Posted on 21 February 2006.
Quick wrap-up from the preliminary round of the Men’s hockey tournament with Dave Thorvald and Toadler from upstairs. Plus bold predictions for the quarter-final round and a wee bit of history tossed in.
Download: Quarter-final Hockey Predictions
Olympic Outsider podcast (.mp3, 10:14, 14MB)
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Posted on 19 February 2006.
Well after the euphoria of Day Seven, Day Eight was a bit of a reality check after a variety of disappointments and underwhelming performances. Day Nine though is shaping up nicely despite the being down 2-0 to Finland after 1 period.
A few notes:
Men’s Hockey loses to Suisse
For a loss, oddly this one didn’t hurt all that much. Switzerland played their guts out and scored another huge victory. I won’t go on cause i blogged live during the game, but the short version is, … Way to go Switzerland for stepping it up and (with your 2 huge wins) welcome to the big leagues.
Men losing to Finland
Underway now in the second which must be better than the first in which Canada stood around and watched Finland put on a clinic in team play, skill and hustle. I am bit peeved right now so will hold my tongue in anticipation of a spirited comeback.
Speed Skating
Jeremy is broken… a lackluster performance in the 1000m makes me wonder why the announcers are even asking Wotherspoon if he plans to come back for 2010 cause the way he performed at this games (and last for this matter) is just weak and not worthy of the slot if he is not commited to massive clutch improvement. Sorry man, i am a fan and cheer for you every race but I am done. Build the oval in Richmond and let’s get some youngsters training to take the torch.
Cindy Klaussen however is better than expected with 3 medals already, the most recent, a Silver in 1000m with her fave 1500m still to go. (The adorable) Timmer from Netherlands won Gold and (the scandalously sultry) Anni Freisinger scoring Bronze.
Bobsleigh
Fun to watch, the sleds are cool (note: all sleds must weigh the same with riders on board which is what you want heavy guys who can run fast so they can push the heavy sled, rather than skinny fast guys who would have to push a heavier sled, dig?).
Veteran Pierre Leuders and partner Lascelles Brown (welcome to Canada bro) did not disappoint with improvements each run including the final runs in the evening with snow falling – great scenes and great Silver medal finish. Canada 2 sled finished 10th if i recall correctly, boding well for 2010.
Ski Jumping
I only saw clips but i love this sport, so graceful to watch (as i posted to Boris’s blog, re: fave from SLC, “Ski jumping, which should be called Ski Falling, blew my mind – the massive size of the hill, the wee-ness of the skiiers and the gracefullness of the whole routine. One second the jumper is a speck atop a masive tower, and a blink later, the skier is sliding to a stop next to you in a puffy suit, after a controlled fall that must feel like a flying for a hour when you are doing it.”)
Again with a ski jump somewhere besides Calgary, this is a sport which Canada could improve in in future games. Young Read (nephew of Ken) finished like 30th so not to bad.
Curling
The people’s champion in Italy – curling is scoring huge rating in the bocce-enthusastic country. The Italian men beat Canadian men to put pressure on their hopes of making the playoffs. Ditto for the Women who also dropped to 4-3 to Japan but then came back today with a win against Italy as did the men who beat up on New Zealand. So both rinks are looking solid to advance to the playoff.
Alpine Skiing
Great performances by skiing legends Aamodt and Meier kept Eric Guay off the podium after he turned in a great run after being questionable due to a leg injury. He took an injection and skiied his guts out and sat fourth til the Herminator did his usual dominant run (if he doesn’t crash, he medals it seems) – way to go 4th place for Guay though.
Other CDN Super G’ers were a bit hosed since they had to re-ski due to weather issues. After the first run, our lads were sitting well but after the race was called, their runs on the restart didn’t merit medals. The guy who was really pissed was the Frenchman who was sitting first after the cancelled run and botched his 2nd misses a gate and squirrelling down the hill in obvious anger and crashed through the exit area hollering epiphets to the worldwide audience.
