remember that these athletes are real people too who just want to succeed and enjoy life (which may be contradictory to their own the podium propaganda thats started a backlash). Coming into the second week of the games, the narrative on the games in Canada has seemed to have shifted into a much more positive environment for the athletes (and the wins don't hurt). I don't think there is too much shame to go around at all. Relax, and take it easy.

On edit...let's give these girls a round of applause!

[Captain Hilts]

22. This is IT for them. No Stanley Cup. No Super Bowl ring. It ends here. nt

[Missy Vixen]

24. They embarrassed the entire country of Canada?

I have a current passport, and I'm 137 miles from Vancouver, BC.

If those ladies need someone to make a beer run for them, I'd be happy to do it.

They're not hurting anyone. They had a beer (and some had cigars,) celebrating an achievement only a few people ever will in their lives.

Embarrassment? Hey, I can think of exponentially more embarrassing behavior that should be apologized for. How about invading a nation that never attacked us in the first place, for instance?

:eyes:

[Captain Hilts]

30. The arena was empty! They didn't want to take off those uniforms. That's 'it' for hockey for many

of them.

Good on them.

[polly7]

31. This team is made up of players that play all season at university,

and in other leagues. Although this Gold is 'it' in terms of the ultimate victory and what they've practiced together for, for months, they'll go back to playing on their own teams until hockey season is over.

[Captain Hilts]

32. Mostly in the US!

[polly7]

33. I have no idea how many of them attend which Universities.

http://www.olympic.ca/en/news/olympic-womens-hockey-roster-takes-shape/

Where are you getting your info? Not that it matters where they go to school, but I thought most of them attended up here.

[Captain Hilts]

34. Very few - if any - Canadian colleges offer athletic scholarships. The women playing at

University of Toronto are non-scholarship or are graduate students who've already played out their scholarships in the US.

[polly7]

35. Dunno about that, but

here is where they played last season:

http://www.hockeycanada.ca/index.php/ci_id/69249/la_id/1.htm

My niece plays with the U of R, but not on a scholarship.

[Captain Hilts]

36. I attend U of T and had a player as a suitemate in the graduate dorm.

The talk then was about how UBC offers scholarships, at least in football.

[polly7]

41. That's great, but it doesn't tell me where "most" of them are in

University in the U.S.

They definitely weren't last season, as per the link I provided.

[Fading Captain]

38. I'm Canadian. I'm not embarrased. I'm more sick of the judgment police like you than anything else

EOM

[polly7]

5. They'd already been to their dressing room and waited until

the fans had left the arena before going back to celebrate on the ice. No-one but the AP reporters apparently saw them, so they really didn't corrupt anyone. Good for you, ladies ............. hope they had a blast.

[Gman]

10. The entire civilized world with any kind of Olympics news coverage

knows about this now. It was stupid, highly immature and an embarrassment to their home country as well as to their own families. They tarnished their own fantastic victory through immaturity.

[polly7]

17. Wow.

I don't think Canadians are embarrassed at all. Probably most of us just wishing we could have been there too.

It looked fun!


I'm sure there are other things to complain about ........... like a couple of the U.S. men already professing their 'hate' and dislike for the Canadian team. Is partying in an empty arena after a gold medal win worse than telling reporters you hate your opponent? Who did these ladies hurt? Certainly not Canada or their families.

[Oregone]

19. You know, people were crowding around TVs in public watching them and supporting them as a community

By the time those girls popped the cork, Canada was probably already half drunk celebrating along (I know I was). I don't think too many are embarrassed besides the occasional expected snooty G&M columnist.

[polly7]

21. What's your opinion on NHL Stanley Cup winners dousing each

other with Champagne and beer, half-naked, and being interviewed for millions of children to see?

[gcomeau]

25. You are just completely ridiculous.

Oh no! It's women smoking and drinking!

Are they going on a drunken rampage through the rink? Smashing things? Stripping naked and doing lewd things with their shiny new gold medals? No they are not. They had a perfectly normal team celebration you would see from any upper-tier sports team after a high profile championship win, and it didn't even spill out of the dressing room until all the spectators had left.

If some AP reporters stuck around snapping pictures and decided it was a big deal and they had to post them whatever. Nobody sane in Canada has any issue whatsoever with these girl's conduct.

[Fading Captain]

39. get over yourself. Nobody cares except chronic complainers.

EOM

[Oregone]

18. "What they did was in very poor taste"

They probably sweated blood for four years and had plenty of puking sessions at practice to make that happen. Congrats to them for letting loose when all their hard work came to fruition.

[polly7]

23. You think that was bad ............ you should have heard what these ladies did.

http://huskies.usask.ca/Home_Left/womens_sports/hockey/legacy.php

:beer:

:party:

:silly:

[jakefrep]

29. What they did was absolutely not in poor taste

They busted their asses and won under unbeleivable pressure. They are ENTITLED to celebrate.

You must be one of those constipated old farts from the IOC.

