2010 Winter Olympics Thread
 

Didn't see one here, so I started it. The big event kicked off today, with a tragic morning as Georgian Nodar Kumaritashvili died during a trial run at a VERY fast Whistler luge track.

Gretzky lights the cauldron after a huge technical mishap strands the final torchbearers for over two minutes.




Protesters protest, as per usual in Vancouver



Any interest in the winter Olympics? I live in the 'burbs of Vancouver, so I have a pretty unique perspective on all the shenanigans if anyone wants more information.

I heard on the bus the other morning about how one of the biggest problems of this year's games is keeping the snow from melting on the slopes, including packing the hills with ice packs, straw and other insulators, and trucking snow in from Washington state. Did anyone consider the logic in having the Winter Olympics in the warmest place in Canada?

I watched the opening ceremonies last night. Good job, Canadians. The respect paid to the luger that was killed was very touching. The Canadian, and the Olympic flag brought to half-staff was a very nice touch. And the reception that the Georgian team recieved, during the Parade of Nations, was very dignified.

Too bad about about the cauldron malfunction, but, other than that, everything seemed to go off with out much of a hitch. I was very impressed.

Oh...and if it's snow that you guys are looking for, we have plenty of it down here...free for the taking. Just bring down some trucks and start loading it up, eh? ;)

I was thinking that this morning, Bill O.... Maybe North Carolina needs to bid for the Winter Games!

I wish I could go to the Olympics. They are doing a great job showing it on TV for now however.

It's an El Nino year this year, which means warmer than average temperatures and low snowfall. In a normal winter, there would be plenty of snow for the Olympics.

I love the opening ceremonies...especially the fiddler part, I could have watched that part all nite!!!

The games and the ceremony are only airing on ESPN here. I don't subscribe to any sports channels, including ESPN. I tried to watch online but couldn't connect.

A Canadian, unable to watch.

Bah.

Anyone know the general cost for a ticket to the Games? Does it depend on the event?

I watched here and there, but I've been kinda busy this weekend. Next week though my TV is basically all-olympics-all-the-time.

Edit: YES! A Canadian finally wins gold at a Canadian hosted games!

I've been watching it pretty much continuously.

I saw the opening ceremony (fantastic lighting artistry) and the mishap with the torch.
Gretzky and the others handled it well.

I was impressed by the utter silence when they called to have a moment of silence for the deceased Georgian luger.

As for the games themselves, I'm loving all that I've seen. Men and women's Biathalon, Women's hockey, Men's Nordic Combined, Men's speed-skating, Men's ski-jumping and Women's downhill mogul. (sorry, Canada, we stole your first home-game gold away from you)
We're watching Pair's figure-skating now.

All-in-all, I've enjoyed it so far.

I'm not digging the luge too much this year, but I guess that's understandable.
I'm in disbelief at how they could let such a huge flaw in the track's design go by so long without them modifying it. Everybody kept saying it was the fasted track.

Anyway, I'm bummed that the Jamaican bobsled team didn't make it this year.

Edit:
Why would anybody protest the Olympics?

Edit 2:
Canada's drought is over, Ace!
Alexandre Bilodeau from the Men's downhill mogul, won Canada's first home gold medal.

The protests are over how Vancouver is paying for the Games. This has been a problem for multiple host cities both summer and winter. Denver was awarded the games for 1976 but the voters didn't pass the bond issues on the November ballot to afford all the construction that has to go into the games. There were protests over money at the Beijing olympics as well.

I thought the whales at the opening ceremonies were fantastic! I would have loved to see up close how they did that effect.

I don't have cable either. I've watched everything streaming online at the CTV Olympics sites. Has been working superbly so far.

I was ecstatic to see Alexandre Bilodeau take gold. Not only because he is the epitome of an Olympian and the Olympic spirit, but he knocked off Dale Begg-Smith, a turncoat Canadian who renounced his citizenship to ski for Australia. Not only is he a giant douche and a turd sandwich rolled into one, but he runs an internet spam/adware/malware business that he has made millions off infecting people's computers.

And the Aussies are crying already:
Aussies claim Bilodeau's gold tainted | Vancouver 2010 News | Vancouver 2010 | Sports | Toronto Sun
Now the thing that popped out to me in this article was this:

“My own opinion is probably that Alex is not capable of a 4.8 or 4.9 for turns,’’ said Australian team high performance director Geoff Lipshut. “He’s just not capable.”

His 'opinion', which some could say is tainted as he's an Aussie team member, and well, his opinion doesn't matter, it's the opinion f the judges that matters, and the judges gave the nod to the Canadian, not the former Canadian/spam master.

As for the 'pro Canadian crowd swaying the judges', sounds like sour grapes to me, the Aussies should just be grateful losers, and stop embarassing themselves with this display, they lost, suck it up and move on.

That's silly. I was watching, and Bilodeau's run was clearly superior. Faster, cleaner, bigger aerials. I think it's just disappointment talking. Happens any time a front-runner gets upset.

Agreed rat, it's always a coach or a director, never the athlete themselves, that's one thing I can give Begg-Smith credit for, he took his silver medal like a man, unlike his coach.

Found this as well, seems some UK papers are a bit upset with Canada's hosting of the games, and the death of the Georgian luger last week.
Now to blame the death on the Canadian organizers just seems like a cop out to me, with all due respects to Nodar Kumaritashvili his inexperience played a big part in his death, and well bad luck, those things happen in sport, especially in a sport like luge, where you're flying down and ice track with no pads, no safety equiptment, juts you, the sled and the ice.

Can't wait to see the 2012 Olympics and how the Brits handle them, I'm sure the shoe will be on the other foot then.

That British article is appalling.

Can't wait for mens' hockey... I have a feeling it's going to be quite the party. First game for Canada is Tuesday night versus Norway.