Other news
Austria cross country ski team got shook down by the Italain fuzz in a early morning raid which seems selective and fishy to me. That didn’t stop, CBC heel Terry Liebel from asking Beckie Scott and Sarah Renner about it over and over again (shut the hell up woman!).
In other hockey games, … Slovakia continues to roll winning over Kazakhs, Russia is on track and beating up on Lativa (whoa re out of gas) and the USA is still scrambling after losing to Sweden who are trying to find consistency.
All for now, heading to Whister for tubing after game. Go Canada!
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Posted on 18 February 2006.
Switzerland coming off a huge win versus Czech Republic while Canada has been clipping along nicely withs comfy wins versus Italy and Germany.
The Swiss start goalie Gerber over Aebisher but no let down in play early as Gerber (wearing his NHL Carolina Hurricanes mask) is playing out of his mind.
Broduer looks a bit tired and unsteady and is coming out of his net a little *too* much for my liking but doing his soft goalie hands routine with some long lead passes and even getting passes back from the D (which isn’t my favorite play).
Bertuzzi had an apparent goal disallowed when the play had been whistled down since he was in the crease. Sakic, Iginla and Bert are playing OK but not as dominant as recent games and overthinking the plays a bit. Bert’s positional play and passing looks very good and he buried one guy into the boards.
In general, Canada is getting most of their chances right in front of the goal but the Swiss are collapsing down low and gobbling up loose pucks – especially on their 6 unsuccessful power plays.
St. Louis and Nash are stepping up their play. Smyth, Doan, and Draper need to demonstrate why they are on this team with some inspiried energic play – this is tough with a penatly filled period including a 5-3 which resulted in the second Dipietro goal for the Swiss. Lecavalier isn’t real assertive and looks a bit out of sync however Richards impresses me with his excellent passing and vision.
Nash was robbed by Gerber (and the replay judges to some degree). He ripped a shot from right side and Gerber (the guy has ESP today) came across and grabbed the puck out of the air. The momentum of the puck carried his glove into the net but the replay was inconclusive – circumstantial evidence only since you couldn’t clearly see thepuck over the line. Bummer, but Canada shouldn’t be dependant on shaky goals and should be up by a couple by now but Gerber is playing awesome and Canada is not making sharp decisions. The Swiss are hustling and supporting each other while the Canadians have been getting out of position when they try to land big hits.
In the third period, … Canada needs to step back to the hash marks to shoot and bring the game away from the boards and into the middle and going to have to possess the puck for the third period or else they will go down in flames.
Are we seeing history? Swiss has never beat Canada in Olympics and this Games hasn’t been short on upsets. The Swiss are led by Mark Streit and Dipietro – two players with Montreal Canadiens ties. Great play and sporting spirit by the mostly Swiss (and Swedish) Elite league players.
The third period sees Canada pummel the net but to no avail – another almost goal when Joe Thorton curled it right onto the goal-line thorugh Gerber pads and his d-man tucked it back into the his equipment.
The 3rd period is another penalty fest with calls (some rather weak) going both ways including Vinny taking 2 + a 10 minute misconduct for boarding and complained on his way to the box. He might sit next game if we have another player eligible to play.
More hectic play by the Canadians down the stretch but the team play of the Swiss and the insane goaltending of Gerber carried the day.
Just when Switzerland thought they had had the biggest day of their hockey history after beating the Czechs, they come back with another goalie and beat a tired and disappointed Canadian squad. Crazy times – all bets are off!
Another Canadian ex-pat Dipietro, along with Gerber of course (about 45 saves i think) was the star. Really a good game which makes the loss sting a little less. Canada should be proud too of Canucks-abroad working as coaches and GMs and building the sport world-wide. The Swiss love hockey and, after seeing the young Swiss squad play fast, inspired hockey versus Canada at the World Juniors, things look bright for Switzerland now and in the future.
One more note: Has there ever been more pounds out on the ice for a team in the history of hockey than when Canada iced Nash, Bertuzzi, Thornton, Pronger and Blake? That is a lot of hockeyplayer.
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Posted on 17 February 2006.
Day Seven and I am in Heaven, How about you?
