Winter Olympic Ice Hockey (Another off topic thread)
 

So who do you think will get the gold?

(I voted Russia http://www.discussworldissues.com/fo...lies/smile.gif )

Wow.. The Canadians are out??? I wasn't expecting the US to make any noise in Hockey but they looked really bad out there.

Tim

That's what you get for putting a bunch of old hard-hitting NHL types into a big-rink international game. Should've gone with the younger faster guys.

The women still kicked ass, though.

You're talking about the Canadian team, right? I think that the US team is a bit old as well, but they did have some young talent (ie Brian Gionta, whom I went to high school with). Either team didn't seem to showcase these types of guys though. Too bad.

Yeah, the Canadians. The US losing hockey is a big shrug to most Americans. Getting knocked out in the quarters is a national crisis here.

No one asked me for advice, if they had, I would have had Kurt Russell put the team together. He did a heck of a job in Miricle.

Ya.. Hockey Schmockey. Most ppl here care about NASCAR (blech) football (US) and basketball (which officially focuses more on highlight reel dunks, behind the back passes and the steal for the dunk instead of the nice look or the plan to get the star a wide open jumper)

Tim

Bite your tongue! My sympathies to Canada in these dark days. Perhaps Canada can crush the Finns sliding rocks tomorrow?

I don't follow much basketball, but it seems like Nash is kinda the opposite of that and if memory serves he was MVP last year and seems headed for another one this year.

I really don't care what happens in curling. As far as I'm concerned, any game where you can (and frequently do) smoke and drink during the game is no Olympic sport. What's next, Olympic lawn bowling?

I voted Sweden, obviously.
More of some sort of nationalistic spirit than out of interest. Apart from kendo and iaido, I am not a great sportsfan.
I can often be heard uttering things like "Ah, so it's an olympic year... Is it summer- or winter olympics?" http://www.discussworldissues.com/fo...lies/cool2.gif

I hope russia or finland wins

There is no Montreal Canadiens players on the Team Canada, but there is 3 captain of countries team playing for the Canadiens.
Saku koivu (finland), Alex Kovalev (Russia), and Mark Streit (Switzerland)

Under those criteria, snowboarders all go home. I'm one of approximately five Americans who have:

1) Actually gone curling (some bowling-alley like place in Winnipeg) and...

2) Liked it.

But, "Olympic" - I have to agree, it's not remotely about fitness. Neither are archery or marksmanship events (except biathlon) - but they all give the squattybodies something to aspire to.

Edit: Oh yeah, Go Finland?

Growing up in Denmark, the nearest we would ever get to a winter Olympics medal was supporting Sweden. We might hate them when it comes to any other matter, but I will certainly support their hockey team.
Question to the North Americans: Are all your hockey rings NHL-sized? I mean, in school, etc, do you play on NHL sized rings or international sized rings. It seems quite obvious to me, that the European teams, while they may not be as good technicly, are far more comfortable with moving and passing on the big rink, while especially the US are still trying to force it past the opponent, rather than play it past.

Ya. Nash is definitely an exception. The next version of Stockton, I think. Jordan in a way ruined the sport by making a bunch of Jordan wannabes who try to shoot their way out of trouble when they don't have the skill to. I always followed bball and football. Hockey in the form of the Sharks came in the early 90's. LA always had a hockey team from the 70's but I never followed it.

Tim

EEK! US and Canada knocked out early! Good thing we've been too busy to watch much. It would be very depressing--not that we've recovered from the NHL crap from last year (or the crap the women's team pulled last olympics, or Fox sports buying up all the Wings coverage and having no local broadcast, or living farther from Windsor--no CBC hockey nights now).

I wasn't aware there was a larger size. Most of the rinks seem pretty big when you're on them. If anything, I would suspect the school rinks are smaller to get more in the building space, but I'm only a casual sports watcher for those fringe sports (like hockey). I can't say the 5-10 rec rinks I've been to are any different in size from the NHL rink in Detroit--at least not obviously.

I'm not a hockey player, but I'd say in general they were around NHL-sized. There's some variation. IIRC until recently even the NHL rinks were not all the same size. But Canadians have always had trouble with the international game and rink size plays a big role in that I think.

All NHL rinks are NHL-sized rinks. There are a lot of ice skating rinks in the US and not all of them are NHL-sized. High-school and university rinks are sometimes a bit smaller. Same thing in Canada.

European teams are as good technically as North American teams. The difference is they are used to playing on a larger rink. The US and Canadian teams have to adjust their "game". It's kind of like going from indoor soccer (football) to outdoor soccer. You have more field to play so you let distance work for you.

i'm defecting from canada and going to vote for finland!....the underdogs compared to the russians?



~taganahan

I liked the women's snowboarding, especially when the leader tried a showboat move on the last jump, fell and lost.

On a semi related note (to the olympics), I dislike the newer style of figure skating, methinks it's now more like "who can do the most pirouettes" on ice. Nothing like the Torvill & Dean footage I saw.

Well it's us against the finns in a classical olympic final. I, being half finnish, couldn't be happier...well...maybe if it was Sweden vs. Finland in the european kendo championships team final and not olympic hockey final. http://www.discussworldissues.com/fo...ilies/wink.gif