Seems even Quebec is bitter, or at least one 'reporter'(and I use the term loosely)
Now if he doesn't know the answer as to why Gretzky carried the torch to light the cauldron, he's been under a rock for the past couple of decades, or he's just a moron. I guess he doesn't know it doesn't matter where one is a resident, but where one was born that makes them a Canadian, and Gretzky is one hell of a Canadian. To say 'his expression was any indication, he didn't seem too honoured', is bullshit, I saw his face, he looked quite happy to be there, what do they expect him to do, riverdance the flame down the road to show he's happy.

As for the women's hockey team blowing out opponents, if I'm not mistaken this tournament is run on a goals for and against system, so you have no choice but to keep putting it to your opponents, no bad sportsmanship at all, if they want games to not be blowouts, put a mercy rule in like they have in kids hockey so they don't get embarassed.

But I think I found the key behind this reporters pissing and moaning, in one little paragraph:
They said things in French, what more do they want.

I was looking forward for hockey, until I saw Kypreos, Pang, and McGuire adding their two cents, fuckin bad hockey players and horrible coaches like McGuire always, always get jobs being analysts, hell Sportsnet bills Kypreos as a Stanley Cup chanpion, they neglect to tell viewers that he sat on the bench and got water for the real players, and McGuire, he just needs to be beaten I hate that bastard and his name dropping like the players actually care about him or what he thinks.

Thank god for the mute button, or else I may have to slit my own throat listening to these idiots.

Haha I hear you, Pierre McGuire is the worst commentator of all time, hands down.

How about that game though? That was some awesome hockey, you can tell everyone on the team is playing with their hearts on their sleeves. I can't wait til Sunday.

Totally agree worst of all time, when my old man used to hear me bitching about him he'd always say 'he coached in the NHL he must know what he's talking about', until I emailed him McGuires record of 23-37-7 before being canned. Also when you search his name and this is a suggestion "hate pierre maguire", it should tell his bosses to fire him. I keep hoping someone will shoot a puck into that rinkside seat he has and put him out, but no one seems to, I know if it were me playing, he would have been out with an injury years ago.
Hell he even has his own Facebook group for people who hate him http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=2253701613

As for the game tonight, great show, a wee bit slow in the first, would have liked to see a nice hit to get the guys into the game earlier, they can't start out like that against the better teams or they'll be in trouble, but all in all a good effort, but I'm sure some reporter in Quebec will say they ran up the score as he said about the womens team, guess he doesn't get that goals for and against are big deals in tournament play.

Oh man... you have no idea what bad announcing is until you watch Hockey being covered by the international feed that supplies highlights to our local channel. My wife, son and I just sat with our mouth open at how bad it was. Imagine a golf announcer doing hockey play by play as though it was golf.

an oldie...but here's the gauntlet:



---------- Post added at 09:56 AM ---------- Previous post was at 08:12 AM ----------

So, the Olympics are on. The el Nino weather isn't cooperating. There's a big-assed chain link fence segregating the Olympic flame from the masses. A poor soul loses his life in the pursuit of his dream. There seems to be a bitter-sweet pall hanging over these games. But because they are top of mind, the sharks are out to feed with some calling this the worst games ever:

Vancouver Games glitches get global attention
Games troubles mocked by international media as assertive Canadians lose niceness crown
February 17, 2010
PETTI FONG
ROBERT CRIBB

VANCOUVER–VANOC has problems and so does Sara Kneller, who is about to travel halfway around the world to get to Cypress Mountain.

VANOC's problems: wet weather; fog; concession stands breaking down; ticket cancellations; and criticism from the international media about poorly organized events.

Kneller's problem: She's one of the 20,000 ticket holders who just learned that VANOC has cancelled the spots where she can watch the competition next week.

"We're still planning to come over and we're hoping, hoping, hoping that somehow we can find a ticket," says Kneller, whose son Scott is competing in men's ski cross on Sunday for the Australian team. VANOC has cancelled all the standing-room seats for all the snowboard half-pipe, ski cross and snowboard parallel giant slalom events until the end of the Games.

And there were fresh concerns overnight, as several people were injured when a concert barrier collapsed at a free concert in Vancouver.

The barricade faltered when a crowd of Olympic partygoers surged forward during a set by Canadian band Alexisonfire. Nineteen people were injured and nine were taken to hospital. The concert and planned fireworks were cancelled, though organizers expected the venue to reopen Wednesday.

Meanwhile, construction workers used heavy machinery overnight to make modifications to the concrete barriers surrounding the plaza that hosts the Olympic cauldron. Visitors and Vancouverites have been sharply critical of the security fence that separate revelers seeking pictures from the Olympic flame, and even some IOC members have complained privately.

Earlier this week, VANOC cancelled 8,000 tickets for Monday and Tuesday snowboard cross events because warm wind and heavy rain melted the snow, leaving exposed the soggy hay bales on which spectators would have stood.

Caley Denton, the vice-president of ticketing for VANOC, says organizers could not find a way to make the area safe for thousands of spectators who paid $50 to $65 a ticket.

The tickets problems are just latest in a series of woes that have generated negative headlines around the world. "Vancouver Games continue downhill slide from disaster to calamity," wrote The Guardian's Lawrence Donegan, who mocked Canadian joy at Alexandre Bilodeau's gold by sniping: "What chance an enterprising Canadian carpenter is working on a commemorative wooden spoon?"

Okay, VANOC can't control the weather, Donegan wrote, but the transportation system goes from "sporadic" to "chaotic," the wiring on Cypress blew a fuse and there is a "growing sense that the 2010 Winter Olympics will be remembered as something substantially less than a triumph."

Meanwhile, the Daily Mail chortled about "heavy-handed security, a loss of civil liberties and traffic chaos."

During Tuesday's news conference, Olympic officials were in the unenviable position of having to defend themselves from British media suggestions that the Vancouver Games could go down in history as among the worst ever.

Take heart Canada – it's just part of the game of hosting the Games, say experts.