A few quick notes after busy day of attending the RainCity / Bryght-sponsored Symposium at Vancouver‘s Take 5 coffeeshop.
The event linked up the Torino street-maniacs Krug, Scales and (the not sooo maniacal) Bman at the BC lodge in Turin, Italy. Participants on the Western hemisphere included Gold Medalist Ross Rebagliati, plus photo-machine Roland Tanglao, boy-wonder Will Pate, very public Michael Tippet, photo queen Spiral Goddess, my buddy Bread and many more.
After a few technical foibles due to the restrictive network policies in Italy, we “go’ed with the flow” and had a good discussion about new media coverage and the Olympic coverage and what all that means. Ross shared candid comments about the Canadian sports program, the challenges of being an elite athlete, his ways and means and plans for 2010.
I enjoyed a fancy and free coffee (with Bailey’s mmm) and had a great talk with the esteemed (and comfortably infamous) Gold Medalist Mr. Rebagliatti – podcast coming soon with topics including the drug testing incident and hemp culture in Japan besides his training regiment, life plans, real estate skills and hobbies.
Medal Haul Continues
In case you didn’t notice, with 3 more medals today (see below), Canada is tied for 2nd with Russia and Germany for total medal count. With 1 Gold but plenty of others, Norway leads the way. The USA, despite some high profile wins, sits in 5th.
Here is a screenshot for posterity – Day 7 and looking good, with more on the way!
By the way, with 3 Golds and only 1.33 million people, Estonia is likely your top winter Olympic country. Norway, with 13 medals (1 Gold) and 4.5 million folks is the probable mathematical winner – thanks to Dan Funboy for research notes.
Sliding Away Quickly
Duff Gibson (superhero name for sure) became Canada’s oldest medalist (39 years old IIRC), with a Gold in Skeleton. Another Canadian Skelathlete, Jeff Pain (good pro-wrestler name) finished with Silver and the Swiss slider ruined the Canadian sweep as Paul Boehm finished 4th. See a new sport Canada is good at, just like wrote yesterday – so yes, i will take ALL the credit 
Snowboard Supercross
See another new sport, another medal (see I told you). This time a Bronze in a brand-new sport, Women’s Snowboard Cross won by Quebec’s Dominique Maltais in a rough and tumble event featuring lots of crashes on a challenging course.
Crossing the Gap in Women’s hockey
This is huge! and tremendously exciting as Sweden survived a USA team with strong goaltending and some puck luck. It took a shootout to decide the contest which the USA led until the third when they failed to capitalize on many chances and Sweden scored a sweet one to tie.
Overtime saw end to end rushes with numerous battles as the energy-depleted players skated with maximum effort. USA wasn’t able to score on a late Power play and, even got a bonus shot in the shootout when the Swedish goalies was judged to have moved before the puck, couldn’t put one in. Sweden made it secure with 2 nice goals – that being said both goalies made nice saves but players were perhaps guilty of trying one-too-many dekes.
So, after thick-headed, sports-talk-radio types ranting on about Women’s hockey’s lack of legitimacy because of the disparity between the two powerhouse teams and the rest of the countries, this year (note: the third Olympics since this sport joined) the top 2 will be different. Here’s to Piper, Sunohara and the rest of the Canadian Women going for Gold!
Cherry Agrees with Me on Moore
So Don Cherry stirred up a bit of controversy (as is his custom) by expressing sentiments about Steve Moore’s poor timing on lawsuit. I agree and feel Moore’s suit is *still* out of jurisdiction and frankly, his whack-a-mole civil lawsuit strategy is embarrassing to him and his family – his money-sniffing legal advisor(s) should be ashamed.
It is one thing to file a lawsuit (and no i don’t condone Bertuzzi’s actions in the incident), but it is another thing to file repeated frivolous lawsuits naming numerous defendants from a “crime” which has been tried, convicted and penalty served. Steve, take your insurance settlement and find a new dream. Peace.
Hasek Czechs Out
Indeed Dominik’s groin, or hamstring, or something gave out so ‘no go’ for the ’98 Olympic hero. Tomas Vokoun is a fine goalie but does not have the big game mystique and intimidation, not to mention the raw competitiveness, that Gumby brings.
