A mercy rule is not the answer.

Every Olympics we have this discussion.

And every year people miss the mark.

I'm talking about women's hockey. Specifically when a powerhouse like Canada plays a hapless Slovakia and thumps them 18-0.

At the daily IOC-VANOC briefing, officials were asked if there should be a mercy rule in women's hockey.

"Clearly if you're on the losing side of a hiding, it's never much fun. But I'm sure they had a great experience and I'm sure they're thankful to be Olympians," said IOC director of communications Mark Adams.

"You know these things happen in all sports, at all levels. They're a good team but clearly yesterday Canada were the better team by a long way."

Then there was 2006.

Canada handed the host Italians a 16-0 beating in the opening game of the Turin Olympics.

"I'm upset that Canada has been running up the score, especially against the host nation," said Team USA defenseman Angela Ruggiero.

"There was no need for that. They're trying to pad their stats... Canada is running up the score for whatever reasons -- personal, short-term."

People are missing the boat here. It's not about padding stats. I don't think Haley Wickenheiser, the most prolific scorer in women's hockey, needs to pad her stats.

It's also not about mercy. I'm sure Canada would like to let up after they were certain their lead was sufficient.

But here's the problem. In international hockey, if there's two identical records in the standings, the tie-breakers are done by goal-differential.

So if Canada and USA both go undefeated through the tournament, and meet in the final. The home ice advantage is awarded to the team with the most goals scored.

That doesn't exactly breed mercy. In international play you can't control what other teams will do, so you don't want to leave anything to chance.

And this is nothing new, take the 2010 World Juniors. Latvia lost 16-0 to Canada and 12-1 to the USA.

There doesn't need to be a mercy rule -- using goals-scored as the tie breaker needs to be removed. There would still be blowouts, but I'm sure the scores would lower a bit.

Jennifer Casey was born and raised in Halifax. She loves all sports but tries to stick to writing about hockey for sanity purposes. You can follow her on twitter @jenncaseyhfx

QMJHL ponders what to do with Scandella

After handing out a season-long + playoffs suspension to Patrice Cormier for an elbow to the head that left the Quebec Rempart's Mikael Tam convulsing on the ice, the QMJHL has a ponderous situation on their hands.

Val-d'Or defenceman Marco Scandella, who also played with Cormier on Team Canada at the World Juniors, finds himself in a very similar situation:

 

Thursday the QMJHL handed an indefinite suspension while they figure out what to do with Scandella.

A few week ago, the QMJHL did the same thing and a week later suspended Patrice Cormier for the rest of the season. The Rouyn-Noranda Huskies said they plan on appealing the "excessive decision", and said that should the Huskies go all the way, the suspension has the potential to be 48 games.

To me, 48 games is not enough.

And here's where the QMJHL needs to step in. Sure Alexandre Durette walked away from this one. He has some really gross stitches on his mouth, but he walked away. He wasn't left on the ice convulsing, he wasn't taken out on a stretcher, and he didn't end up in the hospital with brain injuries.

But his visor did shatter into pieces.

He was lucky.

And this is where the QMJHL has to step in and push the common complaint out the door, that big suspensions only happens when someone is seriously hurt.

There doesn't seem to be near the outrage about the Scandella hit as there was about the Cormier hit. And yet it's equally disgusting. It's equally as dangerous. And if it shattered his visor and sent his stick flying about 30 feet in the air, then it probably could've/should've shattered a few facial bones.

There was no penalty on the call, despite there are several infractions that could've been called. Charging and elbowing would've been a good start. The kid was definitely bleeding, isn't that an extra two?

How many kids have to have luck on their side before a hit-to-the-head is an automatic suspension and a fine to the team.

That's what the QMJHL should do. Unfortunately Scandella needs to sit out the rest of the season. And grassroots hockey needs to start teaching a little respect on the ice.

Jennifer Casey was born and raised in Halifax. She loves all sports but tries to stick to writing about hockey for sanity purposes. You can follow her on twitter @jenncaseyhfx

Adam Proteau... go to the corner.

And think about what you've said.

I was watching Off the Record today (so of course I was already mildly enraged).

And they were chatting about the Canadian Olympic team. They were throwing blueliners around and Brian Campbell's name came up.

Adam Proteau (a Hockey News columnist) said that by this time next year Brian Campbell will be old and he wants to see younger, faster players on defence.