"Every country has been pounded like this when they hosted the Games," says Dr. Robert Hindmarch, general manager of Canada's 1964 UBC-based Olympic hockey team and former vice-president of Canadian Olympic Association. He's been to every Winter Olympics since 1960.

"Los Angeles was criticized for being too big. Mexico had too much poverty. It's been going on forever."

Canadians, long admired by the world as a quiet, polite and friendly people, also have been attracting an unusual amount of international outrage for our sudden and outspoken interest in actually winning medals and celebrating success with unabashed vigour.

"I think it is a little uncharacteristic," says Don Alper, director of the Center for Canadian-American Studies at Western Washington University in Bellingham, between Seattle and Vancouver.

"But at the same time, some of the toughest criticism is coming from within Canada. You're sensitive to the way the world is viewing you."

Dr. Harvey Schiller, former secretary-general of the United States Olympic Committee who worked on the 1996 Atlanta Games bid, says negativity is woven into Olympic hosting duties.

The Atlanta Games got rapped for security problems, including the bombing at Olympic Park, as well as for forcing the media to endure the indignity of porta potties.

But calling the Vancouver Games the worst ever?

"That's unfair. I wouldn't give it that label at all. You can't be held responsible for the weather," Schiller says.

And let's not forget the unspoken victory so far in these Games: security. "There hasn't been a single significant issue on that front and that's something that matters a great deal on this side of the border," Alper says.

And, if all of this isn't enough, it seems that American competitors have taken to mocking Canuck snowboarders for their Austin Powers-like apparel, claiming their hip-hugging aerodynamics breaches a gentleman's agreement to keep things nice and loose.

"We want to keep the cool factor in snowboarding, we don't want it to go speed suits," U.S. boarder Nick Baumgartner told one reporter.

File it all under the tempest-in-teapot category, says Guy Napert-Frenette, spokesperson for the Canadian Snowboard Federation.

"We win a gold medal yesterday and you want to talk about pants? There are no rules about that. They're high performance pants that keep us warm at all times and we're pleased to have them."

With files from Lesley Ciarula Taylor


Source:Toronto Star




Vancouver Games glitches get global attention - Vancouver 2010 Olympics - thestar.com

this one's just funny if you feel like linking:

http://www.vancouversun.com/sports/2...852/story.html

And Quebec is still pissing and moaning, wasting more money by investigtaing if there was enough french in the opening ceremonies. Now how is it they can complain about this, yet if the anglophones complain about the lack of english signs in Quebec we're trying to get rid of their language? I heard french in the opening anytime english was spoken, it was also said in french, what the fuck do they want, big assed french writing everywhere?
That would be some interesting announcing Charlatan, too bad you have to listen to the games that way, we should swing a deal and send Mcgurire over there.

You know, I've wondered this for a while, so I think I finally have to ask of all our Canadian friends out there: Is Quebec really worth it? :lol:

Short answer: yes

Agreed Charlatan Rue Sainte-Catherine is enough to keep them around in itself haha.

OK, Lindsey Vonn is smoking hot and everything, but her interviews are so annoying. She can't go more than a sentence or two without saying "umm" or "you know". If I had done a shot every time she said umm tonight I'd probably be in a coma by now. Julia Mancuso was so much more enjoyable to watch since she actually sounds coherent in her interviews.

2-2 with 13 minutes left in the third against the Swiss, fuckin Canada's going to have to pull their heads out of their asses and play hockey pretty bloody soon.

Is this another Torino?

Almost looks that way Charlatan, pathetic performance on Canada's part, they should be embarassed with the 'talent' they have. Babcock better bust some heads before the next game against the USA, or else it'll be a bad result for us. I swear Mcguire would blow Crosby if given the chance, he's absolutely in love with the kid, he bats a puck out of mid air and he acts like he walked on water.

Edit: Well they won, although I don't know why the fans are cheering a shootout win over the Swiss.

Hiller was solid, but it's true it was an all around bad game by Canada. Lot's of blatantly stupid mistakes that these guys shouldn't be making. And just out of curiousity why weren't Heatley and Iginla in the shootout? I can see Crosby, and I love Toews, but why Getzlaf? Even though he had a decent game I still think I would have thrown one of the two leading goal scorers in the tourny into the shootout.

Didn't get any coverage of the game here, probably because everyone was sure it was going to be a blowout.

Here's hoping you Canucks play like that against the US. :D

A nice bit of athleticism here with the women's 1,000-metre speed skating.

Not only did Christine Nesbitt win gold, but she did so despite lagging 8 metres and 6 skaters at the 600-metre mark. Incredible.

My brother and his family was in attendance.

Watch her finish her run here:

Iginla didn't see much ice in the third at all. I just hope it's not an injury.

Let's hope not, he got laid out pretty hard with that interference hit sometime in the second or third. And now that I've had a chance to read some post-game remarks, it looks like Babcock selected the order for the shootout based on who on the team had the best shootout percentages during the regular season, which is fair enough.

Anyone see Russia lose to Slovakia? Glad to see we're not the only one with problems.

I caught that Russiak/Slovak game as well, Russia didn't look so hot either, they're lucky it isn't the old Red Army days, or they'd be running until their next game.

That was a great run BG, speed skating has always impressed me, they have some of the biggest thighs I've even seen, wonder how speed skating would translate into hockey, I mean get a kid to take speed skating lessons, may help the speed and technique in hockey.

personally, I think it is hard to move past the shadow of the Luge guy who was killed by the course they set.

Yes, its a dangerous sport and everyone who does it know's the risk. But if you can afford a multi million dollar opening ceremony I think people feel like maybe you should be able to afford some crash barriers and padding on concrete struts on the fastest luge course ever built. I dont know enough about the sport to know if that really would have saved the guys life,but I think thats how people will feel.

Other than that,just reall want the American girl who fell over showing off on the last jump of the snowboard race last time out to take a gold this time. (Lindsey something?)...

I think an English Gold is too much to hope for, although I think there is a chance in the womens skeleton bobsleigh.

