We are the better team! 3-on-3 isn't real hockey! and other sour grape excuses

As someone that has competed in a wide variety of sports over the years, two of which were on a very high level, I get a bit disgusted when I see people that are "salty" after a loss and try to justify the loss by any means possible other than just being outmatched.

Now to be fair to the people commenting, I have never played ice-hockey and I have never even really been a fan. The only reason why I have a basic understanding of the rules is because a guy I went to college with had the NHL game on his Play Station and we mostly played with fictional player-created characters. It was great fun and that was when I learned what icing and offsides in ice-hockey were. Since we intentionally had fights in the game so frequently, I became familiar with the consequences for getting into fights as well.

One thing that we, as mere video game players, never did though, was to blame the outcome of a game on the console rather than just admitting that the other player did better either by situation or by a very good pass or shot the won the game.

While this excuse-sentiment is not terribly widespread, there are a lot of Team Canada fans and even pundits that are stating that Canada was the better team and crying about the 3-on-3 format that exists in Overtime for the Olympics.

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If you look at any articles written about this and it is being accusatory about the 3-on-3 rule being the overtime way now, you can be almost guaranteed that the article in question, [such as this one], was written by a Canadian. Just to be impartial, the ones that are written staunchly in favor of the rule are likely written by Americans.

This is just sour grapes and if the result had been the opposite I can guarantee that the reaction would also be the same, but in the opposite direction.

Here's the thing folks: If both teams are playing by the same set of rules and are aware of these rules beforehand, you need to stop your bitching when it doesn't work out your way. These are the best players in the world and they should be able to adapt to any and all possible situations. Team Canada wasn't playing 3 on 5, they were playing 3 on 3 and USA just got a very good break early on to end the game in the "wrong" way for anyone that was a fan of Canada.

I didn't even watch the game but I did look at the highlights and can say even from my untrained eye that it really DID look like Canada was dominating in the 2nd and 3rd periods. USA appeared to me as though they were frantic and disorganized when they had possession, which wasn't the case most of the time.

However, this doesn't change the fact that just like in any team sport, the defense is an absolutely massive part of the overall strategy. If you can't get it by the keeper, it really doesn't matter how many more shots you have than the other guys and from what I hear, the USA keeper is an absolute hero and is considered by many to be the best goalkeeper in the world. Connor Hellebuyck amazed me and I don't really understand what the hell is going on most of the time and had to look up his name to finish that sentence. To me, saving any of those shots that are barely visible in real time is like a super-human gift but he did it over and over and over again.

Just like in basketball if you were to take twice as many shots as the other team yet half of those shots were rushed or blocked by an outstanding defense, you don't have much claim to being the better team simply because you shot the ball more times.

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Forgive me if I am wrong about this but I believe this is the Canada coach. Despite the fact that this image was on a mostly Canadian FB page, the number one comment is "He didn’t seem to mind it when Canada beat Czechia in 3v3 overtime in the quarterfinals."

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I'm not particularly patriotic and I couldn't tell you the name of a single ice-hockey player that wasn't in that Play Station game I played in college, but I do know that one team always has to lose in tournaments. I think it is much better to praise the other team and take the "L" then come back to fight another day. Complaining that the system is rigged against you only when you lose is just lame.

I understand that ice-hockey is supremely important to the Canadians, just like Rugby is for people from New Zealand and therefore they take a loss a lot harder than other nationalities would, but at the end of the day you kind of look like a whining child that takes his ball and runs home when he doesn't win when you behave like this.

Is Canada the better team? Maybe. But they weren't on that day. Accept it. Move on.