Select quotes from Team Canada. Nothing funny, I just thought they were really nice. Love these guys, and will be sad when I'll have to cheer against them when they play the Leafs next year.
Eric Staal: We have a passion for the game in Canada, and we come here for one reason only--to win. This is a tough tournament of nine games and you have to get to know each other quickly. It is a different element, but it is championship hockey, and it's about getting to know different people and playing good hockey.
Jordan Staal: "Every kid's dream in Canada is to win. Every time we put the jersey on, it's an honor to play. We feel we have to play well because we know everyone in Canada is watching. You have to give them credit. They didn't give up. It's amazing at this level to play with him [brother Eric]. Even back in the day we were usually of different teams, so to play a bit with him tonight was special. We came out strong. We got a little nervous when they made the game close, but you see that every game, and we had to deal with it."
Eric Brewer: I think our defense, though, is the most underrated part of the team. The coaches kept the pairings together, and the more we played together the better we got
Matt Lombardi: This is awesome. You can't ask for more than winning a gold medal. You work to get to the finals and have a chance to win and everyone came to play. We put out a great team effort today. The tournament is a bit of a grind, especially for guys coming off long seasons. Guys make sacrifices coming over here. They could just stay home, but every guy who was here wanted to be here. We had a special group. Every guy played their game and chipped in different ways. It was an honor playing with these guys.
Colby Armstrong: It was a really big goal for me, and what a great feeling! I am just glad I could put one in for our team. All tournament I was just chipping it off the boards and it was great to finally get a shot and score. I hope this experience has some carry-over effect for me into the next season. I will try my best to get ready this summer for the start of next season, but I am just going to enjoy this right now. (Yikes, as if the Pens aren't scary enough)
Jonathan Toews: This is unbelievable. I am just happy to be here. When you start, you never look too far ahead to the gold medal, you just take it step by step. I feel I improved every game and just did my part. It was a great team effort. My role is different on this team than on the World Junior team, but it is awesome to win with this team, as well as getting to know these guys over the few weeks we were together.
Mikko Koivu: It is always tough when you are down 3-0. We stil believed when we got two goals in the third, but you need a little luck to come back all the way, and tonight we could not do that. They deserved the win.
I'm giving Quote of the Tournament to Jarkko Ruutu though. The things he said were right on.
Jarkko Ruutu: We played to win this game but tonight Canada was better. Tonight they had their power play working early on and defended the lead really well. We could not get anything going until the last period. Nash had a great effort on the last goal. Russian forwards have the most skill in the world, you can't deny that. But it is not about individual skill, it is all about team effort, and that is what Canada is good at. They have different kinds of players who can play every role, and they have big hearts. Russia is different. They are more individualists. I think that is the biggest difference.
It doesn't take more skill to win something--it is more about the team and being willing to work for your teammates. That is how you win games.
Here's the link for full quotes:
http://live82.ihwc.net/english/article/ ... artId=2692
So und nun noch etwas über uns Canadier und was uns Hockey bedeutet. Ich glaube niemand kann es uns nachempfinden und auch nur ansatzweise verstehen, aber dieser (Antwort)Post eines Members aus unserem Forum beschreibt das ganz gut...
MrU, I think people's general problems with how you've been treating Team Canada in your posts, or the "Team Canada hating' persay, is that to us, or at least to me, you seem to be denying Canadians one of the FEW precious things we are allowed to be proud about, to have pride in OUR country, in BEING Canadian.
Yes, Team Canada fans come off as arrogant because we really do take that "Gold or bust' attitude to the extreme. In 9 WC gold medal games, Canada is a 7-2, but in Bronze medal games we're 1-5? It's as if it's not worth working for if it means we're not going to be #1.
But considering the Canadian identity - which for the most part is answered by a "Canada has an identity?" - hockey is one of the few things we can honestly say that 'we are the best'. Italy, Brazil and France has european football, Australia and India has cricket, the USA has basketball, baseball and just about every other sport available that money can buy for them to try and dominate in in addition to being the richest and most powerful country in the world (arguably). So what's wrong with us having hockey?
Canada suffers from an inferiority complex in just about every major category. We're only allowed 6 NHL teams to America's 24 because our GDP and population is lower than the US, despite the passion. We blow at European football to the point where we must be the only Big 8 nation to be competing against Fiji for 92nd on the FIFA rankings. Our military prowess involves second hand helicopters and machinery that dates back to the 80s.
Feel free to dislike the Canadian attitude in Men's hockey - which is out of character of the Canadian stereotype anyway - but let us be proud. Let us expect the best here because we're almost always second best or third best, in everything else. This is our ONE thing where second is not acceptable.
So let us be able to say 'we're the best' or 'we're #1' because, speaking as a Canadian, those opportunities are so few and far between for us as a nation. It's so infrequent, that people around the world mistake the meaning of 'cultural mosaic' as meaning that there is no such thing as Canadian pride.
This is our identity. This is our pride. And today, we're on top of the world, and we're letting the world know about it.