It was a freak accident, inexperience and just well an accident, really doubt padding would have done that much flying out of there at 144KM/h. He told his father prior that the track scared him, and his father (a former luger himself) told him to use his feet to slow himself down, he didn't want to because he wanted to win or at least make a good showing, to let one tragic event overshadow and entire games is just foolish.

Unfortunately Lindsey Jacobellis was disqualified in her event.

Amy Williams won gold in skeleton SF, Britain's first individual Winter Olympic gold medallist in 30 years, congrats.

As always, I start out enthused by the opportunity to experience kinesthetic/mental excellence and after a week or so I am tired of the mass-media aspects of the coverage (I don't care about gold medals, I don't care about America winning a lot of medals, I don't care about the cult of personality, etc.).

The web coverage is really no better. So, as usual. I've stopped watching.

ART, while I agree completely with you about sports coverage in general, I am finding the lack of corporate logos refreshing at the Olympics. Even the bottled water only says "Vancouver 2010 WATER" on the labels. Of course, during interviews offsite of the venues, we're still subjected to the blatant advertising (does any American athlete NOT have a Red Bull hat?) Overall, though, I'm enjoying the two-week break from having my TV screen look like a NASCAR driver's jumpsuit.

Although - I do threaten to turn off the TV every time NBC does their stupid segues into yet another Train Your Dragon movie commercial (or whatever it's called- that's what fast-forward buttons are for). That got old the first day.

Yes there is Pierre, it's goalie interference, like it was against Getzlaf in the first when you called it a "bad penalty to take".

I really hate this guy more and more the more I have to listen to him, my mother could call a better hockey game than him, and I don't doubt she knows more about the game after watching me play for 20 years and my father father for almost 40.

5 minutes left in the third, all the announcers keep talking about is how good Miller played, yes he played well, made some big saves at key times, but how many of Canada's shots were right at him? Easy to look great when your oposition is shooting right at you. All around another embarassing performance on Canada's part.

Wow I was at a sports bar so I couldn't really hear the commentary... McGuire is a piece of shit. That was completely ridiculous that Ryan wouldn't get a penalty from that play but Getzlaf got one in the first. I can't say how upsetting this game was... I was completely disgraced.

I've spent some time watching curling in the last couple days. It's fun to watch, but even with my Wikipedia-enhanced understanding of the thing, I still have to say: wtf?? I don't understand it strategically, and I'm not even sure I grok the physics of it.

That aside--This is a sport? I think I'd categorize it as a "game" rather than a "sport". It's more like darts than like skiing.

It's harder than it looks.

I played my first and only match over the Christmas holidays. As a sweeper, you're constantly shuffling down from end to end, and quite often sweeping furiously. You have to remember to breathe. I've been increasing my fitness since last March, and I like to think I'm in relatively good shape both with cardiovascular and muscular toning. I wasn't regulating my breathing at first, and I was fucking winded by the time I got down to my first end.

We ended up playing four matches that day. I think we were there for maybe a couple of hours. It was fun. And although I'm sure skiing is more intense, and I know hockey sure is, but damn it my shoulders were sore the next day from all that sweeping!

And as far as throwing is concerned, it's one of those activities requiring balance and grace. It's quite easy to throw too hard or not hard enough. It's also easy to misturn your stone and have it miss its mark.

I don't see the appeal of curling..

slide a rock, sweep the ice in front, land in a circle. whop de doo.

not a sport.

Yeah, neither is riding a big toboggan or throwing a big frisbee or diving into a pool. :rolleyes:

I'm always slightly annoyed by people declaring things as "not a sport" based on their not liking it or not quite getting the point, but what ever.

Some call driving a car a sport, or shooting a gun.

You don't have to like everything.

sport implies athleticism, curling has no athleticism except being able to lift the beer glass while tossing a rock.

So baseball isn't a sport either? I've thought of that before. It would explain the beer bellies on the even the pros.

"Athleticism" or "sport" can refer to a wide variety of things. It can be a combination of endurance, strength, speed, skill, and strategy. Curling happens to focus on the latter two.

Some people have a narrow idea of what "sport" means, which is too bad.

Maybe they can join the droves of protesters urging to have curling removed from the games on account of it not being a sport. :rolleyes: You know, especially because it's sooo easy.

I'll join that list sure.

If you want to go the baseball route, you can, but you'll fail pretty miserably. Almost as miserably as Canada failed against the US in hockey.

:D

I like curling very much. I find it is so much about focus...the mental game, in other words.

BTW, I've been tuning in occasionally, still, and it still strikes me as too bad about the way the events are covered - or not covered - by big media.

There's far more athleticism in curling than you seem to understand, ever try the sport? Bet you fall on your ass the first time you try and send a stone down the ice, hell I'll bet you fall on your ass trying to send every stone down the ice, as for sweeping, yep you'll probably end up cracking your head open there, because once again you'll be on the ice, and forget about actually getting a stone anywhere near the button, they'll all either be too hard or too soft. As Baraka said quite a bit of strategy involved, how do you think they can pull off taking out 3 and 4 rocks at a time? It's a sport, just because it isn't as exciting as baseball, which to me is like watching grass grow, doesn't mean it doesn't take skill and athleticism to do what they do.
Meh, we'll see how things go in the medal round, it sure is like an American though to seem to think the mission is accomplished after one big win.http://www.tfproject.org/tfp/images/smilies/biggrin.gif I wouldn't celebrate too soon, you guys are only in the quarters, still have to win that and a couple more, too soon to be popping the champagne just yet.

:lol: I don't think the win is telling of anything when it comes to hockey.

Just nice to see the cocky canadiens losing on their home turf :D

and yeah, I'll take up your bet about cracking my head open on the ice..

I'll give you the skill portion (and strategy) portion when it comes to curling, but there's no way in hell I'm giving you the athleticism portion when it comes to that "sport".

..psst, there are other "sports" that I find shouldn't be under that category either.. it's not just rock sliding.

