glad & sorry

One minute and 24 seconds into the second period of the Canada vs. Italy women’s hockey game and the Italian defence player just lobbed a marshmellow at the Canadian goalie from the blue line. The commentator called it “another shot on goal for the Italians.” That was a shot?

That shot was not a problem for the goalie and would not have been a problem for a Novice goalie. It’s just sad to have the Canadian commentators pretending that there’s an actual competition going on.

Women’s hockey should not be an Olympic sport until there are more than two teams who have a chance of scoring a goal – let alone winning the bloody thing.

Don’t get me wrong. The US vs. Canada gold medal game in Salt Lake City was a fantastic representation of the sport. The officiating was horrible – due to the fact that male refs were excluded. There we’re very few female referees with enough international experience to take the game, so an American women got the nod by default. She was definitely the extra skater for the Americans and the Canadian women battled against the odds to a real gutsy victory for gold.

The problem is that there are only two countries in the world who can compete at the highest level in women’s hockey. The sport should be left out of the Olympic schedule until they can scratch up a tournament’s worth of competition.