After the first cycle of round robin games, two scores stood out among the rest; 18-0 and 12-1. Those were the scores for Canada and U.S. versus their opponents, Slovakia and China, respectively. Those scores are nothing new to the world of women’s hockey, which has seen the United States and Canada essentially become the two powerhouse teams. Yahoo! Sports Jeff Passan believes that because of this, women’s hockey needs to change or leave the Olympics:
Should Women’s Hockey Be Fixed?
↵↵That is women’s hockey: a goal-a-minute beatdown in all but a few matchups. So wide is the chasm between the bourgeoisie and proletariat, the International Olympic Committee should issue an ultimatum to the sport’s powers that be: Figure out how to balance the sport’s competitiveness or risk losing standing as an Olympic competition after the 2018 Games.
↵↵With all due respect to Passan, China and Slovakia are not the third and fourth best teams in these games. In fact, they actually happen to be the worst (seventh and eighth ranked). Also, women’s hockey has made inroads since they started playing in the Olympics in 1998. Sweden was the first team other than Canada and the United States to claim a medal higher than bronze, done in the 2006 Olympics, and they could very well be poised to do it again in these Games. And another Scandinavian country in Finland is making some impressions along the way.
↵When the men start play on Tuesday, expect some blowouts as well, as teams like Norway and Latvia face off against NHL superpower teams. Should the men change, too?
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