Canadians, we're not the Montreal Canadiens, we're Canadians haha.

As for cocky, well a lot of people here weren't happy with the team that was picked this year, so there really hasn't been much cockiness coming from most of us, except the dumb fans in Vancouver who felt the need to serenade the US team with the Canadian anthem when they were leaving their team meal the night before, which was just dumb on their part, especially seeing as they obviously knew how terrible Canada has been playing.

:lol: you caught my error. I haven't misused the Canadian/Canadien spellings in forever.

guess it was associating the poor play of last night with the poor play of the NHL team ;)

(I haven't followed the NHL since the commish pussified it so I may even be wrong on that)

Or golf.

---------- Post added at 03:15 PM ---------- Previous post was at 03:08 PM ----------

I LOVE it. Just LOVE IT when the Americans finally call us cocky... but you said it quite succinctly Gucclvr when you said sport "implies" athelticism. That is so true. But it's only an implication, and often a mistaken one.

Sport is play. regardless of the physicality, or mentality required.

PERIOD.

Oh yes, speaking of periods, hockey has three (love the segue) and yes, the Americans played (or Ryan Miller and Rafelsky played) an incredible game last night. An absolute joy to watch (except for the final outcome of course). Even the last goal (the one handed open netter) made the Sportscentre Cialus, Play of the Night. You usually don't see an empty netter doing that!

And yes, the country is Red, White & BLUE over that loss. We take our sport seriously and that loss certainly stung.

Here's some media feed back. By the way, I tried to catch the game on NBC last night, but it wasn't being broadcast. What gives???


U.S. buzzing after spanking Canada - Vancouver 2010 Olympics - thestar.com


U.S. buzzing after spanking Canada
Where visit by Canadian premiers to Washington hardly noticed, Olympic hockey grabs big headlines

February 22, 2010
Comments on this story (10)

Mitch Potter


WASHINGTON – Canada finally emerged as a massive blip on America’s radar Monday, with screaming headlines everywhere.

And the lasting lesson for the largely invisible neighbour to the north: you need not send all your premiers south to get noticed in Washington. All you need to do is lose. To the Americans. In your own sport. On your own ice.

That was the tenor of a flurry of stateside reports that shot to the top of most-read lists throughout the U.S.

The Washington Post front-racked its account of Sunday night’s Olympic hockey calamity under the heading, “U.S. leaves Canada red, white … and blue.”

Over at the New York Times, a gentle home-page sprinkling of salt in Canada’s wound was labelled “Tough day for a land where hockey is religion.”

A more triumphant glee was found on Facebook, where one set of brazen American fans launched a new page titled “Miracle On Ice, 2010 Version (Suck it, Canada!).”

And so it went, from CNN to Sports Illustrated and even to the Los Angeles Times, where a readership wholly unacquainted with winter drove the paper’s account of “upset victory by U.S.” to the top of its most-popular list.

It was precisely the sort of noise – in volume, if not in tone – that seven of Canada’s provincial premiers had hoped to make when they arrived Friday for a rare three-day mission to Washington to tub-thumb the benefits of free trade and smoother border operations.

And at first blush, the political charm-offensive worked, replete with a rare summit between the Canadian premiers and U.S. state governors. Pennsylvania Governor Ed Rendell was so moved by the Saturday meeting to belt out his own improvised rendition of “O Canada.”

But as radar blips go, the Canadian political mission attained the sound of one hand clapping – the more than 200 news reports of the premiers’ efforts landed exclusively north of the border. Not a single word appeared in the U.S. media.

Washington analysts who specialize in how Canada registers on America’s scanners took the Olympic hockey feeding frenzy in stride.

“You can’t take the ‘Own the Podium’ approach and also expect to be treated as the nice guy. When you lose, they’re going to kick you in the shins,” said former Canadian diplomat Paul Frazer, a Washington-based political consultant.

“But the fact everyone seized on the U.S. victory and ignored the premiers mission isn’t really a problem,” said Frazer.

“Nine out of 10 times, when the U.S. media notices Canadian politicians it usually involves some kind of bad news. The fact that no American reports were generated means there was no bad news. The goal was to get the attention of the governors, not U.S. reporters. And that’s what they got.”

Hey, now. Let's keep this civil.

:)

Well, weren't golf and curling both invented by those most lovable Scots?

Haha I had to mention the error, even I don't know how the Habs are doing this year, I'm with you on the pussification of the NHL it's getting horrible, Bettman is quickly ruining the game, he has no idea what he's doing, all he cares about is propping up his Southern US expansion teams and making sure they keep losing money and playing for 700 fans like in Atlanta does every home game, and trying to take all the physicality out of the game, heaven forbid they use body contact, or lift a guys stick to get the puck away, which 10 years ago was perfectly fine, now it's a hooking call, and tryign to entice the the Americans to watch more, I'll be glad when he finally retires, or gets tossed out on his ass.
Blame Perry for that one, watch how he starts to protect the puck and slows down when he's 10 feet away from the bloody thing rather than busting his balls to get the puck and turn the play around while Kessler is trapped because he dove for the puck.

A.k.a "The World's Laziest Athletes".

Dude, I think you mean "drunkest."*







*The Irish don't even try.

speaking of body contact


brutal.

(there were better vids but the IOC blocked them all.. fucking whining about copyright.)

Yeah, they felt that hit all the way back in Prague. CTV-1 is reporting that both HC Slavia and HC Sparta fans have mysteriously awoken with bruising, dizziness, and the certain conviction that they did -not- drink enough beer last night. Hockey fans in Zlin, Pardubice, Oloumoc, Ostrava, Brno, and Mlada Bolselav are reporting a variety of symptoms, mostly limited to mild light-headedness and ringing in the ears.

That was a great hit, still don't know what Jagr was thinking cutting up the middle like that with his head down. Good thing it wasn't in the NHL regular season it would have been called a 'head shot'.

