Bronze Medal game - Finland vs Slovakia

It was a very exciting game. The Slovaks came out and dominated early, but someway, somehow, the Finns came back and made a game of it. At one point in the second period, the Slovaks were up 3 - 1. But in the third, the Finns came out on fire, and made the score 4 - 3, with 3 goals in less than 4 minutes.
And then I dozed off. I had to check the internet this morning to see who won the game.
In my defense, I had the beginnings of a migraine, with nausea and spins. I popped an extra strength advil in the second intermission. Also, I had watched 2 curling matches - the bronze medal game and the gold medal game - which were both emotionally drainiing. That's the excuse I'll use for nodding off in such an important game.

Apparently, the Finns won the game 5 - 3. I wish I could have stayed up long enough to see them win. I love international hockey...

Bronze Medal game - Finland vs Slovakis

Canada /Slovakia - a day later

I dozed off during the Canada/Slovakia just after Canada's third goal, when they were up 3 - 0. The last thing I remember was saying, 'that's the third guy from Saskatchewan to score'. I woke up to the 5000m short track men's relay. Canada won gold. It was about 11:28 p.m when I awoke, and I attribute the three hour nap to the sleep I lost watching Sweden lose 4 - 3 to Slovakia the other night. Not only did I stay up until after midnight that night, but I had a very restless sleep.

That reminds me...Nicklas Backstrom was in my dream the night before last. He lived in Moose Jaw Saskatchewan, and he had three young children, all blond. Backis drove me out to Moose Jaw to visit. We went for a walk in a semi-wooded area near his house. His house was made of dark wood and it felt kind of small for a guy who had three kids. There was no wife or girlfriend around though. He seemed older than 22, not as baby-faced as he is now. Ya, three kids. I don't know if they had green eyes though. I actually only saw one in my dream. I think it was a boy. He had long 'backis hair'.
If I break it down, here's what I come up with. Firstly, Brooks Laich, his current Caps teammate, played a couple years of his junior career in MJ. I went up there quite abit when I lived in Regina, as junior hockey was the only game in town. I must have seen Brooksie play about 40 junior games, come to think of it. Anyway, the young children...I don't know why they were there. But Backis himself I think showed up in my dreamland because the night I dreamed of him, I had just watched Caps Red Line, and he was driving around Arlington/DC with a camera in his face for a segment on the on-line show.
I dunno. Backis and Moose Jaw have no connection other than Brooks Laich having lived there for a couple of seasons back in like 1999 - 2001 maybe. It's a pretty small city, but it does have a McDonalds. A girl in my Poly Sci class a number of years ago was from there. She said McDonald's delivers. You call them up, tell 'em what you want, and they drive it over to you. That's how small Moose Jaw is.

Anyway...

Sympathic friends

Over the last few days, I've gotten a lot of sympathy from everywhere - friends, co-workers, my students, family, my Swedish instructor. I've received texts, emails and phone calls from people who fall into one of two categories. Either they want to trash talk (with a Go Canada Go!)or they are genuinely sympathetic towards me and ask how I'm coping.
The longest distance was Newcastle, Australia, where a good friend lives. We worked together every day for five years, and she knows me better than most people. She fell into the category of genuine sympathy. Her husband is Slovakian by birth, so there was a little trash-talk from him, given that the Slovaks beat Sweden 4 - 3.
I guess it goes to show that anyone who knows me, knows how much Alexander Ovechkin and his Russian comrades as well as Tre Kronor mean to me.

Olympics - end of the road for me (maybe)

"This is the worst day of my hockey life", is what I said after Sweden lost 4 - 3 to Slovakia in their quarterfinal match last night. The game was over at 12:14 a.m Calgary time, and that's all I could manage to say.

The night started out with Canada laying a beating on Russia, the score being 7 - 3 when all was said and done.
Then the Finns blanked the Czechs 2 - 0.
And in what was the upset of the games in men's hockey, Slovakia beat up on my Swedes 4 - 3. Oh sure, the Swedes made it interesting, scoring goals 37 seconds apart to tie the game 2 - 2 at one point in the second period. With my heart racing as quickly as the .10 second clock, the clock ticked down and it was all over.

All in all, the 5 Washington Capitals that were in the Olympics all lost out in a matter of hours!
Russians Alexander Ovechkin, Alexander Semin, Semyon Varlamov went out first, then Czech Thomas Fleishmann, and finally, the Swedish Nicklas Bäckström.

From espn.go.com -- "I don't know, I don't have an explanation right now," a stunned Backstrom said. "I don't feel we were on top of our game. They're a good team, we knew that before the game, but we weren't ready maybe.

"We should be better than what we showed. I'm just really upset right now."

That's what bothers me most - my guys expecting more from themselves and when it doesn't happen, them feeling upset over something they can not directly control.

Now they can all get back to the business at hand and focus on making a good Cup run with their Capitals.
The rest of my Caps had their first practice yesterday at Kettler.

(P.S - at one point during the Russia/Canada game, I remember thinking that if it were the Capitals playing this version of team Canada, Caps could come back from a 3-goal deficit easy.)

