I just had the pleasure of watching the Swedes lose to the European monstrosity that everybody laughed off as a joke since the start of this tournament. I just witnessed a team play a strong and competitive team game against a clearly better opponent and show the type of exciting underdog story we always "love to see." Yet the first thing I hear on the television from people paid to watch the bloody game is "Well, Europe definitely benefited from a lack of enthusiasm from teams playing them." Go on TSN and see this, it's still up. Dave Poulin gives his unique take on things.
There is no insinuation. There is no "maybe that's the reason." A person PAID to watch and comment on hockey has the temerity to claim that Team Europe's strongest ability...is that they are so unenthusiastic that...well the other teams are too and that these other teams can't muster one bloody shit of pride to play against them. What the F. This is the dumbest comment I have ever heard in all of my life following hockey. Let's look at this in a little depth.
The insinuation is that the tournament is a farce...unless you're anybody but Europe.
REAL TEAMS play hard against their opponents, they have pride...but this Europe Squad...they have no shits to give! They don't even care! So why would opponents care when playing them?!
What? If "real teams" are so "competitive" then why the hell are they not trying to crush Team Europe? The "fake team." How then can you just say that the only reason Europe can compete are teams not trying against them? It's insanity. Especially when the premise is that Team Europe DOESN'T CARE so much that they shed that "DOESN'T CARE CANCER" onto their opponents to swiftly kill them before they realize that Team Europe has out uncared them.
This whole narrative came around Team North America "caring harder." As if that's a real thing. These are professional athletes, their entire lives revolve around this game, yet they think one team of them simply "cares" more? Does Canada "care" more because they are the most dominant? We can never answer that question because it is irrelevant and quite frankly stupid. Also hurting this narrative is that the Team Europe vs Sweden game was excellent. It wasn't a boring game like the USA vs Czech Republic where both sides knew they were out and already under heavy scrutiny.
The idea that this is an emotionless game is a moronic idea and statement. TSN should be ashamed they put such a sack of poorly constructed notions on TV. The only solace I can find in this is that this pundit (Dave Poulin) isn't running any hockey operations and that TSN is a private company.
But what can you expect from the guy who was instrumental in one of the worst periods of operational history for the Maple Leafs? EMOTIONS!