[joeybee12]

3. Actually, their success may bite them on the ass...

...there's such a drop off between the US and Canada and the rest of the world, they're threatening tot ake it out of the Oluympics.

[KittyWampus]

4. I'm not a fan of sports culture as it exists right now. I'm glad women have made progress

but just can't get enthused by what organized, competitive sports has become and the various levels of behavior that is tolerated and/or encouraged.

My Dad was a junior-high football coach. He even had one of his players hit it big time in the NFL. To this day, men stop by looking up my Dad to tell him how much they appreciated him and what he demanded of them.

He finally quit coaching when the pressure to send the boys off to summer camp got too great and the standards coming from school administrators too small.

Sportsmanship is a meaningless term now. Sports are just another way to industrialize human beings.

[polly7]

6. I've played ladies hockey for over 20 years.

It's always been available here, it's just that we always had to play Midget boys teams or enter tournaments to get any real games. We were always given all the ice-time we asked for though, it was no-one actually excluding us, just that there weren't enough girls and women interested. I was so glad to see the women's league developing and take off.

[Canuckistanian]

7. Women have won 3/4 of our medals

It was the same ratio during the last winter Olympics as well.

I don't know it that's significant in some way or just random chance.

[Captain Hilts]

8. Interesting! nt

[tritsofme]

9. I think women's hockey is great, as long as they play by the same rules.

In a tangent unrelated to the Olympics, here is an old grip of mine about youth hockey...

When my sons played hockey there would occasionally be a girl on the team, and to even get a spot on a team at the level they were playing meant she would have been a very competitive player. The rules did not see girls any differently than boys on mixed teams. We had no problem with this.

However you would sometimes run into "all girls" teams that played in the same league, and whenever a boys team was to play an all girls team there was no checking. It was a huge change to how the game was played, and IMO incredibly unfair. My thinking was always if you can't play by the same rules as the boys, then play amongst yourselves. Now I'm not trying to blame the girls for USA Hockey policy, but it has always been a pet peeve of mine.

[Captain Hilts]

13. I actually prefer the women's rules to the men's. It prevents a lot of the grabbing, etc.

that can slow down the game.

I take this beef to 'soft'ball. It's actually 'slow'ball and the fact that:

1) Women are marginalized playing softball - a game less suited to them because the size of the ball - when the world prefers the faster game of baseball.
2) Women who play 'softball' in the NCAA do not wear hats. They stand out there in the outfield bare-headed.

It's like women being forced to play half court: bounce twice and pass to avoid running. Women could handle a baseball much more easily than a softball. Softball is a recreational game, not really a competitive sport.

[polly7]

37. Uhhhhhhh ............ no.

It's not slowball. I would doubt many men could hit off one of the pitchers we had in Provincials. Her windmill was amazing. And ........ we all wore hats. Softball is a very competitive sport. The Olympics officials seem to just prefer women don't shine too much. Imo.

[polly7]

16. We always checked playing with the boys.

The ladies teams did too, until a few years ago. But when you get to Midget, and even Bantam level the size and strength advantage could have really hurt someone bad in a girls vs. boys team. Hockey is faster and takes more skill without the checking anyway.

[BigErnMcCracken]

11. Not really

Meh, there are only two women's hockey teams in the world that can play at that level. Quite frankly had the Canadians lost it would have been an epic upset. I am not positive that this is somehow going to open the floodgates to equality in Canada or the world at large. They were expected to win - and I'm sure that the eggheads up there that consider women's hockey to be a step down in terms of quality of play will pat them on the head and say "great job girls"....and go back to being eggheads. No different than had the American women won it - do you think it would have made major cultural change here? They upset the Canadians in 1998 at Nagano and I don't recall it kicking down the door now that we're ten years down the road. but you're a Capitals fan - so I forgive you. You're too accustomed to a beat down in the playoffs every couple of years from the Penguins to truly see it all clearly.....haha.

[Captain Hilts]

14. I lived in Toronto for several years and still go back for chunks of time and hockey is EVERYTHING

there. It really is.

It's nice they get a part of that.

I'm not sure it's going to last as an Olympic sport until other countries cowboy up and have more competitive teams. It's amazing Sweden, for example, doesn't put a better team on the ice.

[polly7]

26. Sweden and Finland, Russia, Switzerland .. have had good teams for years.

http://www.whockey.com/country/

An older list of countries already with womens' hockey.

It won't take long for the rest of the world to catch up, as long as they're given the chance. If womens hockey is dropped, it will be a real shame ...... because there is no reason for it.

[Captain Hilts]

27. They had a hard time staying on the ice with Canada and the US. nt

[polly7]

28. They've beaten us in the past. Everyone has a bad tournament. nt.

[KamaAina]

40. I was just thinking "a boat" that, eh?

Since even the USA has a male coach -- named Mark, like me! -- I was thinking, "Where's a good hockey country that also has lots of feminists?" Sweden was the first that came to mind. But they're already pretty good, sort of... besides, I haven't even skated since I was 4...