I do not wear black clothes, but if I did, today would be the day to dust them off...

I don't know if I'll have enough interest left in me to continue watching the rest of the men's hockey. I would be rooting for the Finns I think. Maybe I'll put the gold medal game on in the background as I'm housecleaning on Sunday. Right now though, I've just moved into the 'acceptance' stage.

Russia vs. Canada - Vancouver 2010

I just finished watching Canada lay a beat-down on Russia -- Final score 7 - 3.

I'm still in shock at the lack of everything the Russians were able to muster. I've never seen such a talent-laden team play so individually. It was upsetting, to say the least.

The game was pitted as Crosby versus Ovechkin, Olympic version, but it certainly did not turn out that way. Canada outhit and outshot the Russians in the first 5 minutes of the game, and really set the tone, taking it to the Russians on almost every shift. It was unbelieveable, and not in a good way.
I thought that Roberto Luongo playing in his home arena in front of a rabid crowd, versus a very good Evgeni Nabakov would present a great goaltending matchup. It was clear from a few minutes in that Canada came to play. They are under so much pressure after that loss to the US that made it so that Canada had to play an extra game versus Germany. I thought that maybe they would be tired, but as Chris Cutherbert from TSN pointed out, time management in that Germany game played a pivotal role in keeping the guys rested.

But back to this game. My guy Ovi was so limited in his time and space. It was unbelievable. I'm so not able to analyze things objectively right now. It hurts me that my favorite player is done for the tournament. It hurts me that he's upset. I know how hard he is on himself. I can only hope that this helps him with the rest of the Caps season.

He did take a shot off the hand late in the third. Here's hoping he's okay...

The Olympics - my take

For some reason, maybe because the Olympics are in Vancouver (a short 45 minute flight from here), I've been paying a lot of attention to the winter games. On opening weekend, I literally watched about 24 hours of coverage, if not more (thanks to PVR I was watching live action on one station, and then watching what I missed after that station went off air...a couple of late nights!!)
Anyway, after watching so many athletes perform their heart out (in everything from Nordic combined, to downhill, to biathalon, long track speedskating and pairs figure skating, mens and women's moguls, etc, etc, etc), it kind of ticked me off that the NHLers are now stealing the spotlight.
The NHLers are professional athletes with yearly million dollar salaries, mixing in with the althletes, who in a lot of cases, have day jobs. It somehow doesn't seem right. I mean, Olympic athletes typically don't have fans wearing sweaters with their favorite player's name on the back. I think 99/100 of them can walk down the street unrecognized, even if they've got a gold medal around their neck. They are not household names, and they are not taking a two-week break from their multimillion dollar day job (except Dale Begg-Smith). (tidbit: In the NHL, one sellout game brings in over a million dollars in ticket sales...and there are over 1000 games in the regular season! -- granted not every game is a sellout in every NHL city, but still.)

I remember 1994 when Sweden won the Gold medal in Men's Hockey. It was exciting hockey, complete with future NHL superstar Peter Forsberg winning the Gold for Tre Kronor in dramatic fashion. The following Olympics in 1998 was the first year they featured the NHLers and the agreement (contract with kickbacks, I should say) that allows NHLers in, ends in 2010.

Now....I love watching international hockey. (I watch the world juniors and the world championships religiously). I love watching players represent their countries! There is so much pride involved, and so many great story lines. NHL teammates become rivals due to their birthplace. It's great on so many levels....but I think it is misplaced in the Olympics.

I have a plan (schemy fingers like Mr. Burns from the Simpsons....'yeeeesss').
It starts by cutting the NHL season down by about 4 teams. (come on, there are a lot of struggling franchises, particularly in the southern states that we could stand to get rid of!). That would elimate about 90 players from the League, and the hockey would probably change a little, eliminating a lot of bubble players. (Daniel Carcillo comes to mind...but he's another blog topic!)
After that's done, cut out about 20 games a season from 82 to 60 or so. There will be more of a sense of urgency from fans to buy tickets for an NHL game, particularly with this better brand of hockey. With fewer teams and the shortened schedule, the playoffs would have less teams making it in. AND, they would start in March and end in April...which is just in time for the World Championships, that start every year in May! Then we could have the best players in the world playing for their countries every year rather than once every four years!
Think about it - less teams, shortened schedule - it would be more exciting for the fans who will be much more engaged, (with likely every game in every building being a sell out)!. Playoffs start and end sooner, and then players are able to represent their countries at the World Championships if they so choose!
I think it's a swell idea!

Back to the task at hand...the NHL invading the Olympics.

In silent protest, I haven't watched any of the preliminary games in the round robin pool action. I will however, do a 180 and likely start watching at least the semi's and the final. And I will likely cry tears of joy when whichever winning country is celebrating and signing their national anthem.

I don't remember feeling like this towards the NHL last winter games. Maybe in my old age, I've become crotchity.

Ovi's skates at the Vancouver Olympics...

Of course, the skates are causing quite a stir. Goalies personalize their masks; why can't a skater personalize his blades??