Olympics discussion thread.

Braedley · Post by **Braedley** » 2006-02-11 02:57pm

Seeing as how I haven't seen one made yet, I thought I would.

There are already a number of countries on the medal board, including Canada, compliments of Jennifer Heil in Women's Moguls.

Watching the Canada-Italy Women's Hockey game. Looks like it's going to be pretty boring, as it's 5-0 after only 12 and a half minutes.

Post by **fgalkin** » 2006-02-11 03:48pm

Women's Hockey is just WRONG. I watched it for a while, it's boring as fuck, as they just stand there.

Have a very nice day.
-fgalkin

J · Post by J » 2006-02-11 04:07pm

Ok, 9-0 after the second period, there ought to be a mercy rule of some sort. The Italians are completely outmatched and I don't think it does either team any good to continue the game. They should just call it a game and then switch players around and have an exhibition period for the crowd.
Predictions: Another US-Canada gold medal game.

Tranan · Post by **Tranan** » 2006-02-11 04:42pm

fgalkin wrote:Women's Hockey is just WRONG. I watched it for a while, it's boring as fuck, as they just stand there.

Have a very nice day.
-fgalkin

Why, do you only want speed and takels. its good hockey.

aerius · Post by **aerius** » 2006-02-11 05:02pm

Final score, 16-0 for Canada. I thought my eyes were playing tricks on me because the Italian women looked a bit small, and then the announcer said said one of the players was 5'1" and 112 pounds, and the others didn't look much bigger than her. It was like watching a middle school team go up against a college team.

Post by **Edi** » 2006-02-11 05:13pm

Women's hockey, Finland vs. Germany ended with a result of 3 - 0. US -Canada for that final seems the most likely outcome, but I wouldn't count Sweden out yet. Finland's chances of getting into that final are pretty slim. But not nonexistent.

In other news, Hannu Manninen screwed up the skiing portion of the Nordic Combined individual event (ski jump plus skiing) and finished 9th, when he was the odds on favorite for gold. Guy won 17 out of 18 world cup individual events, yet he fucks up now of all times. Echoes of Salt Lake... Jaakko Tallus finished 5th, which wasn't that bad. Didn't renew the silver he got from Salt Lake, though.

Edi

Master of Ossus · Post by **Master of Ossus** » 2006-02-11 05:41pm

Tranan wrote:Why, do you only want speed and takels. its good hockey.

It's crappy hockey. Have you seen the way they run a 5-on-3? It becomes ABUNDANTLY obvious that the only reason the players seem good is because they have so much more time and space than in the men's game. Usually the defense doesn't even skate past the top of the face off circles, and sometimes I've seen them kill 10-15 seconds just passing the puck between the two defensewomen when EITHER could easily beat the lone forward for the defending team because that woman is out of position and doesn't have the speed to even pressure either one of them.

Spice Runner · Post by **Spice Runner** » 2006-02-11 06:21pm

aerius wrote:Final score, 16-0 for Canada. I thought my eyes were playing tricks on me because the Italian women looked a bit small, and then the announcer said said one of the players was 5'1" and 112 pounds, and the others didn't look much bigger than her. It was like watching a middle school team go up against a college team.

Yeah there was something fucked up about that Canada-Italy match. It was entertaining as hell to watch though.

CarsonPalmer · Post by **CarsonPalmer** » 2006-02-11 07:14pm

The US took a solid win over Switzerland, and Russia's chances are fading fast thanks to their loss to Sweeden. In the Biathlon, the Germans took home gold. The Norwiegen, wish I could remember his name, missed out due to a couple shooting penalties and settled for silver. In the Luge first run, the Italian, wish I could remember his name, is in first, and the American has settled into a solid fourth. Kevin McCartney will be racing for the US in the downhill skiing to his performance in the trial run. All in all, a pretty good first day.

Braedley · Post by **Braedley** » 2006-02-11 08:00pm

Master of Ossus wrote:
Tranan wrote:Why, do you only want speed and takels. its good hockey.
It's crappy hockey. Have you seen the way they run a 5-on-3? It becomes ABUNDANTLY obvious that the only reason the players seem good is because they have so much more time and space than in the men's game.