Ovechkin picked his moment beautifully. Jagr's always had a reputation for being -very- hard to knock anywhere, and one of the hardest men in hockey to knock off the puck, plus his size lets him take and deliver the kinds of hits most people just...can't. Ovechkin saw him glancing at the puck and took his opportunity.

I agree Jagr can't take some big impacts, but deliver them, not something he's exactly known for or feared because of, he is a Czech after all haha.
Seems to be an Olympic theme Jagr getting hammered, too bad this one was by Ruutu can't stand the fucker, this one from back in 2006
The headline on the CTV Olympic site reads:
I respect Brodeur a great deal, he's one of the best goalies in the last 20 years, but Luongo is the obvious starter for the next couple of games, given Brodeurs performance so far, not that it's all his fault, he hasn't exactly got a lot of offensive or defensive help from his players, but when Marty's handling the puck as badly as he was against the US, he's off his game.
Babcock not ready to announce Luongo as starter

It's just hard to imagine someone as awesome as Brodeur not being in net.. hate the fucker but his record book is more than stellar.

If I were a coach, I'd have to stick with the guy that's done it all and pulled through similar situations. Not a knock on Luongo, just stating the obvious I think.

I can understand that, his record is great and he is a great goalie, but so far in this tourney he's played suspect against the Swiss and barely got the win, and well against the US, I think the baseball swing says it all, but I do see why Babcock is having a hard time I suppose, I don't think I'd want to be in his shoes, he has an entire nation waiting to second guess him.

<threadjack>
OH MY GOD THE ICE DANCING IS ON TONIGHT! MY OLD SPORT! YAY! Go Virtue and Moir!
</threadjack>

That's hardly a threadjack...

Speaking of Curling... anyone notice how Canada is undefeated in both men's and women's curling?

My thought as well, any time Canadians are in the hunt for gold it's never a threadjack, and I mean Glen Anderson used to take figure skating lessons when he was a kid, and he was one of the fastest skaters of his time, besides it's quite fun to watch.

I noticed that too Charlatan, they're both playing very, very well, I even saw a clip of Lanny McDonald, Jim Peplinski and a couple of other ex-Flames players, I knew their faces but couldn't remember their names playing with the Canadian women I believe it was.

I know nothing about Ice Dancing, but that was a really nice skate they had tonight, I mean it was really impressive the moves they pulled off, and with such grace. Also a very nice story behind them, I knew nothing about them before the Olympics, and nothing about their past before tonight, but saw the little biography Sportsnet had on before they skated, couldn't believe they've been skating together for that long.

So some teams are complaining that the Canadian fans are being boorish by being loud and boisterous during opposing teams curling "throws". Even the Canadian teams are saying that it's not fair.

Man, I never knew there was so much controversy in sliding rocks on ice. ;)

The British men's team liked being serenaded with the National Anthem going into the final end, and it seemed to have inspired the Canadian men's team.
British curling team lose after Canadian national anthem blasted out - mirror.co.uk
A few women's teams seem to like it as well
Raucous fans make competitors feel the noise | Sports | Reuters
I really hope Joannie Rochette has a great skate tonight, she's got a lot on her mind with her mother's sudden passing on Sunday.

Brodeur's out, Luongo is in for Canada for what may be the rest of the tournament depending on his performance, Babcock made the obvious move after the USA game.

I find it amusing how Crosby's lack of production is blamed on 'not being with the proper linemates' by all the media here, rather than the kid having a shitty tournament, the media always seem to pass the buck for the kid here, it's never his fault when he plays bad, it's always a linemate issue, pretty pathetic excuse really.

no big surprise there, the media has a constant hard-on for Crosby. The NHL can't allow the "next golden boy" to look foolish can they?! ;)

If Luongo pulls a shitty game, Babcock is going to be creamed. He's damned either way.. this is when coaching sucks.

Oh well.. should be a good game.

So true, he is the golden boy, he'll never have to take responsibility for a bad game again, which is pathetic, he plays bad it's his fault, although he's the same way for the Pens apparently, I've heard he whines if he doesn't get to play with Malkin. If he'd knock off the whining and crying I may actually like him a little bit as a player.

I really wouldn't want to be in Babcocks position, like you said, Luongo plays bad, everyone will say should have started Marty, Luongo plays good he looks like a genius.

Should be decent to watch, I'm more nervous about Russia tomorrow though, Canada needs to put in a really good show today to get some confidence back, they need to shoot the puck more, knock off all the fancy passing bullshit they always try, passing looks pretty, but shooting scores goals, and get some type of physical presence early on in the game, which they've been lacking in the first couple, got to get on the defencemen early, make them hear footsteps every time they go into the corner to get the puck.

Perry should be benched after that play. When you're down by one with less than a minute left in the third you don't start coasting for a loose puck in your end. Anyways, at least Babcock has the sense to go with Luongo for this game. I hold Brodeur accountable for the second and fourth goals last game, which made a huge difference considering how solid Miller was.

Not sure if I'll watch this game tonight... I'm still a little edgey lol

Edit: Actually I felt Crosby was pretty well one of the only Canadian players who showed any spark last game. Him, Iginla, and Stall should be interesting to see.

Back to ice dance for a sec...

As usual, we can count on our American cousins for good sportsmanship:

Canadian gold exposes dance divide - 2010 Olympics - Yahoo! Canada Sports

Canadian gold exposes dance divide

By Martin Rogers, Yahoo! Sports
11 hours, 16 minutes ago



VANCOUVER, British Columbia – Finally Canada owned the podium and in this instance at least, the Americans were happy to let them have it.

As Tessa Virtue and Scott Moir’s hometown heroics came under scrutiny with controversy raging over ice dance’s complicated judging system, the Canadian team’s primary source of support came from south of the border.

“Tessa and Scott did an incredible job,” said Tanith Belbin, who finished fourth with Ben Agosto. “It is very exciting for them and for Canada to win a gold medal at home and there aren’t many people who deserve this more.”



