Then no one will care.
- Victoro311

Except hockey fans I guess.

You could send an AHL all star team to the Olympics and it would have a shot at bronze.

Actual best vs best. Money and bragging rights.
- Grinder47

I respect your commitment to having consistently the worst rooting interests for everything.

Except hockey fans I guess.
- Grinder47

Why would hockey fans care about randomly generated all star teams playing for nothing but an additional paycheck?

Actual best vs best. Money and bragging rights.
- Grinder47

So like we’re saying. ZERO rooting interest.

Actual best vs best. Money and bragging rights.
- Grinder47

Yea nobody cares.

You could send an AHL all star team to the Olympics and it would have a shot at bronze.
- Grinder47

You mean when NHL players aren't involved? Then yea.

So like we’re saying. ZERO rooting interest.
- Feds91Stammer

I’d just root for Crosby like I did in 2010. 2014, 2016

You could send an AHL all star team to the Olympics and it would have a shot at bronze.
- Grinder47

These are exactly the kind of opinions you’d expect from someone that only looks at box scores.

You could send an AHL all star team to the Olympics and it would have a shot at bronze.
- Grinder47

Hahaha holy F, the bad takes coming out of you today....

I'm not looking to start a political conversation here at all, just stating that I don't like the idea of an international tourney without a Russian team. They are one of the hockey powerhouses and have excellent players. They (might of been named something other than Russia at different times) have historically had a fair bit of success at these types of tournies.

I'm not looking to start a political conversation here at all, just stating that I don't like the idea of an international tourney without a Russian team. They are one of the hockey powerhouses and have excellent players. They (might have been named something other than Russia at different times) have historically had a fair bit of success at these types of tournies.
- MattStrat

Well the IIHF is moronic and Russia hasn’t done anything wrong.

I'm not looking to start a political conversation here at all, just stating that I don't like the idea of an international tourney without a Russian team. They are one of the hockey powerhouses and have excellent players. They (might of been named something other than Russia at different times) have historically had a fair bit of success at these types of tournies.
- MattStrat

Half their Olympic team will be of players that play in a league that begs AHL players to come play in.

Half their Olympic team will be of players that play in a league that begs AHL players to come play in.
- Grinder47

You sure about that?

You sure about that?
- Feds91Stammer

Putin would make sure their silly league was well represented.

Well the IIHF is moronic and Russia hasn’t done anything wrong.
- Feds91Stammer

Can always count on Feds to bring the bad politics takes.

Can always count on Feds to bring the bad politics takes.
- Victoro311

What would we do if an enemy was pouring money into Canada and putting weapons along the border?

What would we do if an enemy was pouring money into Canada and putting weapons along the border?
- Feds91Stammer

Well we wouldn’t have invaded Canada.

Well we wouldn’t have invaded Canada.
- Victoro311

You sure about that?

You sure about that?
- Feds91Stammer

Yeah given we didn’t do it to Cuba.

Yeah given we didn’t do it to Cuba.
- Victoro311

I think the MIC has grown much more power since then but you may be right but I can’t fault Russia for responding to what can easily be seen as an act of aggression.

I think the MIC has grown much more power since then but you may be right but I can’t fault Russia for responding to what can easily be seen as an act of aggression.
- Feds91Stammer

Like Jay Beagle beating the poop out of Troy Terry for showing an act of aggression towards him? Except everyone’s perfectly ok after

Half their Olympic team will be of players that play in a league that begs AHL players to come play in.
- Grinder47

Hahahah hot takes aplenty today... there's some really good players in the KHL to fill out this roster and I'm probably overlooking current NHLers as well...


Ovechkin
Panerin
Kucherov
Kaprizov
Malkin
Svechnikov
Kuznetsov
Buchnevich
Nichushkin
Provorov
Sergachev
Barabanov
Romanov
Mikheyev
Zadorov

Vasilevskiy
Sorokin
Shesterkin
Bob


Never really thought about the current strength of their goaltending until I did this little exercise... Probably the best nation in the world for it at the moment...

I think the MIC has grown much more power since then but you may be right but I can’t fault Russia for responding to what can easily be seen as an act of aggression.
- Feds91Stammer

The problem with that line of argument, and trust me all my professors were Mearsheimer disciples and I came up through college idolizing him so I used to have a lot of sympathy for that line of argument, is that if this were actually about NATO encroachment and militarization, Sweden and Finland moving to join NATO would have elicited some sort of reaction that amounted to something more than “who cares”. Putin has explicitly stated this is about territory and nothing more. Call me idealist but I think the invading forces in a war of conquest is the bad guy.

The strategic value of Ukraine for Russia is Crimea as the hub of the Black Sea fleet, which Russia already annexed in 2014 through special ops. Europe is crazy dependent on Russia for energy so any argument that Ukraine looking west jeopardized the economy by endangering control of pipelines is pretty silly. Europe was always going to play ball. This is strictly a war of empire, which Putin has pretty much flat out said himself, so maybe when the face eating leopards say they’re going to eat your face you should take them at their word.

The problem with that line of argument, and trust me all my professors were Mearsheimer disciples and I came up through college idolizing him so I used to have a lot of sympathy for that line of argument, is that if this were actually about NATO encroachment and militarization, Sweden and Finland moving to join NATO would have elicited some sort of reaction that amounted to something more than “who cares”. Putin has explicitly stated this is about territory and nothing more. Call me idealist but I think the invading forces in a war of conquest is the bad guy.

The strategic value of Ukraine for Russia is Crimea as the hub of the Black Sea fleet, which Russia already annexed in 2014 through special ops. Europe is crazy dependent on Russia for energy so any argument that Ukraine looking west jeopardized the economy by endangering control of pipelines is pretty silly. Europe was always going to play ball. This is strictly a war of empire, which Putin has pretty much flat out said himself, so maybe when the face eating leopards say they’re going to eat your face you should take them at their word.
- Victoro311

Yeah I mean I’m not in the Putin is actually not that bad of a guy camp but I guess some of my indifference to blaming them is how terrible of a country we are in terms of war. We just do it under the guise of being the good guys.