There was a question about why Jack Johnson was being booed by a portion of the crowd in Vancouver. It goes back to the 2006 World Juniors in Vancouver, when Johnson elbowed Canada’s Steve Downie after an empty-net goal. I recently saw one account that described it as Johnson “viciously” elbowing Downie. Now, was it the most brilliant decision ever? No, certainly not, but to call it vicious…it’s certainly not in the category of some NHL/junior incidents we’ve seen in recent years, and it ignores the fact that Downie’s reaction to a relatively glancing blow would have made Ric Flair blush. I couldn’t find a good, clear video of the elbow, but feel free to post a link if you find one. Anyway, that’s ther reason…
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there is no question that JMFJs elbow was cheap. However, given Downie’s cheap shot tendancies throughout his career, I’m sure that there was not a player on the ice that was surprised.
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People are over reacting. JJ hardly makes contact. Downie embelished it. Canada needs to get over it.
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I could not find that video either but was it as bad as this:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JEUa0RuFd6A
Actually the YouTube user Disengage has some great Kings video too.
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This is the only one I could find, but didn’t show much.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sf5SanphHBo
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I originally hought JMFJ got booed in Vancouver because he scored his first two career goals against the Canucks IN Vancouver. Silly me.
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Did you notice Downie’s cheap shot right before the elbow? He whacked JJ on the back of the leg. Ouch. Then JJ responded in kind…but it WAS a cheap shot.
To elbow (or attempt to elbow) someone in the head just isn’t right period. There’s no way to tell how much of it JJ landed in the video. With the amount of force evident in Matty’s clip, even a slight glance to the nose could knock you out cold.
And who are we kidding? We’d boo the guy relentlessly if the situation were reversed.
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Do Bertuzzi and Pronger also get boo’d for their cheapshots when they play up in Vancouver? I remember Pronger not once but twice getting suspended in the playoffs in one year. One because he tried to put a players face through the glass into the hot dog vendor on the main concourse.
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I wonder if they boo Bertuzzi when he comes back to Vancouver?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fz9RE9RGrVY
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Is it just me our does the Canada vs USA rivalry seem a bit one sided. If the US is eliminated, I will root for Canada. To see a lot of the Canadian fans root against the US yesterday seemed strange. They have a guy like Kesler on their home team to root for, and nobody from the Swiss team.
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The reason a lot of us cheer for Canada is that we have players we like on that team too. If Drew wasn’t there would you still be cheering FOR them or just not against them? Just a question.
Hey did Crawford ever get totally cleared in that Moore incident? I remember something about him putting up a bounty or something and I don’t remember if that ever got shaken all the way out.
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Dan H -
Those players don’t get booed in Vancouver because the incidents you are talking about never happened in Vancouver, plus Bertuzzi was playing for the Canucks when he attacked Moore. The World Juniors in 2006 were held in Vancouver in front of that crowd, that’s why they boo him there. I was actually at that game and was booing right along wth everybody, but now everyone has seen the replay and can clearly see that Johnson missed with the elbow and Downie took a dive. I guess the intent was still there but most Canadians are over it except fans in Vancouver. Most of them are idiots (not you VanKingsFan
) and will keep booing Jack for the rest of his career..
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Quiet You -
The rivalry is not one sided at all. I seem to remember quite a bit of gloating on here and on other websites after this years’ World Juniors. It’s payback time!
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ya they only talk on the rare occasions when they win.. otherwise they pretend not to care.
One sided or not.. I will NOT be cheering for the States, I would rather see Russia win.
Hottest woman in the Olympics, is the girl on the Swiss curling team. WOW. The japanese team isnt bad either.
Advice: Don’t decide to do a shot every goal when you are playing Norway
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Best I can tell Downie’s head never moves. I’m thinking if the contact was there it was exceedingly minimal. But something tells me Jack likes being booed.
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Thanks Rich, the “would have made Ric Flair blush” comment made my day
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It has nothing to do with how bad the elbow was I dont think… its just the most intense hockey tournament of all time and so anything is worth cheering\booing.
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Uh Rich
This is the Olympics. I think I would have said that reaction would have made Greg Louganis blush.
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I found this slow motion shot of it.
You can clearly see the elbow misses Downie.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oHg5SJYRHA0
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Americans don’t hate Canadians anywhere close to the level that Canadians hate Americans. Just like people from San Francisco hate people from LA a lot more than vice versa. We mostly just don’t care.
I’d like to see Canada win because of Doughty, but if they didn’t have Doughty, I wouldn’t be rooting *against* Canada. It’s the Olympics. There is not a single country in the world that I exclusively root “against” in any sport. I’ll be impressed by the skill of whatever team ends up winning, and I just hope that the hockey games are exciting and the result is fair (no wins on powerplay goals after bad calls, no shootout needed, etc.).
