US and Canada out in Mens Hockey at Winter Olympics

So yesterday was the first round (quarterfinals) of the tournament after the round robin play for the last week.  US squeaked into the tourney after losing three in a row with help from Kazakstan of all countries.

Canada had a lack luster performance as well, getting the ire of Wayne Gretzky over the weekend.

So why did these teams do so bad?  Well here's my opinion and it's probably not going to be popular.

Professional players is what doomed these teams...yep the exact opposite of what you were thinking.

These players haven't played together all year...the last time the practice together was probably back in August before the NHL season started.  They are then uplifted from the middle of their season transported between 6-9 timezones over to Italy and expected to perform with horrendous jet lag.  Well that was the excuse the media allowed when US tied Latvia the first day.

My opinion is these athletes are honored to play for their countries but playing isn't really first on their list.  I mean if they get hurt playing in the Olympics they are out a lot of money when the season starts.  It's a high risk for the player and the team that's letting them go over there.

US and Canada probably have the highest number of professional players from the NHL compared to the European's who probably have few on each team.  The difference?  The difference is because the majority of the team is not professionals they probably have the chance to practice together a lot more before the start.

Team USA should not be a hack team of NHL All stars cause that doesn't seem to work very long...look at Men's Basketball two years ago (they embarrassed us).  Team USA should just go back to getting college kids to play for 2010 and create another "Miracle" team that beats the professional teams.  Now that is a team I could really rally behind...these professional teams are just boring to me.

Woman's hockey was more exciting to me this year with the huge upset Sweden delivered to Team USA.

Reading the CNNSI Article about Team USA's failures this quote stuck out at me..."The only player who might have made a difference was Ryan Miller, the Buffalo Sabres goalie who had a broken thumb when Waddell was forced to finalize his roster in late December."  I totally agree, would it help them advance to the next round?  Chances of that are high in my opinion, but to win the gold probably not. At least they could of been more respectable.