Umm, they play 3, 20 minute periods, just like the men, and play on the exact same ice surface.

Usually the defense doesn't even skate past the top of the face off circles,

Not true. All defence, regardless of their nationality, will skate at least to the blue line. If it's the cirlces to the left and right of a goalie you're talking about, then I have two points: 1) the Canadians were being praised today because their D were coming up as far as the hash lines. 2) in the NHL, it's rare for the D to venture much further than the blue line, even with the expanded zones.

and sometimes I've seen them kill 10-15 seconds just passing the puck between the two defensewomen when EITHER could easily beat the lone forward for the defending team because that woman is out of position and doesn't have the speed to even pressure either one of them.

I'd like to see you go out on the ice and prove that YOU could beat the lone forward out of position and the goalie who sees you clear as day.

Master of Ossus · Post by **Master of Ossus** » 2006-02-11 08:12pm

Braedley wrote:Umm, they play 3, 20 minute periods, just like the men, and play on the exact same ice surface.

Yet the incredibly slow speed of defending players and their small size allows each player much more time and space to handle the puck.

Not true. All defence, regardless of their nationality, will skate at least to the blue line. If it's the cirlces to the left and right of a goalie you're talking about, then I have two points: 1) the Canadians were being praised today because their D were coming up as far as the hash lines. 2) in the NHL, it's rare for the D to venture much further than the blue line, even with the expanded zones.

Which ignores the fact that I'm talking about 5-on-3's, here, which show case how much worse they play than the men better than any essay someone could write on the subject. And, btw, the face-off circles ARE those things to the left and right of the goal in each team's defensive zone.

I'd like to see you go out on the ice and prove that YOU could beat the lone forward out of position and the goalie who sees you clear as day.

I probably couldn't, seeing as how I do not know how to skate, but that doesn't excuse the fact that these Olympians ignore the fact that it would take two frickin' steps to get past the person, and the other woman couldn't even get a stick on them while this is going on because she's so badly out of position. The issue isn't even whether or not they can beat the goalie, but the fact that they can literally make one third of the defensive skaters IRRELEVANT yet they refuse to do so because...?

aerius · Post by **aerius** » 2006-02-11 08:21pm

Master of Ossus wrote:
I'd like to see you go out on the ice and prove that YOU could beat the lone forward out of position and the goalie who sees you clear as day.
The issue isn't even whether or not they can beat the goalie, but the fact that they can literally make one third of the defensive skaters IRRELEVANT yet they refuse to do so because...?

Because when you're up 10-0 or some other silly score like that, there's no need to force plays to get yet another goal. There's no need to crash the net and run over the defencewoman. Might as well get some extra passing practice in.

Master of Ossus · Post by **Master of Ossus** » 2006-02-11 08:23pm

aerius wrote:Because when you're up 10-0 or some other silly score like that, there's no need to force plays to get yet another goal. There's no need to crash the net and run over the defencewoman. Might as well get some extra passing practice in.

True enough. To be perfectly fair, I haven't watched any of the women's hockey matches since I was so disgusted with seeing them in the last Olympics.

aerius · Post by **aerius** » 2006-02-11 08:30pm

Master of Ossus wrote:To be perfectly fair, I haven't watched any of the women's hockey matches since I was so disgusted with seeing them in the last Olympics.

You mean the ones where the Canadians beat your asses despite the refs being bought off by the US? "Oh no, a Canadian player has the puck, quick! Call a penalty!" We were down a player for about 2/3 of the game and we still won.

Master of Ossus · Post by **Master of Ossus** » 2006-02-11 08:31pm

aerius wrote:
Master of Ossus wrote:To be perfectly fair, I haven't watched any of the women's hockey matches since I was so disgusted with seeing them in the last Olympics.
You mean the ones where the Canadians beat your asses despite the refs being bought off by the US? "Oh no, a Canadian player has the puck, quick! Call a penalty!" We were down a player for about 2/3 of the game and we still won.

I agree--the game was terrible even apart from the score. The officiating sucked. The players demonstrated complete ineptitude with dealing with special-teams situations. That wasn't the worst offender of the women's hockey scene, either.

