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Blues in the Olympics

Posted: Mon Jul 22, 2013 1:55 pm
by AlsWoodenStick
According to JR, a number of Blues are on the preliminary rosters for the 2014 Olympic games in Sochi:

USA: Backes, Oshie, Shattenkirk

Canada: Pietrangelo, Bouwmeester, Hitchcock

Russia: Tarasenko

Sweden: Berglund, Steen

Finland: Lehtera

That's all that's been announced so far as I can see, although there are still some rosters that have yet to be announced.
Also, a nice article here: http://www.stltoday.com/sports/hockey/p ... af3f6.html

Thoughts?

Re: Blues in the Olympics

Posted: Mon Jul 22, 2013 2:00 pm
by STLADOGG
:cup: ?

Re: Blues in the Olympics

Posted: Mon Jul 22, 2013 2:07 pm
by kodos
Does Steen really count as a Swede?

As much as I would like to see Oshie in, I don't think he cracks the lineup.

Re: Blues in the Olympics

Posted: Mon Jul 22, 2013 4:19 pm
by AlsWoodenStick
kodos wrote:Does Steen really count as a Swede?

As much as I would like to see Oshie in, I don't think he cracks the lineup.
He has dual citizenship, I believe.

Re: Blues in the Olympics

Posted: Tue Jul 23, 2013 6:36 am
by dmiles2186
Berglund, Steen are both announced to Sweden's preliminary roster (officially).

http://www.tsn.ca/olympics/story/?id=428214

'Senko named to Russia's preliminary roster.

http://www.tsn.ca/olympics/story/?id=428183

Re: Blues in the Olympics

Posted: Tue Jul 23, 2013 9:22 am
by glen a richter
Count me among the few, I guess, who doesn't like seeing pros in the Olympics.

Re: Blues in the Olympics

Posted: Tue Jul 23, 2013 6:45 pm
by philco_3
glen a richter wrote:Count me among the few, I guess, who doesn't like seeing pros in the Olympics.
I right along with you on this.

"Oh its ok, I'll wait 2-3 weeks to watch my team play..."

Re: Blues in the Olympics

Posted: Tue Jul 23, 2013 7:48 pm
by glen a richter
philco_3 wrote:
glen a richter wrote:Count me among the few, I guess, who doesn't like seeing pros in the Olympics.
I right along with you on this.

"Oh its ok, I'll wait 2-3 weeks to watch my team play..."
I'd be especially pissed if someone gets hurt. Imagine going into the Olympics with the boys tearing it up in the standings, absolutely running away with the league and Shatty takes a stick to the eye or Tarasenko takes a wicked check and suffers another concussion?

Re: Blues in the Olympics

Posted: Wed Jul 24, 2013 6:36 am
by dmiles2186
glen a richter wrote:
philco_3 wrote:
glen a richter wrote:Count me among the few, I guess, who doesn't like seeing pros in the Olympics.
I right along with you on this.

"Oh its ok, I'll wait 2-3 weeks to watch my team play..."
I'd be especially pissed if someone gets hurt. Imagine going into the Olympics with the boys tearing it up in the standings, absolutely running away with the league and Shatty takes a stick to the eye or Tarasenko takes a wicked check and suffers another concussion?
The flip side of that argument: imagine if they were playing NHL games during the Olympics and those same things happened. That stuff is always a possibility when you lace 'em up.

Re: Blues in the Olympics

Posted: Wed Jul 24, 2013 8:22 am
by glen a richter
Let's not forget that the true intent of the Olympics is a forum for the worlds best amateurs to compete against each other. And I'm sure this will be met with the same old argument that the Soviets were sending career athletes so why should we sent amateurs? Remember, it was our amateurs that beat them in 1980.

Re: Blues in the Olympics

Posted: Wed Jul 24, 2013 8:23 am
by abc789987
I think it's a good thing for the NHL. Who knows how many more fans the NHL got after the exciting olympics last time? You can bitch and complain that you don't want these "fans" watching my sport blah blah blah... It's good for the game. It's fun. It's exciting. And it's only a few weeks every 4 damn years. Get over it.

And now. USA! USA! USA!

Re: Blues in the Olympics

Posted: Wed Jul 24, 2013 9:30 am
by dmiles2186
abc789987 wrote:I think it's a good thing for the NHL. Who knows how many more fans the NHL got after the exciting olympics last time? You can bitch and complain that you don't want these "fans" watching my sport blah blah blah... It's good for the game. It's fun. It's exciting. And it's only a few weeks every 4 damn years. Get over it.

And now. USA! USA! USA!
Agreed. And let's think of it from a player's perspective too. How awesome is it that you get to honor your country? Some of these guys don't grow into their games until they are older (See: Backes, David). If that's the case, they would have never been able to represent their country in the Olympics. Let's not forget that it was the players fighting against the NHL for their right to play in Socchi. Ovie even said he'd play regardless of whether the NHL allowed it or not.

