Regarding New Hockey Skills Needed To Compete (The Daily news, Jan. 8). Canada is still a hockey power and the skill of Canadian players has never been higher. Many of the players on Team Canada have been first round draft picks in the last two NHL entry drafts.

We didn’t win. We might next year, we might not. The hockey world is growing and many countries are just as good as Canada.

Hockey Canada will try to ice the best team possible year after year, and we will win gold some years and other years we won’t.

Canadian hockey is just fine. Our players are as skilled as any in the world and our passion for the game is second to none.

The teenage boys that play for Canada want to win more than anything. The pain on their faces after the overtime loss to Russia was evident. I, for one, am proud of them. They left it on the ice and that is what Canadians do, win or lose.

TODD RASMUSSEN

Kamloops