I think I am pretty safe in saying that most Americans don't really care all that much about ice hockey, even when the patriotism kicks in. Canadians on the other hand, are absolutely WILD about it.
There seems to be some sort of political animosity at the moment between the two countries as well but I stay out of all of that, thankfully. It's not a part of my life over here and I see no reason to get all worked up over something that I cannot control.
Anyway, everyone is quite excited about USA vs. Canada in the ice hockey gold-medal game tonight and I suppose I will stop by and at least have a look.
There are many reasons why this game doesn't really mean that much to me and one of them is that while I was in college there was a professional NHL team in a nearby town. We paid to go to see a few of the games and there weren't really all that many people there. I guess it hadn't caught on in popularity yet. From the stands I found it really difficult to follow where the puck actually even was. The fights were great fun of course but sometimes the action was so shockingly fast I only knew a goal was scored because the horn went off and the players celebrated on the ice in front of me.
I kind of tried to force myself to enjoy the sport more than I actually did enjoy it.
There was another time when I was visiting a friend in Chicago and he got us Blackhawk tickets and they were literally in the very back row. I could barely see the players from there let alone the puck. That was $50 wasted on beer I guess.
Another reason why I don't really care is probably because I dropped my sense of patriotism many years ago. When I first moved to SE Asia I was extremely patriotic... In reflecting back on it I can say with honesty that I was likely annoyingly patriotic and would defend my nation at all costs. I'm not sure exactly why I did this but I will say this; if you are American and you are living abroad go ahead and get some thick skin because people are going to verbally attack you on a regular basis about your nationality, the fact you don't use the metric system, the unhealthy nature of a lot of the people from your country, what side of the road you drive your car on, and even so much as to make fun of the fact that you call it a "trunk" and not a "boot."
Oh and they love to attack anyone who enjoys American football as well. tHeY wEaR aLl ThAt ArMor!
It's pretty tiresome after a while and I no longer participate in it. After more than 20 years of hearing any insult you can imagine, I no longer react to it and will just laugh and say something like "if you are trying to get under my skin you are going to have to work a lot harder than that."
We don't have much in the way of a Canadian expat population here but the few that I know are absolutely obsessed with hockey and they also seem to be considerably more patriotic than the Americans that I know. I do not know why this is but it does seem to be the case. I think that for them, losing this upcoming match would be a lot more humiliating than it would be if USA loses since I've never really known any part of the US to be super obsessed with hockey. It almost seems like a religion to Canadians though.
I haven't really been paying attention to the Olympics even though it is on in all the bars that I go to and mostly I just halfway watch it. I enjoy it a normal amount I guess but I am not going to go out of my way to watch any particular event.
I will attend the hockey party that they have going on because we actually get a really nice time slot for this one with an 8pm start time! I think that is a better start time than the people who are in Italy are getting.
I honestly do not care who wins. I'm going to be there for the company of my pals that are also there. If there is a Canadian there, I suppose it could kind of be vengeance for them since I believe a Canadian baseball team lost to a USA team in the World Series. It shows how much I follow sports when I tell you that while I know that my last sentence is true, I have no idea what either of the teams are.
For me, my heaviest involvement in the Olympics has been the really high amount of memes on 9gag that are making fun of Canadians for cheating at curling.