There was somewhat less graciousness from other athletes, including Italy’s Massimo Scali and Russia’s Maxim Shabalin.

“When you compete in your home country the crowd goes crazy and it can help the skaters,” said Scali, who placed fifth with his partner Federica Faiella. “I hope that it does not affect the judges.

“I don’t agree with the system. They [Virtue and Moir] are not real dancers. They are very technical and don’t really ‘dance’ on the ice.”

Bronze medalist Shabalin, who along with partner Oksana Domnina finished third in Monday’s free dance, also questioned the result, but there was nothing but support from Belbin and Agosto, and runners-up Meryl Davis and Charlie White, also Americans.

“The Canadians are our friends and it is an incredible achievement for them to win a gold medal,” White said. “The atmosphere of the crowd was amazing and they reacted to them. They are worthy winners.”

Virtue and Moir captured the hearts of the Pacific Coliseum audience with a sensational performance, which clinched victory by just under six points from Davis and White.

It was a perfect Monday night for Canada, rousing hopes of a big second week for the host nation after some difficult times in the early days of the Winter Olympics that threatened to make a mockery of the Own the Podium campaign.

The Canadians had a movement and elegance and a togetherness that comes from competing with each other ever since Moir was 8 years old and Virtue was 6. It also was an emotional night all around and Moir raised the nationalistic fervor by pumping the air and leaping into the crowd like a hockey star who had just clinched a shootout victory.

While Davis and White are in the infancy of their careers and have a bright future ahead of them, this is likely to be the end for Belbin and Agosto, the Torino silver medalists who came so close to more hardware.

Shabalin and Domnina, the European champions, won’t be in Sochi, Russia, in four years time either, and clearly felt their final chance had been taken from them.

“We skated the best performance and we have a bronze medal,” Shabalin said. “What can you do? We did everything we could.”

The tantalizing prospect of a home success lit up an ice dance program that might otherwise have lacked the excitement of the individual figure skating competitions.

Virtue and Moir are a golden couple, and cemented a place in Canadian sports history with their performance. Ice dance is an odd sport, heavily subjective, and many of the factors that lead to victory will never be understood by the average fan.

But no one cared about that in Canada on this night, as the chance to flex those dwindling muscles of national pride was more than sufficient to keep the locals content.

He was good in the last game, but 5 points in the prelims, with games against the Swiss and Norway, for the apparent 'best hockey player in the world', just isn't good enough in my opinion.

This quote from your article Leto seems like sour grapes to me on the part of the Italian team.
From my very, very limited knowledge of Ice Dancing, it looked like they put on a beautiful skate, and won a well deserved gold medal.

I love the Russians complaining about everything during these games..

makes a great conspiracy theory for the next winter games in Russia...especially when the Russians win everything

Well lets hope the Canadians can make the Russians complain a little more tomorrow night. Canada looked good tonight, they were strong on the boards to win the battles, they were shooting, passes were crisp, Luongo was solid, even though he wasn't very busy good to get the blood flowing before the big game, but it was a good confidence booster for the whole team.

So glad to see Nash get a goal, the guy needed some confidence, I'm with Kypreos on this one, he should have been allowed to take the penalty shot, it was 4-1 at the time, not like it was a real close game at all, and it would have been good for Nash's head had he scored then, just happy to see it happened late in the third.

Just remembered, did anybody actually hear Pronger's name after the first period? He hasn't been playing well so I figured he was picking up splinters, he shouldn't have been picked in the first place, Bowmeester or Phaneuf would have been a better fit, and a whole lot younger.

Yes. I thought it was particularly ironic given that the last winter games were in ITALY.

---------- Post added at 08:33 AM ---------- Previous post was at 08:31 AM ----------

Yes, I heard his name used: " and a rare shift for Pronger" in the third period. Phaneuf would have been deadly. A shot like Webber's.

Did you see that puck just go THROUGH the webbing???

That was a sweet shot by Weber, picked the corner perfectly. I was watching it and was positive I saw the mesh move after the shot, but then no stoppage, play continued, so I thought I was seeing things, then they showed the replay, glad the right call was made.

the US is skating on thin ice with the swiss right now..

go figure.

The Swiss have a hard working team, and a Canadian in Hnat Domenichelli, they just have the scoring touch of a bunch of Tie Domi's. They played a hard game, so did the US, although I wanted the Swiss to win haha.

Edit: 4-1 end of the first- That's more like the Team Canada I was expecting to see, they're finishing their checks, making nice passes, shooting their bloody checks and winning the battles along the boards. Luongo is making the saves when he has to, all around an excellent period.

Hockey newb question...

Why did the Swiss today, and another team the other day, leave their goal unguarded at the last part of their games?

They were down by one goal in the third period, coaches usually pull the goalie with anywhere between a minute and two minutes left in the third period when they're down by a goal or sometimes two, to get an extra skater on the ice and try to get the tying goal. Coaches will do the same thing when a delayed penalty is being called, pull the goalie and put an extra skater on the ice until the team getting the penalty touches the puck.

Edit: Well we spanked the Russians, great all around effort by everyone, Doughtey is really coming into his own in the tournament, the kid is playing solid defence, Luongo made the saves like he should, Russia just looked flat.

Gold, Silver in womens bobsleigh as well, saw thew runs after the game, those women were flying.

That German spill was brutal, though. She's going to feel that in the morning. :no:

I was so stoked when we took gold and silver.

Also very proud to say Kaillie Humphries is my cousin, I cant wait to congratulate her when she gets home :thumbsup:

That was a kick ass day for Canada.

By the way, the women on team Canada are kicking most of that ass. I think they are responsible for over 75% of the medals in our count.

Wow the Slovaks knock off the Swedes, Halak made a big save right at the buzzer off Lidstrom, Canada/Slovakia up next on Friday, hopefully they're flying again.

Thanks, silent_jay. Appreciate it.

-----

So, what are the US Men's Hockey chances of getting gold?