Post by **Gandalf** » 2006-02-11 09:24pm

I caught the opening ceremony last night.

It seems that some countries simply cannot design a decent looking outfit. One off the big offenders seems to be Australia. We have nice national colours (Green and gold), but get outclassed by South Africa (Same colours) at almost every big event.

Hearing the announcements in three languages was certainly an interesting phenomenon.

J · Post by J » 2006-02-11 09:58pm

I saw a replay of the openinc ceremony on the news and for a moment I thought the Canadians were Russians thanks to their fur hats. The hats looked a lot like the ones worn by Russians in countless movies except they were white instead of brown. I wonder if any seals were clubbed to make those hats....

CarsonPalmer · Post by **CarsonPalmer** » 2006-02-12 04:24pm

Is there any particular reason that Romania marched in to "YMCA", and Uzbekistan to "Disco Inferno"? Seriously, why were the Italians playing US music, and not even in some reasonable assortment? I think the music is great, but Barry White and Venzuela do not mix.

The Aliens · Post by **The Aliens** » 2006-02-12 06:07pm

There's simply no equal for the Canadian women's team in general- they annihilated Russia this morning as well. AFAIK, no other country pours as much money per capita than Canada into its women's hockey prgram, and it shows.

Post by **Dalton** » 2006-02-12 08:02pm

CarsonPalmer wrote:Is there any particular reason that Romania marched in to "YMCA", and Uzbekistan to "Disco Inferno"? Seriously, why were the Italians playing US music, and not even in some reasonable assortment? I think the music is great, but Barry White and Venzuela do not mix.

It sounded like it was just someone's mix tape. I mean really, one would think they'd play Italian music in Italy.

J · Post by J » 2006-02-12 11:49pm

The Canadian women's hockey coach was interviewed following the blowout earlier today. Her opinion is that using goal differentials to decide home ice for the finals is a flawed system which encourages one-sided scores given the current talent field in women's hockey. It just results in the US & Canadian teams running up lopsided scores against their opponents until they meet in the finals, and there's got to be a better way to run the competition. She sorta suggested that once the score's been run up to a certain point it shouldn't really count anymore and they can just play for fun from then on.

CarsonPalmer · Post by **CarsonPalmer** » 2006-02-13 11:18am

The indication I had gotten by watching was that the music was actually being played in the stadium. Bob Costas made a comment to that effect. By the way, it hasn't happened yet, but maybe anything that hasn't aired on NBC should be spoilerized?

In last night's action, the American got bumped to fourth in the luge, Shaun White took gold in the snowboarding half-pipe, Bode Miller and Darren Rohlves had pretty disappointing finishes in the downhill skiing, and Apollo Anton Ohno fell in the semis of short track speed skating. Ohno was in prime postion to advance to the finals when he tried a pass to get into first, and his hand hit the skate of the Chinese skater. I was happy that the Italian took gold in the luge, and that the French pulled an upset in the downhill skiing. He skiied a perfect race, in comparison to the silver medalist, an Austrian, who had a wild downhill run at really high speeds.

Post by **Edi** » 2006-02-16 08:48am

Time to put this thread back to the top. The men's hockey games have finally started and the early results have been pretty predictable. The division to first and second tier teams has been decisive, with scores like 5-0 and 6-0 for Finland's games against Switzerland and Italy respectively, 7-2 for Canada-Italy and similar numbers for Sweden-Kazakhstan.

Too bad I missed everything but the last period from both of Finland's games. The weekend is going to be harsh, Finland will face both the Czechs and the Canadians back to back while Canada's other match is against the Swiss and the Czechs get to pound on Italy.

Edi

Post by **fgalkin** » 2006-02-16 10:12am

In other news, the Russian hockey team is doing craptastically, losing to Slovakia.

Have a very nice day.
-fgalkin

Master of Ossus · Post by **Master of Ossus** » 2006-02-16 12:21pm

fgalkin wrote:In other news, the Russian hockey team is doing craptastically, losing to Slovakia.

Have a very nice day.
-fgalkin

At least you guys didn't tie Latvia.