The best game you can name

It's that time of year again!

The one time in the year where I forget that the NHL exists, where I get to ogle Gillian Apps without seeming like a creep, and where I like to pretend that women's team sports is just as popular as the men's.

Caroline Ouellette being buried after scoring the winning goal against the United States at the 2012 IIHF Worlds in Vermont

Yep. Pretty much my favourite time of the year.

The Canadian team have so far won their first two games, squeaking by the Americans 3-2 in a shootout, then bringing a whole new definition to "outscoring" by winning over the Swiss 13-0. The latter game drew some controversy and discussion as many games like it do.

There is obviously a large discrepancy in women's hockey between the two best teams and, well, the rest of them. Every international event in women's hockey always ends in a match between Canada and the United States. This is highly predictable and expected without doubt. Skill level in women's hockey across the world is so vastly divergent that the only real competition that the two best teams have is each other. When they play other teams, however, there is always the question of whether they should go hard or easy. Despite a guaranteed victory, do you play to the best of your ability and beat the other team to a pulp? Or because of the guaranteed victory, do you lighten it up a bit and make it a low scoring game, if only to save the opposing team from the embarrassment of losing to you 13-0?

Sometimes, I still don't understand why this is even a question in the first place. I kind of want to settle this once and for all and list the reasons why higher ranked teams should never, ever go easy on lower ranked teams. I am going to align my reasons specifically to women's ice hockey and to this particular IIHF competition:

1. First of all, this BS about players feeling bad and embarrassed. These are grown women. They have had both victorious and non-victorious experiences and as athletes, they know how to deal with them. Winning and losing is part of what they do. You can't pull the "we have to protect the girls' feelings" excuse in this.

2. If you are an athlete who has played competitively, you will know that you never, ever want your opponent to go easy on you. Why? Because it completely defies the meaning of competition and is an insult to both you and your competitor and everything that you have trained so hard to do. In competitive sports, it is all or nothing. You are not there to be nice to your opponent. You are there to challenge them as well as yourself. Who wants their opponent to feel sorry for them? To lighten up their play because you're not good enough for them? That in itself would be way worse and humiliating than losing 13-0 -- to know that your opponent is playing half assed because they think you cannot handle their skill level. I mean, no, just no. The thought of it just makes me cringe. There is no room in sports for any of that crap.

3. The teams participating in the IIHF Women's World's are ranked not only by games won, but by goal differential as well. What does that mean? The number of goals you score determines where you go. It is your safety net because it will be your tie-breaker. This means that you score as many goals as you can. There is no room to play it safe or to slack off, at least not in this kind of competition.

4. The only way for lower ranked teams to move up and to develop their play is to see what the best teams have to offer. It is a learning experience that is highly valuable and effective. How are these teams going to learn how to better their play if they only meet teams that are not going to challenge them, or if they play teams that aren't performing to the best of their ability? These women need to see their own potential, and they can only experience this by playing a team that is going to show absolutely no mercy. I've heard many people say that we should just have competitions solely for North American players, because it is completely useless for them to be competing against foreign teams if they are going to be winning all the games anyway. Inclusion is the only way to evolve this sport for women, and that means competing together for the good of everyone. There is potential everywhere, not just in North America, and it would be foolish to ignore that. 

5. To the people who say women's hockey is a joke because of the crazy goal differential at some of these games: Men's hockey started this way too, and there are still men's leagues as well as international competitions out there where the scoring is completely leaning. Women's ice hockey is still very new in many countries, and it will take some time for skills to develop. Remember that the first women's world championship did not occur until 1990, and it didn't get its own Olympic event until 1998. The Americans did not overthrow Canada in women's hockey until 1997, nearly a decade after the first worlds. To this day, there is a lack of funding around the world for this sport. THINGS LIKE THIS TAKE TIME. It is not realistic for us to expect change now, to expect all women all around the world to be playing at the same level, to be as balanced as the men. Men's hockey had a head start on this thing, and with big pro leagues such as the NHL, where men get paid millions of dollars to play hockey, the men definitely have the advantage when it comes to honing in on talent and developing the sport. Women's hockey leagues, even in Canada, still don't pay their athletes, many of whom need to keep careers outside of their hockey playing. Female hockey players are getting by on their own, a real testament to dedication and love of the sport, both for themselves and for those they inspire, who will hopefully see the day where they are recognized and acknowledged as professional athletes.

OK I'm done. Sorry, I just feel that things like this need to be said, just to clear up some of the stigma surrounding women's hockey. If you understand hockey and you understand competition, all the above points that I made should make sense to you. To all those people whining about how uninteresting the sport is, how these players could never compete against NHL players (because that comparison is so fair in the first place), how you'd rather watch goddamn Blue Jays baseball or something, just remember that these women are paving the way for their daughters, and for yours. When your kids and grandkids start playing hockey, these players will be their idols. I definitely don't think that this is the time to disregard what they do.

On an end note, the Swiss goalie, Sophie Anthamatten, stopped about a million shots last night (specifically, around 70). HOW ANYONE CAN DO THAT AND STILL BE SANE BY THE END OF THE GAME IS AMAZING TO ME. I mean, that would be the workout of my life. She really deserved player of the game.