I am curious to the see the fall-out from the Senator’s GM (and other NHL GMs for that matter), if Hasek’s injury prevents him from playing the stretch or playoffs for the NHL club. Elias is out too as his injury bug woes continues – good news is this time the injury is an ankle, not a recurrence of hepatitis A - Kotalik from NHL Sabres takes his place in the line-up.
Despite the setbacks, the Czech team is far from a long-shot, still boasting a stocked roster who may find these injuries as a rallying point – especially after the loss to the Swiss.
By the way, I want to see the Czechs and Slovaks match up in the cross-over.
Key an Eye on …
- Herman Meier the Hermanator is skiing in the Super G event. His races are NEVER dull. Canada’s Eric Guay, who pulled out of earlier events with injury, goes too on Saturday.
- Curling – After a slow tourney start, the Canadian women Kleibrink rink had a solid win against the defending gold medal Rhona Martin of Scotland (UK). the Men’s Gushue rink couldn’t get past the Finns. As this tournament heats up, watch how the medal-favorite Canadians respond.
- Canadian Men’s Hockey face-off against Switzerland early tomorrow. The Swiss are coming off an epic win versus the Czechs behind the goaltending of David Aebischer. Martin Broduer goes for Canada who will look for some of the less notable Canucks to step up and make their presence known.
Go Canada!
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Posted on 17 February 2006.
Todd Bertuzzi does not wear a visor when playing for NHL Vancouver Canucks, and i don’t think he was wearing one in the game Italy, yet here he is wearing a visor versus Germany (great pic Robert Scales).
If i recall correctly, there is (an IIFC?) rule in which all players born after a certain age must wear a visor and perhaps Bertuzzi just found out about this rule?
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Posted on 16 February 2006.
Dropping in with some thoughts, comments, … coming in briefly cause so much going on!
Skating away with medals
The Canadian Men and Women both earned Silver in a brand-new event – Long-track Speed-skating Team Pursuit relay. Two teams of 3 skaters start at opposite sides of track and race around 5 times or so. The clock stops when the third skater crosses so some team dynamics, drafting come into play.
The Women (3 skaters per race, but may alternate through 5 team members during heats) lost to the strong Germans led by the legendary Claudia Pechstein (this is her 8th Olympic medal), along with Annie Freisinger and Daniela Anschuetz Thoms (sniff and i knew her when she was just Daniela Anschuetz).
The men went down to a Italian team skating on mission in front of the home fans. Cool event and did anyone even notice Canada does well at new sports in the Olympics (freestyle, short track, …)?
Last night (or yesterday it is too hard to tell), Short Track Speed skater (the affable) Anouk Leblanc-Boucher won a bronze in a gutsy race in which she started in the outside and battled Chinese skater for position and stood strong against her body checks. The Silver medalist (Evgenia Radanova of Bulgaria) lifted her skate while going over the line so may be DQ’ed in which case, the Canadian in 4th place will move up a notch after the challenge is reviewed.
Also on the short track, the Men moved on to the Finals in the 5000m relay. They led throughout and, when the Korean team went down, pulled away from Germany. The Koreans went super-speed and made up most of their lost time passing Germany for 2nd place and a spot in the finals tomorrow (4 teams, 3 of them get medals – US and China are the other 2).
Hey, even figure skater Jeffery Buttle (who had perhaps the least froofy costume) came away with a bronze to pad Canada’s stats.
We Canadians are Sliders too
Mellisa Hollingsworth-Richards won the bronze medal in Skeleton (see another new sport). Heck Lindsay Alcock finished 10th – i smell a sweep in 2010. but really, this is a sport which Canada will improve in from the 2010 legacy since athletes won’t have to go to Alberta to try being a Sketathlete. I want to try once (perhaps on a padded course ).
Hockey Upsets and Canada Rolling
Canada did not take Germany lightly and came away with a strong win over an German club much inproved since SLC. They still play a conservative style but no where near as slow and plodding a game as the match in Provo in 02. Some great play but Canadian forwards but still losing a lot of one-on-one battles that will cost goals against more talented teams. The team is sending lots of long passes and tricky pasing plays in deep which will hopefully get the squad in a ryhthm as the tourney heats up.
