So who choked worse, the men or the women?

[KamaAina]

Of course your first instinct will be to say "the women", I mean, who the hell blows a two-goal lead with three minutes left in the third?! But the men can make a case, too. They entered the semifinal round as the highest-scoring team in the tournament. And then? Nothing. I mean, literally, nothing. And they capped it off by being creamed 5-0 by a country that is mostly known for vodka and cellphones.

[Upton]

1. The women did the choking..

but the men didn't even bother to show up for the Bronze Medal game. After the loss to Canada, in which they were thoroughly outplayed, the US players just wanted to avoid injury and make it back to their NHL team. You really can't blame them. Perhaps some thought should be given to doing away with the 3rd place game in the future if they continue to use professionals.

[caraher]

2. Our local sports columnist pointed out ignoring the bronze medal has a long history...

In Nagano in '98...

The Canadian hockey team had just lost to the Dominik Hasek and the Czechs in a shootout, and the place was suddenly crawling with Canadian hockey players. Two, who shall remain nameless, shared a shot with me. Let's just say their night included several shots, with me and with everybody else in the joint.

"Wait, don't you have a bronze medal game tomorrow?'' I asked one of the players.

He almost spit out his drink.

"We're Canadians,'' he said dismissively. "It's gold or nothing.''

[GoCubsGo]

4. Yes, sort of.

I don't think the men were "thoroughly outplayed" by Canada. They lost 1-0. Nothing "thorough" about that, especially given the deep talent Canada has compared to the USA. They held their own. A bad bounce or two, and it could have easily gone the other way--or at least into overtime. I can only imagine how bad it felt when they lost given that. And, I'm sure that had as much, if not more, to do with the way they played the next day as not wanting to get injured.

But, yeah. The women choked. Had they kept playing to win, rather than playing to hold their lead, they'd be wearing they gold medals right now. Pissing away a two goal lead with 3 minutes left in the game is inexcusable.

[Moses2SandyKoufax]

12. Exactly,

it's becoming fashionable to take shots at the men's team for a perceived lack of effort, but if the USA/CAN game had gone the other way do people really think Canada would have put forth a better effort against Finland?

People need to understand the situation the Americans found themselves in. For once, they played very well in pool play, and steamrolled their opponent in the quarterfinal. Heading into the single elimination stage of the competition, it looked to most observers that the US was the best team in the tournament. After the letdown they experienced in the semis, it would be difficult for any team to get motivated to play for bronze less than 24 hours after a bitter defeat.

Going into the Olympics, four teams were in a gold medal or bust mindset (USA, CAN, SWE, RUS... With FIN, CZE, SVK as the next best). Finland was happy to just be in the medal round, and as often the case, the "just happy to be there" team usually wins bronze medal games.

Furthermore, these guys have NHL contracts, and most of them are involved in tight playoff races. They're not going to risk injury for a bronze medal, and as a fan of a contending team I wouldn't want them to anyway.

[GoCubsGo]

14. Finland was better than most give them credit for being.

They had some excellent players, including Sellane, Grundland and Rask. But, I agree the US not as good as they looked because they were able to steamroll the lesser teams. I think they were on par with Finland, but I think you're right that the loss to Canada was enough of a gut-punch to kill just about any motivation they had, although they did play pretty well during the first period.

[pothos]

3. The men

The women played a hell of a game, kinda got a bad call there in overtime, but Canada just waited to go full out in the last few minutes.
I'm glad the men lost the bronze medal game. What a bunch of strokers, they didn't even bother to show up for the semifinal, so I knew they'd just dog the bronze medal game. And to those that say the NHL players checked out...well there are plenty of NHL players on the Finnish team, and they seemed to take it pretty serious.

[DinahMoeHum]

5. The men.

The men showed no heart in that bronze-medal game against the Finnish team.

The women always show the spirit of "one love one team" no matter what. And they stayed for the closing ceremonies. You would always see them together throughout.

[Moses2SandyKoufax]

13. They stayed for the closing ceremonies,

because unlike the men, they don't have contractual obligations back home.

They choked, but when US women's national teams choke it's considered bad form to call them on it (ex. 2006 and 2014 Olympic hockey teams. 2000, 2003, 2007 and 2011 soccer teams). Being the second best women's hockey team on the planet is like being the second skinniest kid at fat camp.

The women's team was an absolute disgrace.

[DinahMoeHum]

17. Hey bud. . .

with your attitude, you're the loser, not them.

And you just got put on permanent ignore. You don't exist to me anymore.

[Iggo]

6. If you watch hockey at all, you know the most unsafe lead in hockey is a two-goal lead.

Teams come back all the time from two goals down. It happens. It's exciting. It's hockey.

Highest scoring team getting a goose-egg? That's the real choke-job here.

(And they should be ashamed of themselves for phoning it in in the bronze medal game.)

[GoCubsGo]

7. You can't choke on something you weren't going to win anyway.

The mens team was grossly over-hyped. You can count on one hand the number of them that would have even made the Team Canada roster had they been Canadian. The only reason the were the "highest-scoring" team was because they were playing teams that had even less talent than they had. The high scores just inflated people's sense of how good they were. When they lost, they lost to better teams--WAY better in the case of Canada. They're lucky they came out of that game without a complete blow-out. And, they played fine for the first half of the Finland game. They didn't start to collapse until they were 2 goals down. I wouldn't call that "phoning it in". I'd call it "giving up". Too bad for that.

And, yeah, I know that a two-goal lead is the most difficult to keep. But, when you are capable of keeping it, but you throw it away in a matter of minutes, that's choking.

[KamaAina]

8. This is true

except with three minutes left in the third.

[Iggo]

9. You ever see a Kings game?

[KamaAina]

10. Not if I can possibly help it!

[Iggo]

11. April 3rd.

[KamaAina]

15. And, one might expect, a few games later in the spring.

[Iggo]

16. I certainly hope so.

I got some friends and family up there.

I like the LA/BayArea rivalries. Haven't had this much fun since the Rams left town.