Vancouver '10 Games

Great game by Canada, although a few of the goals must be put down to terrible Russian defense. I don't like Sweden's chances if they make it past Slovakia.
 
And I'm hoping the Slovaks beat the Swedes. Nothing personal, I just want the Slovaks to make it to the medal round.
 
I'd rather play Russia too :P Well we'll see what happens tonight! 0-0 for the Finns and Czechs right now.
 
So far, I'd say the Czechs have the edge. They just need to stop taking stupid penalties.
 
True, but the Finns have some great players - Selanne, Koivu, Koivu, Timonen...and Kiprusoff is better than Vokoun IMO.
 
Both my teams are out :(

Well, the Czechs haven't really impressed anyway. I did think Sweden would beat Slovakia.
 
Wow, Slovakia beat Tre Kronor. Didn't see that coming after their performance against us.

Since I've always had a soft spot for our"second" neighbours, Finland, I'll be cheering for them for the rest of the tournament  :D I really like that the first semi-final as well as the final are played at 12:00 local time (21:00 here) so I can watch them without fucking up my sleep cycle completely ...


Disappointing relay yesterday, seen from a Norwegian point of view. Martin Johnsrud Sundby on the first leg managed to hang on, but Odd-Bjørn Hjelmeset lost more than 30 sec to the leaders, so we were pretty much out of it at 2nd exchange. Lars Berger kept the same distance to the leading trio, and we could probably not expect more (he normally competes in biathlon ...). However, a fantastic final leg by Petter Northug secured silver. Sweden were too strong, but Northug actually took more than 20 seconds off their lead. I think it was more or less in the hands of the Swedish at the last exchange, when they were in a leading trio with France and Czech Republic. Hellner is much stronger than Koukal and Jonnier.

I allow myself to hope for retribution on the 50 km mass start  :innocent:

Until Norway win more medals, have a look at our current medal count:

Country  Gold Silver Bronze Total
3  Norway  6  6  6  18

http://www.vancouver2010.com/olympic-medals/
 
I finally got to see some hockey!!!!! I couldn't catch the US or Canada games, but I saw the sleeper between Finland and the Czechs and I think the Finns got REALLY lucky thanks to international rules. Slovakia vs Sweden was AMAZING! Slovakia up 2-0 with goals 30 seconds apart, Sweden ties just as quickly, then SLK up 4-2 and SWE makes one final push... AWESOME.

Now on the actually being able to see. NBC is a piece of shit. They say "NBC is covering the Olympics," but on NBC (chanel 4 on ANY provider, whether rabbit ears or satellite) they don't mention that CNBC is also covering the olympics.

CFH referred to short track racing as a "fringe sport." Let us be honest for a second. EVERY sport at the winter olympics for the exception of ice hockey is a "fringe sport." I never see downhill skiing on TV, or luge or curling except during the winter olympics. But hockey? There's the NHL in North America, Europe has a shit-ton of leagues from the SM-Liiga in Finlad to the KHL in Russia. In Europe seasons are 30 or 40 some-odd games, the NHL plays 82... it is ALWAYS hockey season and in North America while a distant 4th, it still competes with the NFL, NBA and MLB as a "major" sport.

Why this rant? Because NBC devotes 99.9% of it's coverage to the "fringe sports" of biathlon, figure skating and skiing, and relegates the "major" sport of hockey to it's sister channel CNBC who not everybody has (but everybody with a TV has NBC) and even fails to make note of it...
 
Why this rant? Because NBC devotes 99.9% of it's coverage to the "fringe sports" of biathlon, figure skating and skiing, and relegates the "major" sport of hockey to it's sister channel CNBC who not everybody has (but everybody with a TV has NBC) and even fails to make note of it...
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I am stunned they did'nt televise USA v Canada on NBC. But that is why they are 4th in the ratings anyway. BTW, anyone else see that hit Ovie put on Jagr. That was pretty awesome. But I kinda feel bad for Jagr, because he is starting to play his age out there.
 
Onhell said:
CFH referred to short track racing as a "fringe sport." Let us be honest for a second. EVERY sport at the winter olympics for the exception of ice hockey is a "fringe sport." I never see downhill skiing on TV, or luge or curling except during the winter olympics. 
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Actually, at least some of the other major Alpine skiing events in the world are shown on U.S. network television, usually on NBC.  This is because NBC doesn't broadcast any football on the weekends other than Notre Dame games on some Saturdays, so they program hockey, skiing, ice skating and some of the snowboarding stuff during the winter months.  Not many people watch, though, because those events are usually broadcast on weekend afternoons opposite the football games on ABC (Saturdays) and CBS and Fox (Sundays).  Onhell is right, however, that luge, curling and many other Winter Olympic events are never seen on U.S. television except during the Olympics.  Speed skating is among them.  Bear in mind that short-track was even more "fringe" in the U.S., at least before Ohno came along, and very few in the U.S. had ever even heard of that sport.  The downhill, slalom, etc. are, along with hockey, the key Winter Olympics events for U.S. sports fans.  I deliberately left figure skating and ice dancing off that list, even though they get the highest ratings in the U.S., because -- let's face it -- those aren't really "sports" and appeal mostly to non-sports fans (usually women viewers). 
Onhell said:
NBC is a piece of shit. They say "NBC is covering the Olympics," but on NBC (chanel 4 on ANY provider, whether rabbit ears or satellite) they don't mention that CNBC is also covering the olympics.
...
Why this rant? Because NBC devotes 99.9% of it's coverage to the "fringe sports" of biathlon, figure skating and skiing, and relegates the "major" sport of hockey to it's sister channel CNBC who not everybody has (but everybody with a TV has NBC) and even fails to make note of it...
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No argument from me, though I'm a hard core sports fan, and NBC is not catering to hard-core sports fans in its prime-time coverage.  It is catering to people who like to watch figure skating and ice dancing -- i.e., crap.  That said, it probably will get higher ratings that way.  One interesting side effect, though: NBC has the contract to broadcast NHL games, and by failing to show hockey, it may be costing itself ratings on its NHL coverage.  The NHL Commissioner, Gary Bettman, has publicly questioned whether the league will allow NHL players to participate in the next Olympics, because the NBC has been giving hockey the high hard one in its coverage and, consequently, the NHL expects to get a negligible, if any, ratings boost for its own games as a result of allowing its players to compete in the Olympics. 
 
