Thursday Commentary: Drop The Puck

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We’ve been waiting a long time for this!

Canada begins play in Mens Hockey at the Italy Olympics today when they take on Czechia. The USA gets going not long afterwards, taking on Latvia.

Ya, I’ve enjoyed these Olympics so far. They’ve been on for a week and while I’ve watched casually, so far it’s basically been nothing more than white noise.

There’s only one gold medal I care about, and they begin play today. I’m guessing a lot of you are the same.

On Wednesday I was a guest on Edmonton sports radio and the host was complaining about the fact Canada hasn’t won enough medals.

In truth, I hadn’t noticed. What I had noticed was that Norway was leading the medal count, and of course I’ve been inundated with coverage of Team USA. (They won five medals on Tuesday, the most ever on a single day for America doncha know).

But to complain about the medal count a week in? I hadn’t stopped to think about it.

Now if Team Canada fails to bring back gold from Italy in Mens Hockey, that’ll make this amount of complaining seem like a grain of salt. That, I get.

The time for griping about the rosters is past. So too is the handwringing over line combinations and starting goaltenders.

I had the good fortune to be around Team USA coach Mike Sullivan of the NY Rangers at the NHL Winter Classic last month and he resembled a pipe that was about to burst.

That’s a pittance compared to the pressure Team Canada coach Jon Cooper is under but as usual, the Prince George product just smiled like he knows something nobody else does.

Maybe he does.

That’s today’s Rod Pedersen Commentary.

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