But I would have thought Oshie talking to the world last night about grit vs. skill would be more embarrassing or annoying to the players, even though everyone already knew Canada was a far more skilled team.
You'd like to think so, but guys like Backes buy into the grit narrative hard. And it's not like Oshie's comment implied that USA had no skill. It was basically a super laughable way of saying "We know we're the underdogs but we can win because we have more grit/character/heart," which lol. That's how guys who know they aren't the most skilled conceive of their own value. Whereas just because a team is constructed to be gritty doesn't mean or justify leaving Kessel off it (Kane isn't exactly the most gritty player either), but Backes knows that the only reason he made the team is because of the philosophy that left Kessel off it. So he's not exactly wrong to take it personally, but lol at that petulance.
Re: Game day thread 20 September 2016
You'd like to think so, but guys like Backes buy into the grit narrative hard. And it's not like Oshie's comment implied that USA had no skill. It was basically a super laughable way of saying "We know we're the underdogs but we can win because we have more grit/character/heart," which lol. That's how guys who know they aren't the most skilled conceive of their own value. Whereas just because a team is constructed to be gritty doesn't mean or justify leaving Kessel off it (Kane isn't exactly the most gritty player either), but Backes knows that the only reason he made the team is because of the philosophy that left Kessel off it. So he's not exactly wrong to take it personally, but lol at that petulance.