Brian Campbell is 29 years old. He will be 30 at the Olympics. Get the man a wheelchair and find him an old folks home, quick!

And can somebody also find me a faster defenseman? Last time I checked Campbell is one of the best skaters in the league. I don't understand how he is being overlooked for the Olympic team.

Old and slow are not things I think about when I think Brian Campbell.



Penguins fire Michel Therrien.
Too late.

Blockbuster Trade.
Mathieu Schneider picked up by the Canadiens. Maybe now they'll un-suck. Or not.

Olympics, Olympics!! Canadians love talking about the Olympic hockey team wayyyy before the Olympics.

The Canadian Press released their predictions for Canada's 2010 Olympic team Monday. And since I did just that on December 4, I thought I'd compare the two lineups.

The players that both CP and I picked are bolded, with some notes of who they chose instead and my agree/disagree reasons as well. Fun!



Forwards

line 1: Dany Heatley, Sidney Crosby, Joe Thornton
line 2: Simon Gagne, Vincent Lecavalier, Jarome Iginla
line 3: Shane Doan, Marc Savard, Jonathan Toews
line 4: Brendan Morrow, Mike Richards, Ryan Getzlaf/Rick Nash.

Instead of Marc Savard, Brendan Morrow — CP has Jeff Carter, Corey Perry.

Mark Savard HAS to be on the team. People overlook this kid for everything. I drafted him in my pool in like the fifth round, but this kid has the touch. Yzerman would be crazy not to take him for Team Canada.

Brendan Morrow is a born leader, but either Carter or Perry is more than acceptable.


Blueline

Dion Phaneuf, Chris Pronger,
Mike Green, Brian Campbell,
Shea Weber, Rob Blake,
Kevin Bieksa, Dan Boyle

Instead of Bieksa, Blake and Campbell — CP has Brent Burns and Jay Bouwmeester.

CP has Canada carrying 7, whereas I have 8. I am including the taxi squad in my lineup, though. I would agree to trade off Blake and Bieksa for Bouwmeester and Burns for size, but Campbell has to stay.


Goal
Martin Brodeur, Roberto Luongo, Carey Price

CP has opted for Steve Mason as a third stringer. The play of Price and Mason in the rest of the season/playoffs will be critical, but again, this is the third stringer. The real fight will be between Brodeur and Luongo for who will be #1.

Golden boys.

Jekyll and Hyde.

also known as Team Canada.

One game they look like they could lose to one of the many Team Canada's playing in the under-17. And the next game they play like a bunch of winners.

It was a good time to show up. Seems like the Swedish trash-talking woke some people up.

Specifically, Dustin Tokarski. He looked shaky in the games leading up to the final -- but he turned away 39 shots last night. And he actually didn't look like a fish-out-of-water doing it, as he did in his previous two games. Of course, it did help that his counterpart across the ice spent the better part of the game trying to turn away actual players instead of pucks.

Then there was PK Subban, who couldn't make a good decision at the blueline to save his life during the semi-final, was a force to be reckoned with (wait... who owns his rights? Montreal? really.)

And Angelo Esposito proved why he was (finally) the right choice. Although, I actually found it quite amusing that the TSN panel decided to mention that if NHL clubs actually released players... Esposito woulda met the same fate as he did for the past three years.

And so the streak is alive, and they go for six next year in Saskatoon. The biggest question for Team Canada, is will John Tavares make the jump to the NHL after the draft this summer. It's expected he should be able to make the jump to whatever club wins the Tavares derby. But there's that off-chance that he won't. And if he's around next Christmas. Look. Out.

Tonight.

The game is exactly 3 hours away.

Sweden is a tough opponent. It's obviously a grudge match, since the two teams faced off last year and Canada came out with the gold. And the Swedes have a lot of veteran players who were around last year for that bitter overtime defeat. And, let's face it, Canada has had a lot of trouble in the past few games.

PK Subban said in an interview that it's ok that they didn't play that well last game because they're a good team and good teams find a way to win.

True they do... But, Really? PK, buddy, let's have a heart-to-heart here. You played like an arse against the Russians. I would have benched you if I were the coach. Who do you think you are doing spinaramas at the blueline when you're the last man back during a semi-final against mother russia? UN-REAL. The first time it happened I can look past it. But you you did it a few more times. And it came back to bite you.