Personally I agree on your assessment of figure skating and ice dancing, but same could be said about any "judged sport."

And I have been hearing/reading reports of people being IRATE over NBC's coverage of the hockey games. Honestly, if the NHL won't allow players to attend the Olympics two things will happen. 1. player drain, some European players might elect to stay in Europe to participate in the tourney, hell, how many ex-NHLers are in this tournament? Zigmund Palffy??!! I thought that guy retired due to a shoulder injury like a decade a go and it turns out he's been playing in Europe. 2. it will weaken U.S and Canda severely as ALL their players play in the NHL. Can you imagine, Ovie, Malkin and Nabokov (assuming they play in the KHL) against Canadian minor leaguers? HA!

what will most likely happen though is players will bitch about not being able to compete, but won't care too much as they make millions and they're already competing for the toughest trophy in pro sports, the Stanley Cup.
 
Yay! Norway's first gold in women's 4*5 relay since 1984! A solid performance from each of our 4 girls, and twice Olympic champion Marit Bjørgen finished the opponents off quite early on the last leg. The biggest challengers were Germany and Finland, who were 15 seconds behind after the third exchange. When they were 20 seconds behind after 1.7 km I, and many others, realized it was going to happen.

Gotta love them *  :D

_G-Tittel-sxebfaf8_1216971x.jpg


*) Especially Therese Johaug on the far right  :innocent:
 
Onhell said:
And I have been hearing/reading reports of people being IRATE over NBC's coverage of the hockey games. Honestly, if the NHL won't allow players to attend the Olympics two things will happen. 1. player drain, some European players might elect to stay in Europe to participate in the tourney, hell, how many ex-NHLers are in this tournament? Zigmund Palffy??!! I thought that guy retired due to a shoulder injury like a decade a go and it turns out he's been playing in Europe. 2. it will weaken U.S and Canda severely as ALL their players play in the NHL. Can you imagine, Ovie, Malkin and Nabokov (assuming they play in the KHL) against Canadian minor leaguers? HA!

what will most likely happen though is players will bitch about not being able to compete, but won't care too much as they make millions and they're already competing for the toughest trophy in pro sports, the Stanley Cup.
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I doubt the NHL will stop releasing players for the Olympics. If they're serious about marketing themselves in Europe it would be the worst possible move, and I'm sure quite a few European players - especially Russians - would head back home.
 
Shadow said:
I doubt the NHL will stop releasing players for the Olympics. If they're serious about marketing themselves in Europe it would be the worst possible move, and I'm sure quite a few European players - especially Russians - would head back home.
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Something tells me that the ability to compete in the Olympics against less-than-the-best (i.e., U.S. and Canadian amateurs) will not, by itself, lure many Europeans to European leagues.  What would?  Cash money, or if any particular European league began to rival the NHL in terms of talent/competition. 
 
I think you underestimate how much the Olympics and the national team mean to a lot of players. If the NHL won't release players for the Sochi Olympics, I have no doubt that some Russian star players will leave the NHL, if only temporarily, to participate. An Olympic gold on home ice is certainly as big as a Stanley Cup title for European players who grew up watching their national teams. Believe it or not, the Stanley Cup doesn't get that much attention here.

Didn't Ovechkin already say he will play in 2014 even if the NHL doesn't participate?
 
Ovechkin *and* Malkin. If they leave their teams during the season they'd get suspended too, and I can't imagine an NHL without Ovechkin right now. He's too important to their marketing strategy. Bettman is pushing the possibility of not going to Sochi so he has another bargaining chip during the 2012 CBA discussions. He wants to make sure that the Union will give as much as possible, even though now that he has the cap, it shouldn't be a problem.

Many Europeans come to the NHL because it's where the best are, and they are competitive people. Some come for the money. But you have to wonder - what about a guy like Maxim Afinogenov, a Russian, who is making $800k right now for the Atlanta Thrashers? He could have made 2-3 million easy in the KHL. It's not just about money for a lot of hockey players. Some? Sure. But there are guys who take pay cuts because they want a chance to win, or even play with the big boys. A lot of those guys would move to Europe for a chance to compete in the Olympics.
 
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