Finland rolled over Italy 6-0 making that 2 straight shut-outs (beat Swiss 5-0 yesterday) for the pesky Finns. Selanne had a couple of beauties and Italy seemed (from the brief high-lights i saw) out of jam from yesterday’s bout with Canada.
Sweden was killed by a Russian team likely embarraessed by yesterday’s loss to the Slovaks. 5-0 was the final if i recall correctly. Curious to see how Sweden responds after a strong win in their first game vs the Kazakhs followed by a crushing loss in second- could be tough for a team looking for positive emotion to build on. BTW, both Sedins scored in game 1.
The big news (besides Latvia tying the USA) is The Swiss (led by great goal-tending by David Aebischer) beat the mighty Czechs 3-2. This will just wake the Czechs up after likely losing Hasek for the tourney. Vokoun struggled and the team was simply outworked when it mattered (esp PK) and despite being very outshot, came away with the biggest win in that country’s hockey history.
Finally, the Slovaks beat Latvia in what appeared to be an exciting game. Slovakia got uip early but Latvia kept clawing back but finally the offessive stars of the Slovak squad got enough pucks at Irbe that the little big man was beat with a final of 6-3.
Remember that goal-differential is the tie breaker so right now Finland with 11 GF and 0 GA would beat Canada’s identical 2W 0L record and their 12 GF but 3 GA.
Bertuzzi, Nash, Richards and Sakic particularly caught my eye and Lounogo seemed a little unsteady (besides that crazy out of net play). Major ups to Wade Redden for the big save and big goal – he is smiling all day i bet.
The Swiss are next for the Canucks after a day off (they’lll probably go watch curling).
Oh yeah Steve Moore, you are *really* helping yourself with the Valentine’s day lawsuit. Any sympathy the public had for your whining has run out now, have a nice life.
Olympic Outsider Podcast Feed
I’ve stuck the Olympics Outsider Podcast into the Canucks Outsider feed so to subscribe, just stick http://feeds.feedburner.com/canucksoutsider in your podcatcher or subscribe in iTunes. 2 episodes for ya so far.
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Posted on 15 February 2006.
Bleary-eyed after waking for the 4AM face-off, Dave Thorvald discusses the opening game of the Olympic hockey tournament in this 9:24 long podcast. Canada beat Italy 7-2 – After a slow start, Canada turned on the jets versus a hardworking and speedy, but overmatched host squad. Bertuzzi, Iginla and St. Louis had particularly nice games.
In other hockey news, Slovakia (thanks to 2 late golas by Marian Gaborik) beat Russia, Czech beat Germany (though uber-goalie Dominik Hasek sustained an injury) and mid-way through the 3rd period, Latvia and USA are tied at 3. Go Latvia!
Download: Canadian Men Open With Win!
Olympic Outsider # 2 (.mp3, 9:14)
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Posted on 12 February 2006.
Greetings this Sunday Morning!
Just a couple of observations from last night’s and this mornings events from coverage I’ve managed to catch – augmented by a few notes by Dan Funboy.
Besides Jennifer Heil’s awesome performance and Women’s Hockey rolling over Italy (as I type they are leading Russia 10-0), i enjoyed an inspired performance by Italian long-strack speed skater (insert name here), who absolutely looked like he was being pushed by the Italian crowd. Great to see the homer country get on the medal board early too.
More about Speed skating, that hotshot American kid is fast and determined, watch his technique, a double push but they’ll likely talk about this on TV-coverage. CBC has Catroina LeMay Doan doing color commentary and she was quite good (though she looks rather soccer-mom-ish now – cause well, … she probably is) but she called on Canada to support more and help the athletes to “own the podium” (the Canadian mantra).
Catriona Lemay and husband, Doan at Soldier Hollow Cross Country venue, Winter Olympics 2002 – photo Dave Olson
Of course, in egalitarian and thrifty Canada, most folks want the money spread around so each athlete can get a piece of the pie but, later as the Federal Sport Minister pointed out, they is better return on investment (judged by medals won) but entirely supporting elite athletes with best chance of medaling.