Also the goaltending has been suspect. For Canada's previous four gold medals canuck goaltenders have finished first in save percentage. Dustin Tokarski is EIGHTH! Are you kidding me Pat Quinn?

My question is... where is Chet Pickard. I know this is redundant. I've been asking this since Quinn decided to start Tokarski in the final game of round robin against the United States. And then again after Quinn decided that even though Tokarski got down 3-0 to the Americans in the span of 10 minutes, he would start him in the semi-final.

Am I the only person in the country that thought Tokarski looked extremely shaky and scary in the Semi-Final game?

"oh but he played so well in the shootout."

WHAT?!

One attempt hit the post. The second was a very lame attempt at the five hole. A child could've stopped that.

I wouldn't call that playing well.

A few people I was chatting with earlier today expressed concern over the goaltending, and wondered about Quinn's insistence of starting Tokarski. They did express that Quinn will look like a genius if Canada wins gold.

In my books, he'll look lucky.

They deserved to lose.

They had a ridiculous amount of powerplays and couldn't capitalize.

Every time they scored one, the Russians came back with the tying goal pretty much right away.

Esposito scored... (yes, ESPOSITO) shorthanded. And they couldn't even ride the high and hold off the Russians.

PK Subban thought he was Bobby Orr. Trying spinaramas and rushing plays. Couldn't just keep it simple... couldya?

After Canada's first goal (resulting from super-duper excellent boardwork) I thought that Canada could pull this one off.

But it quickly went downhill. The Canadians were running around like... well, like the Americans.

BUT... they didn't lose.

Because Jordan Eberle scored to tie it with 5.4 seconds left.

And in overtime the Canadians were buzzing. They woke up.

And then Eberle all out destroyed in the shootout.

John "THE monster" Tavares put it away with another.

MAGIC. That's all. magic.


pass the rum. let's go celebrate. to the gold medal game!

Canada Russia.

Well Canada now knows they will face Russia, after the Russians won their quarterfinal game against the Czechs.

This game is so hard to call. I would put it in favour of Canada, since Russia was blown out 5-0 by Sweden and they had to play an extra game yesterday while Canada could rest.

But then again, it seems anything is possible in this tournament. And being the favourites really means nothing. (see: USA vs Slovakia)

I'd say the only safe bet is John Tavares being a monster.

Team Canada Picks.

Yes folks, i'm doing it already.

Now... as I have said before I'm a big believer in putting people on the team who are playing well and NOT INJURIED during the few months leading up to when the team is finalized in December. So, this is round 1 of picks.

Since the Olympics are still over a year away (the team will be finalized about a year from now) there will no doubt be cuts and additions to the team that I would like to see in Vancouver. One thing I can tell you for sure... no Todd Bertuzzi, no Kris Draper.

Forwards

line 1: Dany Heatley Sidney Crosby Joe Thornton
line 2: Simon Gagne Vincent Lecavalier Jarome Iginla
line 3: Shane Doan Marc Savard Jonathan Toews
line 4: Brendan Morrow Mike Richards Ryan Getzlaf/Rick Nash

notes: Joe Sakic, is questionable. He's just sustained a long term injury and was already on the fence about returning for next season.

Blueline

Dion Phaneuf, Chris Pronger,

Mike Green, Brian Campbell,

Shea Weber, Rob Blake,

Kevin Bieksa, Dan Boyle.

Goal
1. Martin Brodeur 2. Roberto Luongo 3. Carey Price

It's the most wonderful time of the year.....

...It's that time of year where i get giddy with joy.

Nope. Not Christmas.


It's more important than that.


We are less than 10 days away from the beginning of World Junior selection camp (Dec. 11-15). Where we as a nation spend our days scrutinizing the crap out of our young, promising hockey players. Amazing.


The camp is being held in Ottawa, since that is where the tournament is being played.

check out the roster for the selection camp.

Yzerman appointment today.

Told you so.

September 18.
"Who will fill Gretzky's shoes? It's not really about filling them, and more about throwing them the hell through a window and finding a new pair. As I've stated before, the 2006 Men's Olympic Hockey Team was probably the worst possible team you could have chosen. (Please see: leaving Jason Spezza, Eric Staal and Sidney Crosby at home = dumb, dumb, dumb.)

As I posted already, I think we've already found a new pair of shoes. Steve Yzerman."

The official appointment will happen today in about an hour and a half. You can watch the press conference live.