I'm torn. On the one hand, I want my home country to win, but on the other, I'd like to see Canada, as the host country and modern day hockey inventor, to win.

to add to Silent_jay's explanation: the strategy to pull the goalie is that since the team is down by a goal and trending to lose anyways, pulling the goalie and risking the other team scoring an empty netter is an acceptable risk to take for the chance to tie up the game.

Canada tried that in their game against the US earlier in the tourny, but it backfired, as Kessler managed that amazing one-handed empty net goal to put the game completely out of Canada's reach with the time remaining.

US chances of gold? Very Good. To me, they seem to be the team that most closely resembles Canada. Players from the same talent pool (NHL) while the other teams are mixed. What was the thought of the KHL players on Team Russia last night? How did they measure up to NHL calibre? Maybe unfair to ask as the entire Russian team seemed to mail it in for that game. But I wold be interested in an NHL/KHL friendlies tournament...

My biggest fear is that Team Canada will be stonewalled by a hot Ryan Miller. I've seen the Leafs throw too many shots at the Buffalo Sabres and still lose due to him to be confident. That's also assuming that Canada gets past the surprising Slovakian team.

It's going to be Canada or the US wearing the Gold. Canada has the more natural ability to score, but the US has found some lines that are working very well. Miller is red hot and as long as he continues the streak, it's going to be hard to beat him. Although, if Canada and the US have to play again, Canada is going to be playing MAD and will want extreme revenge.

I think Canada has found enough of a groove to get past the Slovaks, but stranger things have happened.. (ahem.. the US beating Canada on home ice :p)

ahem... oh ya, that.... yes that smarted. Will we be coming out MAD? Quite likely so. Or as the Russians said, like Gorillas from a cage:


Canada comes at Russia like ?gorillas coming out of a cage? - Vancouver 2010 Olympics - thestar.com




Canada comes at Russia like ‘gorillas coming out of a cage’


February 25, 2010
Comments on this story (7)

Paul Hunter

VANCOUVER – It wasn’t much of a game. The Canadians made sure of that. But it was a glorious, chest-thumping, flag-waving display of hockey superiority on a grand stage. The Canadians made sure of that too.

In the much-anticipated showdown between two great hockey nations Wednesday, Canada rolled over Russia 7-3 and into the Olympic semi-finals on Friday against Slovakia, which upset the defending Olympic champion Swedes 4-3 in a late game. The other semifinal has Finland against the U.S. on Friday.

This was a reputation-changing stunner — not unlike the opener of the 1972 Summit Series won by the Russians 7-3 at Montreal — and far different than the taut, down-to-the-final-shot, nail-biter most fans expected. Instead, these teams answered the question, what if there was a hockey cold war and only one superpower showed up?

“They came,” said Russia goaltender Ilya Bryzgalov of the Canadian onslaught, “like gorillas coming out of a cage.”

Canada dominated fully and completely from the start. The newly formed line of Jonathan Toews between Rick Nash and Mike Richards — along with pounding hits from Shea Weber and Drew Doughty — took Alex Ovechkin out of the game early. The APB could have issued after Weber’s first hit.

Meanwhile, the Canadians were only one goal short of their own Great 8.

“We came out with that physical edge right away,” said Corey Perry, who led Canada’s offence with two goals.

“Everybody knew what was at stake. Everyone knew what we had to do. And we went out and showed everybody what we wanted to do.”

That, more or less, summed it up. The Canadians did exactly what they wanted to do. With ease. It was breathtaking. They not only pounded the Russians in to submission, they tossed the puck around the way, over the decades, we’ve seen the Russians artistically control play when at their high flying best.

The Ovechkin vs. Sidney Crosby subplot was neutered early by effective Canadian checking and questions about the goaltending of Roberto Luongo were also muted because it didn’t really matter if he gave up two or three or four, so dominant was the Canadian offence. Though Luongo made a statement of sorts with a terrific save on an Evgeni Malkin breakaway late in the third.

Canada again got scoring from a variety of sources, including Perry’s linemate Ryan Getzlaf, who had been quiet here. A resurgent Dan Boyle had a goal and two assists as Canada’s defence — which must get free roaming minutes — continues to help out offensively. Weber scored his second in two games, though this one didn’t dramatically burst through the mesh. Canada’s blueliners have four goals in the last two games after scoring none in the three preliminary games.

Crosby, always with the big picture in mind, declined to put a tick on his side of the ledger in his long-standing rivalry with Ovechkin, though he didn’t dismiss the idea either.

“It’s up to you to decide,” he said. “We won a quarterfinal game. It happened to be against Russia.”

And it happened to be watched by millions of Canadians, not to mention the hoarse supporters here who likely didn’t believe what they were witnessing but loved every moment of it. Our national nervousness was suddenly replaced by swagger as the fans chanted “We want gold” towards the end.

“It was an electric atmosphere,” said Luongo.

Canada will now play for a medal. Friday’s game will decide the colour. The Russians will go home with nothing.

And that left both sides with a very different perspective on what unfolded on the ice Wednesday.

“You want to do well,” said Canadian coach Mike Babcock. “Because you’re proud and you think hockey is Canada’s game. Now, it’s pretty obvious it’s the world’s game. But we still think it’s ours and I’m a bit of a redneck so I like to think it’s ours.”

“In saying that, it’s going to be one country’s game this year. There’s no guarantees. You’ve seen in all these games. There’s a fine line. All we’ve done is set ourselves up with a chance. We like our team. We like our opportunity. There’s pressure on us because we feel we have a chance. To me, that’s a really good thing.”

Bryzgalov, forced into the game in relief after starter Evgeni Nabokov, was shredded for six goals on 23 shots, was asked how this will play out at home.

“Same thing like Canadians if they lose.”

Meaning?

“Disaster.”

In truth, on Wednesday, the line between owning the game and the other option wasn’t very fine. It was, instead, very clearly defined. The Canadians made sure of that.