[sharkov]

Originally Posted by boogerz

The Korean roster, with its 27 cumulative games of NHL experience and six Canadians, was supposed to be a medal challenger...lol.

They played in a tough Group A against Canada, Czech, and Switzerland. The Canadian roster was almost entirely ex-NHLers (e.g. Derek Roy, Rene Bourque, Chris Kelly, Maxim Lapierre, Mason Raymond, Ben Scrivens, etc.) and they only beat the Koreans 4-0.

If you were watching those games, the Koreans looked outclassed, but no worse than a nation like Latvia or Norway. The best domestically developed Korean players (e.g. Sang Wook Kim and Ki Sung Kim) looked solid and could keep up with the non-NHL Canadian pros. It's a hugely impressive result for country that essentially developed an entire hockey program in 10 years (with the help of head coaches and ex-NHLers, Jim Paek and Richard Park). Their Canadians weren't mercenaries either...a mercenary wouldn't have been playing in the country for 5-10 years prior to the Olympics.

China has had seven years since the Olympics were announced, and 10 years since they submitted the bid. In the same amount of time that South Korea had to prepare, they've assembled a team of Canadian/American mercenaries, hired an Italian head coach with only two years of head coach experience in a competitive professional league, and they've produced just a handful of domestic players that are good enough to be good VHL (Russian AHL) players.

China's efforts are the complete opposite of South Korea's and hopefully they're forced to be embarrassed by the Big 6 nations in 2022.

imagine if CP was as positive whenever the flames receive a drubbing as the korea apologists on this forum are when korea gets clapped in the olympics llol