WOW Canada!

There was a tremendous hockey game last night, but someone forget to invite the Russian goaltenders. The other Russian players received the invite, but decided they had better things to do like watch Apolo Ohno in the 500m. Consequently the Canadians, upset the Americans had already spoiled their party, they went to the Russians hotel pulled them out of bed, dragged them to the ice, pulled their shirt of their heads, and then beat them to a bloody pulp. Even Alex the great was MIA.  It was one of the biggest flops in recent memory.  What was thought to be an epic battle turned out to be an epic beat down. After Canada scored an early touchdown Russia tried to get close, but was only able to kick a field goal and lost 7 to 3.  ОЙ or OUCH it hurts no matter how you say it! Russia was sent packing without the hardware everyone expected them to take home, but there were some nice parting gifts syrup, bacon used as a pizza topping and a few leafs. Welcome to Canada, now go home. ПОКА and have a nice trip.
Canada will face the winner of Sweden and Slovakia, which will took place at Midnight ET last night. I love Olympic hockey, but that is why the DVR was invented.
Team USA got past the Swiss by a score of 2-0 in a tough fought game. The U.S. will face either Czech or Finland who were still tied at my bedtime. Ryan Miller was again fantastic, the only question is whether Miller will have enough in the tank to win two more games and take the gold.
Friday the Final Four begins at 3:00 PM ET. Today buckle up for women’s hockey, as the two best teams by far will play in the Gold Medal game at 6:30 PM ET. Did I mention it is the U.S. vs. Canada? Yeah you might want to check it out.

Hockey H-Eh-Day

There is nothing quite like international hockey. Make it the Olympics and throw in the fact that the six best teams were all playing their rivals on the same day and you have a Hockey H-Eh-Day. The day began with Russia vs. Czech and ended with Finland vs. Sweden. Oh yeah the U.S. vs. Canada was sandwiched in between.


The U.S. beat Canada in the Olympics for the first time since 1960. It took retro jerseys, which I am a huge fan of, and a 42 save effort by U.S. Goalie Ryan Miller to take out the Canadians. The 5-3 win secured the group A victory for the U.S. and gave them a first round bye. More importantly, the win gives the team a much-needed extra day off and either the first or the second seed going into the elimination round.

Russia secured first place in group B with a bone crushing win over the Czech team. The turning point in the game was an Ovechkin hit on former NHL star Jaromir Jagr (see it here). The hit lead to a turnover and two passes later a Russian goal. From that point on the score and the momentum was in the Russians favor. It would end in a 4-2 win for Russia and guaranteeing that Russia would join the U.S. in the quarterfinals.

All matchups have yet to be determined, but the elimination rounds begin Tuesday with 8 of the 12 teams in action. The U.S. & Russia will be joined by the winner out of the late game between Finland and Sweden for the top 4 seeds and byes. It will get complicated after that for the 4th seed.
Overall the day was full of excitement and it should only get better as now it is lose and go home. Hopefully, the tournament will lead to more memorable matchups and incredible hockey.

Vladimir Putin is RIGHT!

Well if I had a million bucks (or bucksov as the Russians would say) for every time I said this I probably would have just made my first million. Then again if they gave out millions to agree with Putin there might be a lot more agreement in the International community. So what do I agree with Putin on? His opinion on the Olympic Figure Skating.

Why is a Prime Minister of a country jumping into a figure skating controversy? Because to Russia it matters, especially after Slutskaya lost in 2002.

Putin told Plushenko, "I would like to sincerely congratulate you on the wonderful Olympic performance -- your silver is worth gold. You were able to overcome all the obstacles in your brave comeback and performed the most accomplished programme on the Vancouver ice. All Russian figure skating fans admire your brilliance, true fighting spirit, courage and the will to win. Well done!"

Lysacek was terrific and skated a beautiful program. The question is a matter of what the judges and figure skating want to reward. The judges rewarded the skaters the same on the artistic potion, but gave the nod to Lysacek in technical difficulty. This seems a bit backwards. If this is how skating is scored why was Johnny Weir so far back? He skated a wonderfully artistic program and did so very clean. As Weir stated in a late night interview, “It is political.”

Some feel I am tainted by the fact I served a mission in Russia. This is true, I love Russia and the Russian people, but I have always cheered for my homeland first. However, Plushenko’s ability to do things others cannot, had me watching a sport I normally leave for my wife. Lysacek made me say that was beautiful and very graceful. Plushenko made me say, OH WOW, did he just do that!

The winter sports gaining popularity are things like snowboard halfpipe, because the tricks are progressive and pushing the envelope. If you want to win you have to do things that have never been done before. If figure skating wants to grow and increase popularity it should follow suit. In the sports world if you are not progressing you are dying.

American’s that follow this event have been outraged by Plushenko’s and Putin’s comments. However, let’s flip the script. An American just got silver despite doing things on skates the gold medal winner can only dream of doing. How outraged would we all be? VERY! We don’t handleb default that graciously and so we shouldn’t expect others to.

As for Lysacek he has been a gold medal person throughout the whole ordeal. He has tried to diffuse the situation by stating that the comments of Plushenko have been taken out of context etc. He has been a true champion in this regard. Normally you are not rewarded in life for being a great person in this case maybe Lysacek was.

As for you Mr. Prime Minister you are correct and so is your skater.