Digression … CBC has some versatile announcers to be sure, and I love a Saturday without Bob Cole and Harry Neale (retire for Pete’s sake), Ron Maclean is a national treasure, Steve Armitage is pretty good at everything but not great at any one, Brian Williams is Canada’s excessively perky Regis.
Claudia Pechstein and Daniela Anschuetz Thoms just skated the 3000m. Claudia won in 2002 and Canada’s Cindy Klasussen holds the record and skates. Not Claudia’s best race, a NED 19 year old sits in first.
Claudia Pechstein, basking in Gold Medal joy and sitting in on drums with Acoustica at the Thuringen House, SLC 2002
Firecracker Danilea Anschutz of the German long-track speed skating team partying down at the Thuringen House, SLC 2002
Continuing update … Cindy is underway and flying so far, hope she keeps the pace, still under the time, drafting off her pairing (NED Groenewold) down the stretch, smart … still belowthe target after 2 laps – still looking relaxed and solid, 4 laps now and she is bonking, and slipped and Groenewold wins the heat as Klaussen lost it, tightening up on the last lap. Sits in third but still 4 skaters to go including Canada’s Christina Groves and Clara Hughes.
Freisinger skates now with Groves and neither skaters finished top 3. Clara set to start vs. Sablikova of CZE. False start and then away clean. The races have been fast and racers bonking at end so Clara must skate her pace.
Well no go for Sarah but Cindy finishes in Bronze position (same finish as SLC 2002) while the young Nederlander scores Gold. Both Germans were shut out.
BTW, i really don’t like hearing about athlete’s “faiths” on air, i think that is a personal issue and the fact that she is a Mennonite doesn’t add to the athletic coverage.
Back to Women’s hockey vs Russia 11-0 now halfway through the 3rd. In training, the women played 22 games vs. Alberta men’s midget teams (not *really* wee folks, just young men) and finished 10-10-2 and increased their physical game with more rough and tumble play.
It is amazing to see the veterans players for Canada against the Italian women last night (replayed from yesterday). The Italians were tiny and young and looked dazzled by the burly and experienced Canadians to say the least. Major props to the Italians who battled through to the end. Heck, I wouldn’t want to have Goyette or Wickenheiser bearing down on me (yikes!).
Vicky Sunohara and Cherry Piper are my favorites. Sunohara was awesome, gritty, smart player at Nagano and is Piper is wee but a battler and has great hands around the net.
Cherry Piper with newly won Gold Medal at the M’s Gold Medal Curling match at SLC 2002
12-0 now vs Russia, kinda a joke and an awkward situation for Canada to not let up and if they do, the gain lazy habits in front of net and on backcheck etc.
While Canada continues to roll, a note on downhill skiiing which demostrates the unpredictibility of sport with the hotshot Americans finishing out of medals with a darkhorse Frechman taking gold and Austria and Switzerland taking Silver and Bronze. Manuel Osborn-Paradis wa the top Canucks finishing in 13th place Canucks while teammate Francois Bourque came in 16th with a strong finish. The last Canadian also placed top 30, John Kucera came in in 27th place 2.75 sec off the winning time – just wait for 2010.
Cross-country skiier Beckie Scott finished in, what is likely a disappointing 6th, but in a 2002 Bronze finish, she managed to move up 2 places with positive doping test so maybe she’ll manage to gain a few places again.
Digression … is that Personal Digital Recorders (i.e. Tivo, Replay etc.) are excellent for the Olympics – why is Canada slow to adopt this tech just now available (as mentioned in the ubligoutous commericals)? I have a Replay TV but no way to subscribe in Canada and I am trying to set it up just to pause and record what i am watching at the moment.
Next up on CBC, Short Track Speed skating and Jeff Christie Luging.
Go Canada!
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Win Tickets to the Paralympic Opening Ceremony
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Coca-Cola Live Positively Awards, Vancouver 2010
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