Team Canada's 18-0 Blowout Draws Criticism On Women's Hockey

Ever since women's hockey was sanctioned as an Olympic sport in 1998, there's been the same criticism year after year: that the North Americans have an unfair advantage over the rest of the world in talent. In three Olympic Games, it's been either the USA or Canada with the gold medal, with Sweden pulling off a big upset in 2006 to snatch the chance for gold away from the United States.

After last night's 18-0 domination by Canada over Slovakia, the criticism is gaining traction once more, according to Greg Wyshynski of Yahoo! Sports:

Other than some impressive stats for the Canadian women -- including a hat trick for Meghan Agosta and a record-tying six points for winger Jayna Hefford -- there's nothing all that great about this moment for women's Olympic hockey. In fact, the Canadian and U.S. players were facing heat over the preliminary-round disparity before the tournament started.  

The blowout reinforces every criticism of the women's tournament, such as the need for a mercy rule or the notion that the women's tournament is "essentially an intramural competition between the same group of Canadian and U.S. women," as Jeff Blair of The Globe and Mail opined.

Women's softball is no longer an Olympic sport because of the lack of worldwide competition and there is concern that women's hockey is headed the same route. Yet women's hockey is much more popular worldwide than softball ever was, and it's going to take patience for the sport to even out among all the programs.

And in case you're feeling bad for the Slovakians, just know that they destroyed Bulgaria 82-0 in a 2008 women's hockey qualifying game. Shots on goal were 139-0.

More: SB Nation's full coverage of the Winter Olympics