Am I the only one who remembers the sportscasters at NBC making a MASSIVE fuss over the short-track speedskating? OBVIOUSLY the Chinese skater tried to take Ohno out... even though that would have sent both flying, seeing as they were going around a turn and all, so OBVIOUSLY it was the Korean who did... something... 'cause that NEVER happens in short track speed skating but CLEARLY the gold was STOLEN from the US by the AUSTRALIAN judge - Aussie skater, Aussie judge - those guys are WAY too tanned to be honest... what? Ohno was injured and wouldn't have been able to re-skate it anyway, so we'd lose the silver he just won? Oh. Never mind.
Right. And then they proceeded to, essentially, belittle and openly mock the Australian skater during their in-studio interview.
Not to mention, if you're going to discuss "unfair play" and political wrangling, the fact that Salt Lake City BRIBED their way to winning the games in the first place
Let he who is without sin cast the first stone, and all that.
As for Gretzky, I get the feeling that most of the people who are bashing him didn't actually watch the press conference, and are going by sound bytes and press clippings. I'll cut and paste a response I made on the same subject at a different DG (you'll pardon me if it's not all entirely relevant).
There were a several reports coming out of American-based sports journalists (call in shows and sports writiers) that there were serious ego conflicts in the dressing room - the assistant coaches wouldn't listen to Pat Quinn, the assistant coaches were feuding among themselves, and wouldn't speak to each other, that major players were unhappy with their spot on the roster, and thus were refusing to play to their abilities, that Lemieux had quit the team after the first game (hence his not playing in the second), et cetera, et cetera, ad nauseum.
This is the "American propaganda" he was speaking about.
As for "we don't hate them as much as they hate us", well, that's probably true as well - Canada is usually one of the heavy favourites in international hockey tournaments, and as such, the team that everyone wants to beat. Beating team Canada is a "big" accomplishment, and it motivates the other teams. The same isn't really true for the Canadian perspective, save possibly for the long-term rivalries with Russia (from the summit series) and the US (continental rivalry). But for Canada playing Germany, or Sweden, or Finland, or Belarus - there's not really much emotion thrown into it. Sure, you want to win, but that's it, no different than any other game. You want to beat Sweden, you don't want to beat Sweden. Rivalries make and break hockey games - anyone who's seen the Leafs play the Habs, the Rangers play the Islanders, or the Flames play the Oilers knows that, however mediocre one or both of the teams are, they're fantastic games, because there's so much emotion riding on them. Pride is at stake, not just two points for a win.
Finally, with regards to Fleury, no matter how "good" or "bad" a player is, the rules are the rules, and nobody is SUPPOSED to be treated any differently because of their reputation. The NHL in particular has caught an awful lot of flak over this, on several occasions. One that leaps to mind was Tie Domi's sucker punch last season(?), which earned him a multi-game suspension, while virtually identical situations garnered other players game misconducts, period. Like Fleury or not (I'm not much of a fan, though he's been absolutely phenomenal in the olympics thus far - probably the single most consistent player we've got), and while he may well have deserved an interference penalty for the goalie thing, that was a viscious cross check, and SHOULD have been penalized - it crossed the line of *** -for-tat non-calls by the ref. But to get Gretzky's point, just imagine what would have happened if it was Fleury who had thrown the check - there'd be a BIG uproar about it, with people throwing around I-told-you-so's that he shouldn't have been selected for the team, that that kind of play wasn't tolerable in the olympics, that Canadians played dirty hockey. Yet there's nary a peep when it happens TO Canada. THAT was the dichotomy he was trying to express.