Re: Blues in the Olympics

Posted: Wed Jul 24, 2013 10:18 am
by glen a richter
I could give a rats ass about the new fans. The more the merrier, who cares if they're clueless rubes who need someone to explain every little detail of the game the first ten times they attend? They'll get the hang of it eventually, and the NHL and it's older fans (us) are in no position to complain about any new fans that come on board considering the severe lack of popularity the league has. I do take issue with pros playing in the Olympics. It was never the spirit of the games, and even if we only did it as a response to the Soviets having career athletes who spent their entire lives being trained solely for the games, that doesn't change the fact that it's supposed to be an exhibition of amateurs. I won't watch any Olympic event which pits paid professionals against other paid professionals, and especially one that pits paid professionals against horribly over-matched amateurs from smaller countries that know from day one they have no chance of medaling. The whole point of the Olympics is 16 days of friendly competition among athletically talented people from around the world who otherwise wouldn't get a chance to shine in a global spotlight, nation against nation, put down your arms and sing kumbahya around the flame. Hence why I won't watch the hockey but I will watch the skiing, the speed skating, bobsled, luge and curling.

Besides which, the summer games kick the winter games ass every time. On the overall, I find the summer Olympics much more entertaining.

Re: Blues in the Olympics

Posted: Wed Jul 24, 2013 6:00 pm
by ViPeRx007
Count me amongst the "it's once every 4 years, big deal" crowd. I personally love Olympic hockey and just the Olympics in general so I consider it kind of a bonus that I won't miss any NHL games during that time.

Re: Blues in the Olympics

Posted: Thu Jul 25, 2013 2:03 am
by Oaklandblue
The big winners in this is the IOC. I'm sure the reason for allowing pros to compete in the olympics was not to foster the spirit of the game as much as it was to draw crowds, raise viewership on TV and make money that I'm sure the IOC committee gets a nice healthy fat raise off of.

Pros should not compete in it, period, end of story. Why? Consider this:

You own the St. Louis Blues and say you just signed Sobotka for a 2 year 10m contract and he's scoring like a madman, say for the sake of the argument, 30 goals, 20 assists. He's on his way to matching the mark when he steps away for the Olympics, gets injured and is out for the season or the injury alters his game. That 10m investment you made into one guy just got sank not because he was competing in your league but in an outside league that has NO bearing on making the playoffs. Yes, you take a chance to get injured when you lace up skates, no matter if you're competing for a Cup, a Gold Medal or playing pond hockey with your kids. This is true. But if you own a major league team and you invest into it's success and it's chances to win a cup and you're paying this Sobotka guy, would you want him playing and risking injury in an outside league/tournament/etc?

And before anyone brings it up, the purpose of the World Championships and the pre-season games is to scout talent and gauge the players you have in actual games to determine who makes the cut to the team/gets interest in terms of trading/drafting and other constructive things that work towards assembling a team to compete towards the goal of winning the Stanley Cup.

The Olympics USED TO BE a gauge for this as well, but now with Pros competing, what's the point beyond it being a big commercial for the NHL, MLB, NBA, etc that does little more than sells shoes, clothes and other nonsense?

Re: Blues in the Olympics

Posted: Thu Jul 25, 2013 6:01 am
by gaijin
ViPeRx007 wrote:Count me amongst the "it's once every 4 years, big deal" crowd. I personally love Olympic hockey and just the Olympics in general so I consider it kind of a bonus that I won't miss any NHL games during that time.
I'm with Viper here- I don't really care if they compete or not. As for injury potential, I think the players are probably less likely to get injured in Olympic play than standard NHL play (as long as you're not on the ice against David Backes), although I do see the validity of not wanting one of your assets risking their health playing for another entity. But who knows- it may help some guys find their scoring touch.

Re: Blues in the Olympics

Posted: Thu Jul 25, 2013 10:15 pm
by cprice12
glen a richter wrote:Let's not forget that the true intent of the Olympics is a forum for the worlds best amateurs to compete against each other. And I'm sure this will be met with the same old argument that the Soviets were sending career athletes so why should we sent amateurs? Remember, it was our amateurs that beat them in 1980.
Personally, I'd rather they still have the World Cup of Hockey during the offseason.
Taking a break in the NHL season for the Olympics...meh. It's fun to watch and all, but I'd rather guys not get hurt or getting worn out playing games that mean nothing for their respective NHL teams.
I'd so much rather the Blues win a cup than the USA win a gold medal...and playing in Olympic games while the season is on hold just makes me nervous.

Re: Blues in the Olympics

Posted: Tue Jul 30, 2013 5:25 am
by philco_3
Is Polak not playing for Czech Republic?

Re: Blues in the Olympics

Posted: Tue Jul 30, 2013 8:27 am
by STLADOGG
philco_3 wrote:Is Polak not playing for Czech Republic?
Yeah he is I believe.
http://www.nhl.com/ice/news.htm?id=678233

Re: Blues in the Olympics

Posted: Tue Jul 30, 2013 8:49 am
by WaukeeBlues
philco_3 wrote:
glen a richter wrote:Count me among the few, I guess, who doesn't like seeing pros in the Olympics.
I right along with you on this.

"Oh its ok, I'll wait 2-3 weeks to watch my team play..."
I used to believe that, but the gold medal game USA v. Canada 4 years ago was quite possibly the greatest hockey game I've ever seen.

They beat the ever loving sh*t out of each other like it was the Stanley Cup. I absolutely loved it. Amazing.