Easily.
Do you know why it's predominately young people who volunteer to fight in wars? Because they don't know any better and they buy into national pride and patriotism and all that surface honour and prestige that comes with wearing their country's colours in battle. They haven't yet begun their own families and they haven't gone through any further formal education than the indoctrination that we receive in high school. They don't care why they are fighting and they think they are invisible and that's why they put themselves in harm's way.
To a lesser degree, that's why the World Juniors are so entertaining. Players routinely throw themselves violently at each other, without a smidgen of concern about what kind of damage that contact will do to their bodies. You don't see anywhere close to as many great hits in the NHL as you do at the World Juniors. It is young people representing their country.
It's end-to-end action. It's adrenaline. It's sacrifice. It's exuberance. It's talent and speed and grit minus the strategy and scheme that bogs down professional hockey. In the end, it's usually heart that wins it.
This year, we lost, after winning gold the previous five.
To tell you the truth though, I don't think we deserved it. The Americans were by the far the speedier, more dangerous team. The USA is producing a new breed of hockey player, in the Patrick Kane/Ryan Kesler mode. They are fast, tenacious, two-way, strong on the puck and skilled. I'm a little worried.
The Canadians aren't doing anything wrong, I don't think. We continue to pump out the greatest players in the world. Big, smart, hard-shooting kids.
Yet, this year, we didn't want it as much. Nothing against Eberle, Ellis, Kadri and the handful of gritty Canadians who came up clutch and gave it all they had, but as a squad, I felt the Americans were a little more desperate.
(Note: Mark my words Cormier (terrible choice for captain) and Pieterangelo won't do much in the NHL. Cormier made some awful decisions and Pieterangelo dogged it a couple times and I feel he just doesn't get it.)
I shouldn't say anything though. Tonight is the reason we watch sports. That was a GAME. It was unbelievable. If you read this blog, you will know how much I detest the word unbelievable, because it's so overused. But truly, I could not believe Canada came back from that 5-3 deficit, with just 3:30 to go. Eberle -- the Messiah, as he is known in Regina -- was a puck magnet and is some kind of special hockey player.
I should have believed though. They'd done it before. Shit, it was less than a week ago. But after two brain farts, and a quick two 5-3 deficit in the third, I was a little down. It was then that I texted Mindy, writing about my despair with Pieterangelo.
Mindy responded with two texts:
"Fuck Allen." (Canadian goaltender who looked shaky at best.)
Followed by:
"K watch Eberle."
And watch we did. The bar I was at, on St. Catherine in Montreal, was thoroughly in the grips of the Habs-Capitals game. I only went there because my roommate and his buddy were watching the Habs game at home and I couldn't convince them to watch the Canada/USA game.
When Canada scored in the first period, I would say about 50 per cent of the crowded bar cheered. When the Habs scored, it was like 75 per cent. I attributed the 50 per cent to the amount of Quebecers who wish to stay in Canada.
Now not to sound too judgmental, but since I've been in Montreal, I haven't heard nearly the amount criticism, debate or analysis of Canada's Olympic team as I would have anywhere else in the country. The World Juniors haven't received too, too much fanfare and reading message boards on hockey sites, I realized a great number of Quebec residents did not relate or care about Team Canada.
So I found it interesting as the Habs game ended -- in a loss -- and the Canada game took centre stage, the patrons of the bar started to follow the game and gasp or cheer with any scoring chance, penalty, save or goal.
A couple tambourines were going. We got down immediately in the third and the life went out of the place, but when Eberle scored his first -- the fourth -- the place went WILD!
Ole! Ole Ole Ole! Ole! Ole!
The bar was transformed, and regardless of ideology, we were all behind the Canadians.
My hands hurt from clapping and smacking the bar. I was seated next to an old man in Bubbles glasses, which made his eyeballs the size of potato chips through the thick lenses, who had steadily put back pitcher after pitcher in the few hours I sat beside him while watching the game. And I put back my few too, you best believe.
Stan -- short for Stanislav, I learned after the game -- the guy who I had yelled things like "Incroyable" and "Comment?" at during my fanatical ravings and he had just responded with a shake of the head or a raised hand, was finally getting into it. And when Eberle scored the equalizer, the place went off. I jumped off my seat. I wasn't the only one. I yelled. I wasn't the only one. There were hugs. Screams. Chants.
The power of sport.
Anyways, you know the story. We lost.
But after winning five golds in a row, I honestly think this is good for the World Juniors and Team Canada. We can't win every year. And really, 16-0 games like the one against Latvia aren't worth playing. I was actually cheering for Latvia in that game and, honestly, I was kind of hoping the Americans got up early against the Canadians tonight because I really believed the Canadians were going to blow them out.
It's a good thing we've got this rival in the Americans, who Mindy says have been cleaning up at the Under-18s the past couple years.
Nothing wrong with that.
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