Thursday, November 6, 2008

Controversy at the WJAC

As I quickly updated the blog this morning, I went to Hfboards after to check out what's going on. The first topic I saw was World Junior Challenge Scandal. It has to do with the Canada West and Russia match up the other night. Russia believes the referees were with the Canadians. As I read the Sport-Express report, I chuckle.

Canadians, throughout the game, instigated russian players, played dirty, but the referee was making calls only against Russia. This caused a discontent of russian head coach Vladimir Pluschev who made his team go to the dressing room 8 seconds before the final buzzer.

Isn't that what the opposition is suppose to do? Get under the skin of their opponents? The Canadians did their job and the Russians took the bait. Coming Down the Pipe was at the game and it was the referees fault and Russia's fault.

after a rough game in which Team Canada West received the benefit of some brutal officiating. The Russians embarrassed themselves with childish antics and obscene gestures ( Cam Tait has more on this story in his blog as well) and I think HC was hoping to avoid negative publicity. In this case mission failed.

In that post, Guy Flamming mentions the Russians weren't going to talk to the media. Well the coach ran to the Russia media. Just like Flamming wrote on HFboards, "that's weak." They're trying to do their jobs by getting the whole story. It's hard to get the whole story without the other side. As you can see in the Russia report.

I believe Hockey Canada should investigate this. Hopefully the Russians show some more class because they looked like CSKA Moscow vs. the Philadelphia Flyers in 1975.



That's My Take

(Nathan also is a writer for Maineiacs Post to Post and the Maine Hockey Journal. He can be reached at fourniern@students.nescom.edu)

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

it's good to see the young commies getting a taste of their own medicine; at last year's five nations u17 tournament in Russia, their homer officials gave them 10 power plays to 2 for usa; north americans unite !

Simon Starchevsky said...

As a fan of Canadian hockey, I must say that I am completely embarassed to be one. This incident just shows our tendency to cheat with officiating. When the officiating crew saw that our boys couldn't do it by themselves, they decided to land a helping hand by creating a Russian parade to the penalty box. And they turned a completely blind eye to gross misconduct that injured a Russian player. To add to the matter, Canada West team should have been penalized for unsportmanlike conduct when our boys poured water over the head of a team doctor that was tending to an injured player. Yes, it's time for all of us to admit it. This isn't the first time we have behaved in such matter. Let's go back to the original - the 1972 series. The four games on Canadian soil weren't even close to being fairly officiated. Yet, the Soviet team stayed away from whining - they were simply honored to compete. When our team went overseas, everything wasn't right from hotel room to transportation, to rink size, to officiating. We whined so much that the team threatened to forego the last game unless officials were changed. So before we call another nation a bunch of crybabies, let's first take a look at our long running history of whining. I never thought I'd recall the words of a Russian coach, but here it goes - 'The beauty of Canadian hockey is hidden beneath a primitive style of play with a tendency to cheat.' Well, it appears that Mr. Tarasov was right after all. We should be able to compete on level ice, otheriwse we can expect more goonery and obscene gestures.