Is an 18-0 Olympic hockey drubbing a little too far?

The Canadian women’s hockey team opened the Olympic tournament in style, winning 18-0 over hapless Slovakia. Gotta feel for the Slovaks, at a certain point, the Canucks were just rubbing it in, right?

Well, maybe and maybe not. I’ve read justifications of lopsided wins in tournaments where, if there’s a tie in the standings at the end, total goals, or goral differentials are used to break that tie. So running up the score makes some sense.

But questions are being raised as to whether there should be a “mercy rule.” I don’t know how it would work — if you’re ahead by (say) 10 goals, do you win automatically? What if that’s at the end of the first period, and the underdog team still has two periods left to come back?

Or, are you just not allowed to be more than 10 ahead — so you can put the puck in the net all you want, but the score won’t go from 10 to 11 until the losing team gets at least one point?

And, why are we all so concerned about this in hockey? Let’s extend this to other sports. Frankly, in downhill skiing, where the winners are often decided by fractions of a second, the last-place contestant might be several seconds behind — doesn’t that count as a drubbing? Shouldn’t those insensitive winners be reined in a little?

Or what about figure skating. If some jerk pair gets perfect marks in figure skating, that’s just not fair to another couple who tried their best but got defeated.

Also, I think that I should be allowed to go to the Olympics and compete. I’m pretty sure that, by myself, I might be able to hold those Canadian women to, like, 16 or 17 goals.