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VanKingsfan-
“ya they only talk on the rare occasions when they win.. otherwise they pretend not to care.”
Kinda snotty sounding, as well as an inaccurate generalization.
But it’s okay, anyway, your not cheering for the States; we won’t miss it.
Smugness is never pretty, sir.
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Get over it Canada, I’m sure Downie deserved it.
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JMFJ has said he likes being seen as the bad guy. Given the way he played yesterday, I hope they keep booing him. He was great!
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haha hockey is the one area Canadians can be smug sometimes, have to take my moment.
Just feedin the rivalry.. Sundays game is HUGE
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@Naturallawyer
Not sure who you are polling to get your rivalry stats, I live in SF and a lot of people from LA move here all the time. I would say 30% of my friends here are form the east coast like myself and another 30% are from so Cal. A lot of people like more of a city atmosphere then a giant suburb called a city.
Most people seem to agree, LA is great to party in, but no one really wants to live there. Same thing when I have to go to Vegas for weeks at a time, great place to party, but live there, well no one is bragging about it.
Being an east coaster, if you had said NY vs. NJ, that would make more sense, or Boston vs. Minnesota since this is about hockey.
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Ric Flair is awesome …. WOOOOOOO!
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@VanKingsFan
Where are you watching the game on Sunday? I am getting into town Saturday and will be looking for a good place to watch the games I couldn’t get tickets for.
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Naturallawyer -
There’s a reason for that. Generally, Canadians are seen as nice people, Americans…not so much.
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I’ll be rooting for USA, but if they play anything like they did against the Swiss USA will get blown out. The one wild card we got is Miller. If he is on top of his game we might have a chance.
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Most people would rather live in the LA area than San Francisco, but keep deluding yourself.
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It’s kind of funny how the Canadians go to game where their team isn’t even playing and root against the US team. Umm get a life? Seriously. I’ve been to Canada many times and have never seen this “hate” for the Americans. Actually quite the opposite.
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Couple of things:
1. It is absolutely, 100 percent impossible to determine if JJ hit downie in that clip. The video we are looking at is zoomed way too far back to see irrefutable evidence of contact. Period. You can extrapolate all day long about movement, but nothing will change this fact.
2. Downie’s head does, in fact, move in the video. You can see his head looking in the direction of the corner before, then after the elbow, he looks up toward the blueline. Whether or not it was physically moved by an elbow is, again, impossible to determine.
3. The video clearly shows JJ throwing an elbow. The intent is there. No question. And that’s really all that matters. Cheap shot.
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@WTF:
You haven’t been exposed to the giants/dodgers or kings/lakers or CAL/USC rivalrys yet I’m guessing…
Theres DEFINATLY some hatred flowing south from our NO Cal neighbors and it’s not really reciprocated down here…
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In my opinion, Downie is one of the dirtiest players in the NHL these days. Remember the pre-season hit against Ottawa’s Dean McAmmond? Steve Downie also had a much publicized incident in Junior Hockey. The guy is a loose cannon. Go Kings!!
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@PRMan
That is pretty funny, I have actually never heard anyone say that but you. I travel a lot so I am have no real allegiance to a city (except maybe NY), but working in film, everyone hates that they have to go there for gigs. That is why a ton of us moved ot the middle of nowhere to work in New Zealand to avoid it.
@Jietoh
Could be, I am a Dodgers fan, my grandfather was a Brooklyn Dodgers fan, so I tend to ignore Giants fans. For USC, I am pretty sure everyone hates them.
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I would have to sharply disagree with the notion that SF people hate LA people more, I was born and raised in LA, lived there 18 years, now the SF Bay Area for that last 16…LA folks have the kind of bias for SF that East Coasters have for the West Coast…it’s really sad, because both cities are great in there own way…I will only concede to naturallawyer that LA fans are much more classy than bay area (born and raised) fans, as SF fans seem to take it personally that you showed up in the rivals jersey (like you kicked their dog)
As for Canadians vs USA, its the same story in both countries, the biggest idiots in the rivalry have the loudest mouths, thus that’s what we see. I wouldn’t jump to any conclusions here.
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WTF said: “Most people seem to agree, LA is great to party in, but no one really wants to live there.”
Huh? Who are “most people?” Where do you get your information? Silly.
LA is huge compared to San Francisco. SF has some subsections but nothing compared to LA. LA has so many distinct communities that to say “live in LA” you’re talking about many different places. And downtown IS a city. The sprawl around it are suburbs, not one suburb.
Yap all you like, just keep sending us your water. That’s all we care about.
