I wish more people (esp non-Canadians/Americans) acknowledged the abuse and misfortune Canada has endured on both the womens and mens side of hockey.
Yes, the misogyny must be discussed first and foremost, and canadian hockey players in general are not exempt from this, but this misogyny is deeply rooted in us fascism and nationalism as well, which has deeply affected our country.
On both sides, Czech players injured both our captains and kept them out of the tournament, except Marie Philip-Poulin was able to return for the womens gold game despite being in pain.
One of our star players on the men's side, Nathan Mackinnon, played through injury following a nasty hit by a French player. He looked genuinely sick on the bench.
Multiple players have been kept off our inital roster bc of unfortunate injuries in previous nhl games.
Following the women's final, Marie-Philip Poulin was blocked from speaking her minority native language, one of Canada's two official languages, because no interpreter was available from the IOC.
During the mens quarterfinal against Czechia, referees missed an obvious too many men call against the Czechs when they scored late against Canada. If the players weren't able to rally back, we would have lost because of a blatant missed call.
In the final against the US, a too many men mistake on the US side, which was seen by all the players, was not called. The refs said that it was because the puck only went off the extra player, but it was obvious that he played the puck as well. If we had gotten that power play, the final might have ended very differently.
And finally, the US response. Of course, no bigoted american gave a damn about the US women winning in ot fair and square aside from Fox calling us "loser canadians". But they're using the mens win to hurl online abuse at us, such as "hockey was all they had, and we took it from them" coming from a fox reporter and additional 51st state comments. Despite all the reasons why Canada might not have gotten the best result, as I listed above, the Americans are still so certain that they are this much better than Canada.
The US players have been doing this for a long time. The same thing happened last year during 4 nations, when we would go on to beat them. However, that has not stopped the captain of Canada's capital's nhl team, brady tkachuk, who is friends with tr*mp, to act nastily. He said "There is hatred towards Canada" in the US men's locker room. He made a commercial with Jon Hamm about wanting "Canadian tears". During the phone call with tr*mp after the came, it was alledgedly him that shouted "close the northern border". His brother and teammate Matthew Tkachuk said "Hockey is ours now" despite only winning twice in almost 50 years. Canada has won all gold during those years but once or twice. Several american captains of Canadian teams are shaking hands with the man who threatens to annex us.
Historically, the NHL (an organization founded in Montréal, and the sport was invented by Indigenous peoples) (whose current commissioner is American anyway) has been expanding a lot in the US, where all the money is, and countless of our canadian players and winning opportunities move to US team, and no Canadian team has won a Stanley cup in decades. Of course, bigots online use this against us as well.
I am extremely critical of my country, but this has gotten to a point where I have to defend it and call out this situation for what it is: an ONGOING HISTORY of active and corrupt suppression, exploitation, and abuse. And still, we are certainly not the only country/group that the IOC has disrespected throughout the games, and we have endured nowhere the level of prejudice that they have.
2087
kianamaiart
prguitarman
gummygunk