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VanKingsFan, what is a good place to watch the hockey games in Vancouver? I driving up tomorrow to get away from NBC’s Olympic horrid non-coverage and just need a nice place to watch the games. Just needs good (but not expensive food) and beer. Of course I also want to experience that Olympic feeling that I missed out on when I was a 7 year old in LA.
One place you don’t want to say you are from Los Angeles or California is Seattle or just all of Washington period. My goodness are we hated here (though I proudly display my LA Kings bumper car sticker on my car)
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California is pretty much the most hated state in the Union…oh well, I love it
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I wanna see the canadians boo their wjc captain patrice cormier, dam hypocrites. patrice cormier is the new Todd Bertuzzi
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and steve downie strikes again!
Seriously, I get supporting your country and their players… but Downie?!
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Dang it. The USA women’s curling team is about to go down to Germany unless they get a miracle in the last end.
Do you believe in miracles?
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I don’t know that miracles are allowed in curling.
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No love for Jack Johnson in Vancouver Canda? Criticized with a back handed compliment by his GM in Los Angeles? And the great anti hero JMFJ of Michigan in his college days? And on top of it Jack and his family seem like the classic good mid-westerners? No wonder Jack’s proudly a Michigan man. He loves them and they love him.
Unless he flubs before the Michigan home crowd, makes some stupid comment he wishes he never said as he says it, or goes all Tiger on us. Then I suppose he’ll get what the poor fishbowl atheletes usually get when they flub in public once after years of good behavior.
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Hey us Canadians love JJ. Just showing him some man love. I would love to see Canada bs USA final
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I guess there are no miracles in curling. USA Women just lost to the third reich
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I can’t imagine JJ going all Tiger on us, unless Ms. Androl is in the club… is it just me or every time she does an interview with JJ he gets all smily and starts kicking the dirt at his feet?
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Dan-this would be the fourth reich. Third one went out with a bang!
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Stuart I thought it was Kopi that Heidi giggles like a schoolgirl around and has the crush on. Jack might have it the other way towards her though.
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Most Canadians just dont like Americans. They will always root for the other team.
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Patriotism is unforgiving.If the Olympics were in the USA somebody from Canada would be getting booed for something stupid.I hope it gets blown out of proportion by the media in Canada,Spurring JJ to play even harder.It would serve Canada a sour taste in their mouths for sure.At the very least a smile on my face.
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vankingsfan, how blown away are you that “the warmest winter weather on record” is during these olympics? There couldn’t possibly be worse timing for a warm winter. Slushville up there on the mountain!
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Yay! My hometown’s blind curling team won the National Championship for the 6th straight time! No joke..
http://www.kelowna.com/2010/02/14/kelowna-blind-curling-team-win-sixth-straight-title/
Ya I had no idea they could do this blind either…lol!
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Finland up 1 nil 9 to go in the first.
CA is a great place to live, awesome produce, dairy, wine. Never more than 2hours away from any type of climate you want (snow, desert, ocean, lake, forest, mountain you get the idea) There are places in the US where fresh asparagus is rare, not CA! And as mentioned above the Los Angeles area is HUGE, you can drive from chatsworth to El Cerino and still be in “LA.”
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Johnson never even touched him with his elbow. Downie has always been a **** and always will be a ****.
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Is Downie even in the Olympics this year?
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ok tantrum, now that is a sport.
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There is no denying the intention was there. If it landed flush that would’ve been Patrice Cormier-like.
Johnson was just mad.
Judging by the way the USA played yesterday, people shouldn’t get anywhere near Johnson.
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VanKingsFan, I’m sure you referring to Carmen?
http://www.vancouver2010.com/olympic-curling/athletes/carmen-kueng_ath1028925fe.html
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VanKingsFan,
I’m with you bud. Americans are smug about everything else, we can be smug about hockey. Go Canada!
Seattle767,
you can’t go wrong with anything downtown, though the crowds have been large. Get there early and take it all in!
Dom,
I think he was referring to Carmen Schaefer:
http://tinyurl.com/ycposkn
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In regards to my feelings about Steve Downie, he retroactively deserved the elbow for that ridiculous horizontal hit on Dean McAmmond a couple of years ago.
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Strummer,
That was epic, got me good on that one haha…
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ALL humans love heidi!!!!!
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I thought the people booing Johnson were all the folks on this site who have demanded that he be traded…
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Great Nature Boy reference, Rich!
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Ok, I for one, knew that JJ was going to be booed.
Downie is one of the biggest cowards in the league, and he’s even come out and said he sold that elbow (not that too many of us needed to be told that). I was watching that game live, passionately cheering for Canada, but even I was wondering if Downie was doing an acting job.
As for Canadians cheering against Team USA a lot, it’s just a rivalry guys, no need to take it personally. It’s like how Oilers fans ALWAYS cheer against Calgary no matter what. Personally, if Canada doesn’t win gold, I don’t care who else does.
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From the first time I saw the video, I thought that Downie embellished. It was cheap for Jack to throw the elbow, but does this all merit booing so many years later? I didn’t see Canadians booing Cormier after the first cheap elbow. I didn’t see them booing Cormier after the second cheap elbow. But I guess if it’s all done on behalf of the maple leaf, then that’s ok. It wasn’t even until Cormier left some poor guy twitching on the ice that people really started questioning him. If you boo one, boo them all. And in this case, boo Downie, too, for his Avery-esque diving.
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Waves—
One point for using extrapolate. Ding!
Two extra points for spelling it correctly. Ding! Ding! Ding!
Score at first intermission. Wavesinair-3. World, -0
He goes for the shutout and mercy rule victory if spell-check was not involved…
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Really? They want to defend Steve Downie? The same guy who was suspended 20 games for slashing a referee. He’s a coward.
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ESPN article by someone who traveled with Jack to/from the opening ceremony:
http://sports.espn.go.com/los-angeles/nhl/columns/story?id=4908628
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X, I’m a horrible speller, but I actually spelled that one correctly w/out spell check!
e-x-t-r-a-p-o-l-a-t-e : extrapolate
Victory is mine.
You are now in “Waves World!”
…party on X.
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Wow. USA Mens curling is losing 4-0 to the Swiss now. Not a good year for the curling team.
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LMAO w…
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Swiss Olympic motto-
More cowbell!
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I thought that was the Sacramento Kings motto X.
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SF fans got some of their rep in LA from throwing batterys at Dodger outfielders. Many of us here refer to SF fas as “Battary Chucks”. It got popular with the Jim Rome show.
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They were booing Jack Johnson? I thought they were booing Luongo.
The Ric Flair reference was class, Rich! If Kings Vision could get JMFJ doing a Flair impression that’d be golden!
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@PRMan: If no one really wants to live in L.A., then I’d sure as hell like to know why the freeways are so crowded.
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I think Jack enjoys being booed by fans of the other team. If he doesn’t, he can change his name – or get a nickname – with the same vowel sound as “Boooo”, such as Drew, Zus, or Luc…
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If it had been the other way around “They” would have said “look at Johnson take that dive”. We all should know by now there is only “One” point of view when it comes to hockey and “Their” players.
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A few points:
1. Curling talk on a hockey blog? WTF?
2. I’m Canadian. What’s that got to do with assessing hockey talent now matter where it comes from? I’ve just never understood the negative banter about JMFJ. He’s a kid. He’s loaded with talent, tough, better defensively all the time, hard to play against. Why would you want him on another team? Just so you can watch him on another team that’s playoff bound while we’re not, just like’s happened so many times before? Patience, you in the Kingdom.
3. Lay off Heidi. I love Heidi.
4. Credentials: played all my life. Season tix since ’87. Despite arthritis will drop gloves whenever necessary. Fan of soon-to-be Stanley Cup team.
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PS – Stop the Puck and I agree:
Next Hall of Fame Grind line (a la McCarty-Draper-Maltby) will be Clune – Richardson- Simmonds.
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I’ve got to believe even the Russian judge would have given Downie a 6.5 on that dive.
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I hope JJ tops it off by elbowing Crosby.
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Jack has stated that he loves to be boo’d. So, just give him more fuel for his fire and keep the boo’s coming!
There is a pic of JJ hugging Bobby (Stevens) Ryan after BR’s first goal yesterday!
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I couldn’t really enjoy Bobby Ryan’s goal, and it made me sort of sick to my stomach to see big, smiley JJ being the first in to hug him. Does that make me petty. They guy’s always been a douche, and his hit on Moller this year just solidified it.
By the way, T-minus 52 minutes before Handzus/Palffy/Stumpel/Visnovsky and the greatest hockey team in the world takes the ice!
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@Simmer: Dude, what do you expect? It’s the Olympics. If you’re going to make an issue out of Ryan and JJ celebrating as teammates, how about Ryan celebrating because he beat Jonas Hiller like a rented mule?
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As far as I believe it just goes to show you how little class the “boo”ers have, it’s thee olympics…….save it for NHL games where anything goes!
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Nice win today by USA.
Noticed in Andy Muir’s blog this sentence which somehow has some truth to it:
3:34 pm ET: Ryan Miller stones a two-on-one chance from Lars Erik Spets. Bad decision with the puck by Jack Johnson at center ice created the opportunity for Norway.
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Curling? There’s no way hairdressing should be an Olympic sport!!!
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